Nobody Knows What You’re Going to Play Next

In my years of teaching jazz guitar lessons, I’ve found that there’s a common thread that comes up time and again with my students in our lessons.

Here is a common scenario that I run across in my lessons.

The student will come to their lesson, already knowing how to play one or more jazz tunes and know their neck enough to solo and comp over these tunes, along with playing the melody in one or maybe two positions on the fingerboard. But, when I ask them to jam on the tune, they get nervous, even in a private lesson, to improvise in front of another person, and this fear prevents them from relaxing and playing to the best of their ability.

Usually what will happen after the tune is over, and they’ve struggled through it to varying degrees of success, is they will make a comment like, “I don’t know what happened, I could play it fine at home, then I get to my lesson and I can’t play at all. I’m really nervous to play in front of you for some reason.”

There is a lot of information in this statement regarding what just happened and why.

What I usually try to focus on first, is figuring out why the student’s playing changed when they got into their lesson and how can we fix this problem so that they are less nervous when playing jazz in front of other people. Getting them to the point where they can enjoy their performances, whether it’s in a private lesson or on stage at a club.

Since the student can play the tune, and jazz is supposed to be an experimental music to differing degrees depending on which genre of jazz you play, then why were they so nervous to take a chance and make a “mistake” in their playing when they got in front of another person?

One reason is that there is a lot of pressure on the performer that comes with playing any improvised music.

When someone is making up a piece of music on the spot, rather than performing a pre-composed piece, there are more opportunities for them to play an “off” note, get lost on the form or play something that they feel might not live up to the standards set for them by themselves, their peers and the audience that they are playing for.

Matt Warnock Trio Photo: Priscilla Fiedler

Yes, there is a level of pressure when playing improvised music, but there is also a lot of freedom involved in this process, which most people overlook when nervousness and performance anxiety sets in.

When I have a student come to me and say that they are nervous to play in front of me or other people, because they don’t want to make a mistake, that they want to play a “correct” solo or comp a “perfect” accompaniment and feel pressure to do so, I usually do a simple exercise with them to help address their performance anxiety.

I ask them to solo over the tune, no chart just from memory, and use as much space as possible.

In the spaces when they are not playing notes, I ask them to think about what they want to play next, and don’t play anything until they know exactly what they want to play.

If they wait two beats, two bars or twenty bars that’s fine, just sit back and open their ears until the next phrase comes to them.

After doing this for a few choruses, and maybe on another tune that they’re working on, I ask them, “Did you know what was coming next in your solos during those moments when you weren’t playing?”

They usually respond, “At first I didn’t, then after waiting for a few moments an idea popped into my head and I knew where I wanted to go next in the solo.”

“Great,” I say, “So if you didn’t know what was coming next, do you think me or your audience would know what you were going to play next?”

“I guess not,” they reply, which then sparks a huge revelation for any jazz guitarist:

Nobody knows what you’re going to play next.

This is a scary thought, that there is no preconceived music waiting to be played, that you have to create chords for comping and notes for soloing on the spot.

But it also brings a huge sense of freedom to one’s playing. If nobody knows what’s coming next, then you are free to play whatever you want, in the context of the tune or genre of music that you are playing on the gig.

If you want to play a fast line, that’s great.

If you want to play a slow line, or an octave phrase, or a chord idea, or a Pentatonic Scale or Bebop Scale or Arpeggio phrase, it’s all good.

If you give yourself time to think about what’s coming next, then you’re not only allowing yourself time to hear your next idea, you’re also using the space to create phrases and giving the rest of the band time to inject their own creativity into the mix, something that as guitarists we could always do more, adding space to our playing.

So, the next time you feel pressure to “comp perfectly” or play the “perfect solo,” remember, that the audience, the other musicians and at least at the outset of a solo or tune, you don’t know what you’re going to play next.

Then, just relax and let your ears open up and let all that training you did in your practice room to flow out of your hands and onto the guitar.

Not only will this take some of the stress off of playing jazz in front of other people, but it’ll allow you to relax and have ideas come to you naturally, in a way that is less about being pressured and more about being musical.

Have you dealt with performance anxiety as a jazz guitarist? If so, share you story and how you dealt or are dealing with this issue in the comments below.

Many players deal with this issue but are nervous to talk about it, so hearing from other guitarists who have or have had performance anxiety now or in the past can be a big help.

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