It's typical. Your band rehearses a song endlessly and nails it every time but when you play it live you didn't start together even with a four count, someone started when you stopped, played eight bars longer than you planned or the group didn't end the song correctly. It can be embarrassing and frustrating putting all that time and effort into a song that now sounds like a train wreck. What do you do? Most often fingers get pointed after the show and the blame goes around until you have a full blown band argument which is counterproductive. I hope to offer some simple advice to navigate though this common problem.

First, lets remember the simplest rule. Keeping your eyes and ears open. By maintaining eye contact with the group you can help dictate the direction the song goes. Thus, giving cues for starting the song, upcoming solos, breaks or the big ending. I often see musicians looking down or who are just off in their own world. This is fine. You are entitled to become immersed in your craft but remember by maintaining eye contact, you reduce the chances of something going wrong. In time you will notice your ears hearing the other instruments parts too. This can also be a great way to know when something is about to happen in your song and getting your eye contact made. In a most drastic situation, I've been known to tap someone with my stick to get their attention. This should only be done when all else fails.

Develop a road map. Drummer Connection's Billy Ashbaugh has several lessons discussing the concept and application of the road map. It is a tool that everyone should use. There is nothing wrong with having a music stand next to you with these road maps or song arrangements even if you've played the song hundreds of times. Mistakes happen in a live setting. Your adrenaline rushes, you see a huge crowd in front of you, the sound company is accidently pumping feedback in your monitor or the light guy is blinding you.

Finally, remember that a very small percentage of the entire world's population plays music let alone understands it. Unless they intimately know the song you're playing they won't know if you've made errors. Just smile and act as if you meant to do it. Never show people you're angry that the keyboardist played too long or the guitarist missed his cue. Your audience has a short attention span and will most likely not remember that you missed one measure of a song. It's happened to me and many other musicians more times than we can count. You can adjust and regain control of any situation without missing a beat. And this can only make your band stronger and retain harmony within the group.