I have played guitar a long time. Like 33 + years (I hate to think how long it has been, really). While I don’t play out much (or at all) anymore, I did get to a certain level of proficiency. Sitting on the couch, noodling, or jamming in my man-cave, it sounds pretty good, if I do say so myself.
Alas, I never had any recording gear, having not prioritized that, but I recently rectified that situation. Bought a good A/D box for my mac to be the input, and finally got my old Line 6 Pod XT out of mothballs to tweak up the tone.
All good, got a good groove on the monitors, and then I do it.
I hit the “record” button. Suddenly, I am self conscious, I flub even the most practiced riffs, I blow the easiest chord transitions. Shit, even some of the finger picking stuff I have played backwards and forwards so often that it takes truly no thinking at all are muffed.
What. The. Fuck.
Yep, the dreaded performance anxiety, that red light, watching the recording in Garageband. I sound like a newb.
Turn a way, turn it on, and just jam, and shit, it sounds good.
Turn back to it, listen to the count in, and I sound worse than cats on a hot tin roof.
Sigh, I am going to have to get over this.
Also, I need a drum machine, or something to lay down a decent backbeat.
