IMAGINE THEIR ALL NAKED !...OH, SORRY, I THINK YOU NEED TO STAY FOCUSSED...IGNORE THAT ADVICE.

SERIOUSLY...KEEP YOUR HEAD UP AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE AND PICK OUT AN OBJECT OR SUBJECT IN THE ROOM TO PLAY TO....ANIMATE OR IN-ANIMATE....THIS WILL HELP TO AVOID THE VISUAL CLUTTER AND DISTRACTIONS.
AS YOU GET BETTER AND MORE CONFIDENT YOU WILL START SCANNING THE ROOM WHILE YOU PLAY.

For me, the old public speaking adage remains..if ya know your subject well, you can talk confidently to anyone anywhere..but if you're shaky on the subject then the opposite can occur. Get someone musically inclined to critique your practice work...and play along to a guitar strum if you can.

My 2 cents worth...been there, done that !

I didn't learn to play in front of people without playing in front of people. First at jams, then on stage at venues friendly to novices.

You have to be able to internalize and play through the stress, and you can't do that without experiencing the stress and trying to play through it.

All excellent advice (especially the whiskey one). Many, including me, learned mostly by our selves, but that makes it that much harder to do it in front of people, but like Dwight says, you just have to work through it, hiccups and all.

Keep at it. You just started 9 months ago. Check back here in January 2013, and then again in 2016. It takes time. You can't go from A to Z without learning all the vowels and consonants. Therefore, you can't learn to speak until you babble a while. Patience and perseverance shall prevail. Then learn from your mistakes. Correct them and try again until you either mend them or find a creative way to accept them. In the art world, mistakes can actually be your friend.

I am terrified to play in front of people. I'm not sure why. Takes alot of liquid courage to do it. Except at the hunting camp, you never really see me playing in front of anyone I don't know or regularly play with.

Joey -- Are you still bringing your guns to gigs? Crowds scatter when I do that.

Hey there, If you go with the first sets of advice you had here you'll only add to any bad habits you already may have with or without achohol. If you do mix in the whiskey or other and become a alcoholic musician, which there are many out there, look at the bright side, as said in another bit of advice, here wait until 2015 to check back, at least by then the disease of alcoholism, will be covered by Federal Law as pre-existing condtions will not matter anymore and you will have no lifetime max limit , so all our money will be there to help you get sober. And if you happen to have, developed any extra dependent children along the route of your bliss, well they can stay dependent upon you to until age 26 despite their status in life. By that time you will have enough material to write a new arrangement of the Drunken Waltz and your Two-Step, may sound like a pefect POLKA every time.
Seriously, surround yourself immediately with good musicians,whenever possible, come to jams, ask to sit in with folks. If you do so and they are good people , like magic your playing with improve greatly. Your friend in music, Dano

It's all about learning to F* up.

First you learn how to F* up by yourself. Then you learn how to F* up with someone else. Then you learn how to F* up on the fringes of a group jam. Then you learn how to F* up in the group. Then you learn to F* up leading the group. Then you learn how to F* up in front of a small group of friendly spectators. Then you learn how to F* up in front of a bigger group. Then you learn to F* up onstage, leading the group.

Finally, you learn to F* up at the Grammys. Or at Festival Acadien. Or in front of the Savoys.

And through it all, you gradually learn to relax, not worry about it, and keep on going. F*-ups are going to happen; you learn it's not the end of the world, you're still an okay Joe (or Josephine), and you keep going.

Just some advice from a prize F*-up!

I can only add to that, that a F*-up is a way more noticeable when you react to it, than if you keep going as if nothing happened.

Dowell

The other thing I've done, Mr.Dowell, is when I F*up, I remember how I did it and then do it again -- everytime in the song where it may occur. Then the F*up is no longer an F*up... it becomes correct.

No, Rick, it goes from a F*up to being "one hell-of-a cool lick".

Sometimes F* ups take you down a whole nuther path, whereby the medley was born.

Hell Rick, don't give away all of the trade secrets.

Dowell

Well, another way to handle a F*up is to give your
neighbor a dirty look when you clam!

(Just kidding, don't do that!)

--BN

Too late Nick! That's one's too good to forget. I'll have to use it on one of my guys next time I F* up!

F*, Jamey, that's a lot of F*ing up!

LOL@Dano!!!

Hey Chuck,
Just give yourself some time...playing Cajun accordion takes time to learn, your skills will improve with time thus making less mistakes.....start out small, play in front of your family,friends..go to some of the music camps, Augusta or Balfa....you only been playing for 9 months....heck about that time for me I was still trying to figure out the High Point 2 Step, it took me over a year to learn that song...but I kept at it and learn it, and you will to.
Have fun squeezing!
A problem is a chance for you to do your best.
Duke Ellington
US jazz bandleader, musician, & songwriter (1899 - 1974)

Hey Chuck. I'm guessing you're playing Cajun music on that accordion?

Ask yourself what it was that lead you on the path to playing accordion. If you're playing cajun music way out there in Kentucky, then it must be for some pretty strong reason. It will be no easy undertaking, but I can tell you this. There is more learning material out there now a days than there was in the old days. You have come in at a good time. Thank the Gods for the internet! Don't forget all those excellent Kentucky blue grass musicians you might have at your disposal. I'm sure a few of them might like to try experimenting with an accordion player and I'm sure they can play some pretty mean fiddle and guitar around there too? Maybe they can adjust themselves to the accordion.


"RECOGNITION OF THE PATTERNS" will lead to "CERTAINTY". This will cause you to become "CENTERED" in your playing. Because you are "CENTERED", you will then begin playing within your "INTUITION" instead of thinking or worrying about it so much. This will allow you to find what we all seek..."PEACE OF MIND". And that, my friend, will show up in your "PRESENTATION" like sunlight.

Maybe tell yourself there is no need to rush the process. You can choose to stay in the closet if you think it will allow you more time to "recognize those patterns" on that accordion.

Go in Harmony Grasshopper.

Thanks guys for all of the advice and encouragement.
I appreciate the comments... It sounds as though many of you have been down the same path at a point when you were learning to play. Just so you know a shot of Kentucky bourbon does seem to help my wife Marla enjoy my playing.... and since she is from Kentucky she really has no idea if I am F*ing up or not.
But she does seem to have more girls nights out than she used to.
Actually, I have been traveling to Louisiana for over twenty five years working in the towboat business and I have made so many great and wonderful friends over the years. That is where I became familiar with the music.. I love it so much that I just had to attempt it.
I spent most of my life in the St Louis area. I lived near Chuck Berry and spent a little time at Blueberry Hill listening to the Rock N Roll bands, so I am not really a native from Kentucky but we do spend some time listening the cuontry bands in Nashville.We are about 45 minutes from Nashville.
I will get back to Eunice La. and that area with my wife the first week in December for some fun, a little vacation.
Thanks Again
Chuck from Kentucky

My first time on stage was at a restruant with about 250 people to see Richard LeBouef at Oysters Black Pot in Abbeyville. I was just there to see him but since he had the best La made box (4 of them on stage)Martin of course, I went up and talked to him. He asked me if I could play I said a little and he got me up on stage to play. I said I didn't want to but he said don't ever turn down a chance to be on stage. I had just enough Coors in me to agree and did, was the most fun I had in a long time. You just have to be enough of an extrovert to get up and do it. You make a mistake who cares you did it in front of more people than you will ever be in front of again. Have fun with it thats what its all about

Not bad advice. From a turnip.

*Check please...*

Drink a few beers

I would love to! Two more hours...