How to not choke?

**YouJustWanna** · Joined: 10 May 2008 Posts: 490

FCing songs is the most annoying thing ever! I cant FC a song without getting like 3 chokes on it.
Cliffs of Dover-miss in the last chorus
Dont Hold Back-miss in the 3 note chord spam before last chorus
Down n Dirty-miss at the very end of solo 2
Do it again- Miss 3 sections from the end
Cowboys from Hell-miss on the section after the solo
BatM-miss in outro
the list goes on.........

Its getting out of hand. How do you guys do it? I feel like there's a trick to not thinking about the song and just hitting it. Any tips would be appreciated.
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**RichardGHP** · Joined: 01 May 2009 Posts: 2327

Mellow out, man.

In all honesty, the best way is to relax while keeping focussed, and keep trying. A choke is a sure fire indicator that the FC is possible, so keep working on it.

**Shaffx95** · Joined: 16 Aug 2010 Posts: 795

1- practice
2- practice
3- practice

And then, relax.
I remember that when i FCed Cowboys From Hell, i tried to keep focused during the song. After i passed the solo, i was like "fuck yeaa, oh shit, i dont believe this", but i still didn't "lose the focus", and somehow i didnt miss notes (i was sure i was going to choke)
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**lordvader178** · Joined: 08 Jul 2008 Posts: 298

Chill the fuck out lad.

Seriousy, for me I start to sweat once I FC a hard part, then I pay TOO much attention to the rest of the song, causing me to miss.

Tell yourself you are gonna miss. That way it'll be less likely. It actually helps. I put on a carefree attitude so it's like "Oh wow I just hit the hard part, I know im gonna miss after, ugh". Then when I dont its like cool beans.

Just relax your sacks after you do something amazing and you'll be fine.
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**YouJustWanna** · Joined: 10 May 2008 Posts: 490

Arrrgg lol I hate choking. I usually have the "Oh cool, i fc'd the solo, I know i'm gonna miss," attitude, and i still miss.
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**Fug** · Joined: 08 Jul 2007 Posts: 2188 Location: Grand Rapids, MI

Like everyone else has said, it all comes down to staying concentrated. I've noticed that on most tough songs I don't even take breaths after hitting the really hard section (I about passed out after my first BiM FC haha). You don't have to go to that extreme, but make sure you're not constantly thinking "omg omg omg I just hit that" when finishing up the rest of the song.

**this1neguy** · Joined: 19 Aug 2007 Posts: 5444 Location: Flint, MI

Yeah, uhh, I FCed up to One Last Solo of Cliffs of Dover something like 15 times before eventually FCing the song. <_<

One thing that's helped me a bit (as far as physical things go) is aiming a fan at my hands. Not having them get all sweaty helps me strum better and fret more accurately, and something about being a little bit cold helps me concentrate better.

Mentally ... I dunno. I play tennis, which is (it seems) fairly well known for having the ability to choke (similar to golf), and I've never had issues choking. I think part of that is about concentration - when I'm up 6-3, 5-2 in that final, I'm not thinking about the end result; I'm focusing incredibly hard on playing just the next point as itself. The same thing could work out for not choking on FCs; just focus on each little thing, try not to let your attention wander to "oh hey cool I'm FCing this" or whatever.

Maybe this is the opposite of what people need, though; given that some people have said they need to be UNfocused to FC things, that could be the case. That works for me with old FCs of medium-difficulty songs (like the other day I FCed Nothing for Me Here as a warm-up song without thinking too hard about it) but not with new FCs. When I FCed Before I Forget my friend starting talking after I FCed the bridge, and I yelled at him to shut up because I needed to concentrate on the last chorus and the outro.

tl;dr: concentrate or not, it's up to you, concentration works better for me
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**YouJustWanna** · Joined: 10 May 2008 Posts: 490

**Warhiem** · Joined: 22 Sep 2009 Posts: 1331

I feel the same way. My best FC is Dancing Through Sunday, but I've choked on songs like Psychosocial and Spirit of the Radio so many times I stopped trying.
Usually on every song I play I miss 1 note. I was going through Metallica songs yesterday and I got -1's on Blood and Thunder, Beautiful Mourning, and Ace of Spades, and none were in difficult parts.
*sigh*
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**YouJustWanna** · Joined: 10 May 2008 Posts: 490

**aikaline** · Joined: 18 Jan 2008 Posts: 342 Location: New Hampshire

I've just tought myself not to get excited, until the end of the song where i just take a deep breath in relief. I've had some miserable chokes myself, everyone does, and no matter what everyone is going to have it happen to them OFTEN. When i FC a hard part in a song that i have maybe a 5% chance of hitting I just act like i hit any other part. I won't even think about it. otherwise I'll tense up in excitement and nerves will get to me.
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**WhYYZ** · Posted: Tue Nov 30, 2010 11:16 am Post subject:

ALWAYS Practice the DAMN outro!
Even if it's easily as shit just practice it a couple of times so that IF you FC the solo you really know what to do.

A good example is The Spirit of Radio.
The end strumming is hard when you are stressing out because you hit the solo so learn it until you KNOW what you should do.
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**eddaket** · Joined: 19 Jul 2007 Posts: 2020

When you hit the hard part in a song, don't think about it. I have a nervous habit of whammying REALLY hard on every hold note after the hard part and sometimes it makes me miss *looks at Trogdor* so if you do something like that, try... not to.

Just act like you can hit it all the time and it doesn't matter if you miss. Put it in your mindset. DO NOT THINK YOU WILL MISS. You will miss.

**JagerbombsFTW** · Joined: 10 Nov 2010 Posts: 60

I always seem to choke 14 spirit of the radio chokes 9 still i rise chokes 2 hard to see chokes and a stricken choke after solo that hurt alot

**lilo95** · Joined: 04 Dec 2007 Posts: 662 Location: Manchester UK

Obviously there's no actual way to avoid this, but a useful thing to do is simply take this section into practice, no matter how easy.

Play it through 10-20 times. If you miss one little bit once, play it through about 10-20 times, or else you'll get to that bit in the song and think, "OMG WHAT HAPPENENS IF I MISS A NOTE LIKE I DID THE SEVENTEENTH TIME I PRACTICED IT."

The advice given above is all good as well, just stay calm and play it through, and if you do happen to choke, you still have your life ahead of you to FC this song

Best of luck
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