nobody was watching the first time

The hall held two hundred and had eleven people in it, four of them staff. She played for thirty-five minutes, forgot a verse, started a song twice and finished on a chord she had not meant to play.

Years later someone asked about the early gigs. She said the empty ones were the useful ones. You can be that bad exactly once in front of a full room. In front of eleven people you can be that bad for a year and come out the other side with something.