How do you bridge the gap between...

[Jimi75]

...theory and practice, between home and stage...

I think everyone of us made the same experience. You are a better player at home, you could understand the theory, but the practice fails. Of course this is also the general learning process...but you know the situation where you play a session maybe and afterwards you are kind of disappointed and you feel the urge to practice. Honestly, you will always have to deduct at least 30%, because of the different circumstances, being nervouse etc.

One way that worked for me to get something back of these unusable 30% was to compose every solo, every lick in the verses and choruses, to say to be absolutely bureaucratic at first when I work with a song. That's not boring at all. Some might say "hey that has nothing to do with rock and roll and you break creativity" but the story goes on...with this fix structure I get a better feeling when playing the song so that after a couple of times we played the song live, I am saver at improvinsing. Further to that, composing solos really improved two things when I play spontaneous sessions in clubs.
1) I recognize certain structures better and can apply my composed licks plus invent new licks
2) I leave sessions with a more selfconfident feeling. One should never loose the urge to become a better player, but one should also know to relish what you can play on your instrument, to free yourself form the pressure and to present you style and licks, even if only few and not highly complicated, with confidence!

Have you made similar experiences?

[Katastrophe]

When playing live, I like to have a beginning and an end to solos worked out, but the middle never sounds the same twice. I tend to get bored playing the same solo over and over, so I try to reflect what's in my heart and head at that moment.

If I'm nervous, I'll slow down a bit and focus more on phrasing. If I'm pumped, then I'll cut loose, but with a mind to fit the song.

Recording is an entrirely different story... I tend to get really critical about my playing. I think I have studioitis.