Every musician makes mistakes. Yes, even giant rock stars mess up on occasion. But the best of the best don't make them often, and when they do, they play right past them as though nothing happened. Why? Here are two good reasons to play through your mistakes:
1) Most people won't know you've made a mistake.
Oddly enough, most of the time people can't hear your mistakes. Most people aren't musicians, and even the ones that are don't often know the song you're playing as well as you do. So just play right through your mistake and no one will be the wiser!
2) It's better for your musical brain and your body.
The real problem with stopping and starting every single time you make a mistake is that you are literally training your brain to stop playing anytime you think you've made a mistake. One of the problems with doing this is that musicians often start to feel like they can't play their instruments very well. Thoughts like, "I always make a mistake", and, "I'm not a very good musician" start to enter the mind. This negative mindset tends to make us paranoid of making mistakes. It can even add to the physical tension of our playing! Extra physical tension is a no-no when playing music - it can keep from realizing your true musical potential.
Relax, and allow your mistakes to happen. Correct your mistakes after you finish going through the passage or piece of music with more practice. Accept that everybody makes mistakes when playing music - perfection is the goal, but we should love all of our journey towards it, including our mistakes.
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