First Time Infront of People

Stay calm and relaxed. As far as playing acoustic arrangements you'll have to play more accurately than you do electrically because there's no distortion to hide behind. I also tend to stay away from power chords on an acoustics they sound kind of thin to me. Other than that take the songs you all ready know and just slow them down a bit so you can really hear the chords. Good luck!!! Soon you'll be addicted to the rush of live playing.

On the first question, make sure you're prepared. Get the set list sorted early and make sure you know all the chords and all the words and know where they fit together. Practice beginnings and endings. Then go for your life and have fun.

Making an unplugged version - yes, you should expand the power chords to full chords but you'll need to work majors and minors in there, and some will sound better with 7ths, 9ths and so on. Once you've written up the basic chord layout, spend an hour or so messing around to see if things can be tweaked.

Playing a standard shape half way up the neck with a couple of open strings instead of barring brings huge variety into your sound.

Write it all down in a way that you can follow in poor light

And finally, if you're not sure you can remember everything on the night, clip your set list and your cheat sheets to a music stand - don't laugh, I have an old copy of Guitar Techniques with a picture of John Williams doing just that in performance.

The best advice though is just make sure you enjoy it.

Best,

A :-)

Check out the page on Performance. As you scroll down the page you'll find some articles that might be helpful, including one on "Your First Gig" by Dan Lasley.

playing in front of people is scary at first. once you start that feeling goes away. with friends one would think it would be easier. not. no player wants to be embarrassed by making a bad mistake.

so being prepared is essential.
get the intro and ending down; a great tip.

keep it simple...dont try new things out live!

full chords are better than power chords.
an electric song if well written sounds great unplugged.

let the notes sound out. they have meaning.
play with feeling. get into the notes and words. know what they mean.
this will transmit to the audience and they will feel the song and like it more.
robotic playing isnt the way.
dont be afraid to goof up. just play thru. no one will notice.

keep a rag nearby for the sweaty palms.

look at you audience.
if they know the song encourage them to sing.(these are your friends)
and have fun.

and have fun.

cigarettes are great afterward. but I quit. dang.

and lastly, Onewingangel, I am really enjoying your progress.

props grrl!

Good for you, OWA! I'm glad to hear that you're going to play for people! Like others said, try to stay relaxed, be yourself and have fun! Way to go, girl! :D

yeh, wish I had the guts to do it!
I'd suggest maybe a couple of well known songs to start and end with, so everyone will know them and maybe sing along etc, it'll relax everyone including you if you get the feedback IMO

2) What's the best way to make an unplugged version of a song?
This is just about my favourite thing to do with a guitar at the moment - take a rocky song and arrange it as an acoustic number.

Judging by your other music tastes I'll assume you know Green Day's Basket Case? Doesn't matter if you don't, it's just nice to work with something familiar if you can :)

Start with the root notes of the powerchords - for the verse on this one it's E5, B5, C#5, G#5, A5, E5, B5.

From this, find a key that fits all the notes, in this case E (E, F#, G#, A, B, C#, D#).

Then use the basic major, minor and dimished chords from that key on the relevent root note, ie, E, B, C#m, G#m, A, E, B. (Substitute a minor for the dimished if it suits you better)

From there you can transpose, substitute extensions of the basic chord, pick the best sounding voicing for each chord etc as approriate to finish it off, but the above will do nicely for a basic rearrangement. (especially if you've got to do a few and quickly, as it appears you have to :))

This particular one I don't do much more to than slow down to just over half speed and fingerpick* the quieter bits. Sounds great!

*This is an insult to anyone who can finger pick properly - I basically just twiddle instead of strum :)

I don't know about 'the best method', but I do this all the time, and I wrote my Key Chord tool specifically to save me scribbling out keys all the time while I was doing it. Good luck! :mrgreen:

Playing in front of others for the first time? Here's a quick checklist.....

Sweaty palms? Yep!
Shaky hands? Yep!
Dry mouth? Yep!
Throat feels like it's seized up? Yep!
Knees shaking? Yep!
Mind's a total blank? Yep!
Can't remember the lyrics to your favourite song? Yep!
you're about ready to go!

That was exactly how I felt about a year ago when I did my first open mic......i was going to open my three-song set with "You've got to hide your love away" but when I tried it before the gig my hands were shaking so much I couldn't do the descending bass-note riff - so I opened with "Proud Mary" instead. Did "YGTHYLA" next - as soon as I started playing, the adrenaline kicked in - i was so focussed on the guitar, they could have started WWIII and I wouldn't have noticed......I was so nervous before going on, but once I got into it, I really didn't want to get off......

Now I know there's nothing to be scared of - and OWA, you've got the guts, you've got the willpower, you've got the budding talent - think of this as a step up on the learning curve....

Enjoy it, rock the house, and let us know how it went....

Go girl!

:D :D :D :D :D

Vic

Thank you very much.

Someone else there also plays, so that might take some pressure off me, or they can help play some songs, and vice versa. Not too too worried though, it's just friends, so if I screw up, meh.

And I don't know Basket Case, or any Green Day song. I don't like Green Day.

And I don't know Basket Case, or any Green Day song. I don't like Green Day.
Heh, just goes to show... :)

Thank you very much.

Someone else there also plays, so that might take some pressure off me, or they can help play some songs, and vice versa. Not too too worried though, it's just friends, so if I screw up, meh.

And I don't know Basket Case, or any Green Day song. I don't like Green Day.

you will have a blast.

not liking Green Day.
ya made my day.
they stink.

Play Nude 8)

then they won't even notice if you mess up :wink:

Play Nude 8)

then they won't even notice if you mess up :wink:

Thats why pop music works.

Playing in front of people. Well didn't I get a rude shock last night. I just started lessons and in my first go at giving the teacher an idea of my form I chose something that I've spent a lot of time on and have pretty well nailed, though is fairly complex and involved (fingerpicking arrangement of Vincent by Don Maclean).

As it turned out I could not hit anything cleanly at all. It sounded absolutely horrible, which only made things worse. Of course, he thought it wasn't too bad. I guess it was just that I knew what I had been doing with it previously so in comparison it sounded god awful to me. :oops:

Anyway, I don't bring this up to scare but more to suggest that picking an easy song to start may be a good way to go. Even though I knew the song backward above, I probably should've just done a simple three chord song just to get me over the issues of nerves. And this was just performing in front of ONE person. :oops:

Good luck OWA. I'm sure you'll nail it! 8)