Playing in front of others

Congrats! Ummm ... did you have to get them drunk? :lol: I'm happy for you.

I didnt have to get them drunk. They did that all by themselves.

Terrific job playing for people man. Its tough to do at first but its addicting I think. Good job,

Jim

Are there certain songs that gets everyone singing? The group is 50yrs. old average. Thanks

Get them drunk. :mrgreen:

Yes – I found out that when the listener's are drunk (or, drinking at least) I sound much better!

Actually, I did get a chance to play in front of a crowd at a local bar with an acoustic duo
called “Off Base”. The idea was to join them and play 4 songs with them when the time came. The songs were:
Margaritaville
Knocking on Heaven's Door
Last Time (Rolling Stones)
Bad Moon Rising

The one guy from “Off Base” came to my house the Saturday before I was supposed to play (a Thursday in December) and we went over the strumming patterns. Since he was sitting there with me I was able to follow along and he told me “You're ready”. Cool….

The very next day, I forgot the strumming patterns (or, the timing) because I went back to
the way I would strum it and totally forgot the way we did it the night before. So, I panicked just a bit. I didn't want to bother the guy again so I searched the internet and found decent strumming patterns for “Margaritaville” and “Knocking on Heaven's Door”, I did remember the strumming pattern to “Last Time” and “Bad Moon Rising”, although I really struggled with chord changes for “Bad Moon Rising”, more on that later.

So, I practiced, in the morning, lunchtime at work, and after work – EVERYDAY. Except for “Bad Moon Rising” I was confident, and the other songs sounded decent. I was only playing, no singing – thank goodness. Thursday arrives, I'm confident but I plan to tell the one guy that “Bad Moon Rising” is out, I can't do the chords changes fast enough to sound good.

I get to the (6 PM – they start at 6:30 PM) BAR and we setup. They play about 5 songs
and announce that I will join them. I get up there (on stage), I feel good. We start “Margaritaville” and I'm doing good. Then, in the middle of the song, I look into crowd and some guy is staring at me, and I think, “I'm on the wrong chord” and I lost it!

Except for “Woman to blame” I forgot all the other chords? I panicked and started shaking (no one noticed – thank GOD!) but I was able to BARLEY hang on. So we start “Knocking on Heaven's Door”, again easy enough but I'm still shook up by my panic attack. Everything is going (OK) but then the one guy break's his string and I'm thinking “I better sound good since there's only 2 of us”. I got through it. Then “Last Time” came, easy but fast chord changes, I start losing my pick, I have to stop and wait for the song to come back to “E”. At one point in the song, the one guy looks back at me and says, “isn't this great!”, meaning playing in front of a crowd. I'm thinking – “Let me out of HERE!”.

Again, I BARLEY get through “Last time” and them “Bad Moon Rising” comes up and I tell him, I can't this play well enough but he says, “No, stay up here”. CRAP! So, I faked it somehow, I think all I really did was play “D” and “A” mostly. It's all a blur now.
So, I'm done. I had some friends there and they said I sounded fine. More important than that they said I didn't make the other guys sound bad. How – I don't know?

I talked to the guy from “Off Base” yesterday and he wants me to play again next Thurday (Jan, 25) again. Wish me luck – I'm going to need it!

Bob Jessie

Im sure that if you stick to it u will get better and get a lot more confident.

Good luck and hope u do get to play infront of a croud. :D