Perhaps some here can give me some suggestions for this.
I have a nice building that has a good size meeting room (easily will sit 20 to 30 people) and that would be big enough for 5 or 6 players to stand in the front and play and sing. People walking by can easily view what is going on in the room and its on a Main Street downtown. Full drum sit might not work here, but small snare drum might be fine. I can easily equip the room with a nice PA system to plug in Mic's and Accoustic stuff. I will provide the PA. The room is already equiped with LCD projection screen, etc., just like any nice conference room. It's my building I rent, and I can use it for anything like this.
Anyway, I would like to open this to the public for free a nite or so a week to have people come and play. Also, I have a really nice Coffee setup in the room, and I could provide coffee for free or less than a buck or a donation, whatever. This is not a cheap looking coffee pot, but full commercial counter setup that makes great coffee, etc.
Purpose would be to get some use out of this nice building I have (it is in a historic town in North Carolina, in an area where there is a good interest in all types of Acoustic music like Newgrass, Bluegrass, Gospel, Folk, etc. type of music). It also would give me an extra place to play and perform some as well perhaps.
What do you guys think about this? I not interested in making money off this, but helping to pay some of the expenses would be nice but not required as they are not that great anyway. I just love music, and I think it would be nice for the town to have something like this as there is nothing like that now as the town shops pretty much close after 5pm except the eating places, and they are all very busy. I do use the conference room another night a week for a business purpose, but that wouldn't be an issue.
Any clue if you guys think musicians would be interested in playing/singing in something like this? How would I find musicians interested? Should I collect a donation at the door, or allow open guitar cases? Obviously I not thinking of bringing in talent I have to pay, but rather musicians looking for a place to play and develop their skills just like I am.
I am open to any suggestions. There are a lot of people in the area, so we not isolated where no one lives.
It's hard to say what will work, but perhaps this will help:
Check out other opportunities in your area. Also, if you post the specific town, others from GN might be able to help.
I know some guys in Lubbock, Texas who do something similar to what it sounds like you want to do. They have a place where people gaet together and play on a weekly basis. I think they actually do two nights a week- on Thursdays they do acouttic and Fridays electric. The guy has his own sound system. It's a provate building, not a club, and I know he has a lot of musicians come every week. They do sort of an open mike/jam session kind of thing. He's been doing it I know at least several years.
I don't live anywhere near Lubbock, so I have never been to this. I see these folks at a folk festival every year. The festival happens to be coming up later this month, so I can inquire as to how they got it started.
They are also on Myspace. I can drop them a line, and if you are on Myspace I can direct you to their page.
Regards,
Mike
"Growing Older But Not UP!"
Thanks for the link, never knew that was available.
It's hard to say what will work, but perhaps this will help:
Check out other opportunities in your area. Also, if you post the specific town, others from GN might be able to help.
This would be helpful, thanks for this. At this point I don't use Myspace... pretty much music wise this is the only site I use.
The festival happens to be coming up later this month, so I can inquire as to how they got it started.
This hasn't been mentioned yet, so I'll toss it in for thought -
You could start up a "jam in the round" sort of thing where you set up space for some musicians (five or six as you suggest) and then the audience. The idea would be for each musician to lead a song that the others could follow and provide back up for. After each musician gets two or three turns, you could then rotate them out and set up a different group.
This would take some patience and planning, but could be a lot of fun. Plus each musician would probably drag someone along so you're guaranteed a bit of a crowd.
An idea along the same lines is a "songwriters' circle" where you have local songwriters each take a turn with a song. It's like the typical open mic but you don't run into the "three songs in a row that sound the same" syndrome that can often happen at open mics.
Another silly idea is to see if you can't get one of the town social clubs or even a local school to make and donate baked goods. Have a tip jar for the food area as well so you can contribute back to the people that give to you.
This sounds like a wonderful spot. Maybe I'll find sometime (somehow / someday) to get down there and have a listen. Since I'd have to go by Nick's on the way, might as well drag him along, too! :wink:
Peace
Lot of great idea's on this one I would not have thought of. Excellent suggestions all around, and people in this area like to play with others in a jam type setup, so good thoughts there. Thank's for the recommendations.
Ole, if this works out I think you would be a great addition to this if you could ever come. Yes, stop by Nick's and by all means bring him as well. I know you have lots of fans here in North Carolina for sure.
This hasn't been mentioned yet, so I'll toss it in for thought -
You could start up a "jam in the round" sort of thing where you set up space for some musicians (five or six as you suggest) and then the audience. The idea would be for each musician to lead a song that the others could follow and provide back up for. After each musician gets two or three turns, you could then rotate them out and set up a different group.
This would take some patience and planning, but could be a lot of fun. Plus each musician would probably drag someone along so you're guaranteed a bit of a crowd.
An idea along the same lines is a "songwriters' circle" where you have local songwriters each take a turn with a song. It's like the typical open mic but you don't run into the "three songs in a row that sound the same" syndrome that can often happen at open mics.
Another silly idea is to see if you can't get one of the town social clubs or even a local school to make and donate baked goods. Have a tip jar for the food area as well so you can contribute back to the people that give to you.
This sounds like a wonderful spot. Maybe I'll find sometime (somehow / someday) to get down there and have a listen. Since I'd have to go by Nick's on the way, might as well drag him along, too! :wink:
Peace
Thought I would give a quick update on this as it was a few months ago when I first started thinking about this.
I finally got this going about a month ago. What happened is I put a press release in the local newspaper, and at that point they had a writer also do a story on us that we wanted to start a Saturday nite Jam session in the community.
So, her is what happened (it has been a total of 4 Saturdays now).
Saturday One - no one really knew about it, so no musicians but the newspaper writer came and interviewed us and took some Pic's. People walked by, looked in the the Room, and could see me siting and playing my guitar.
Saturday Two - the article hit, so a handful of people called and that Saturday nite we had a HUGE snow storm and bad weather. But, to my surprise 5 musicians showed up, and we stayed from 6pm to 9:30pm playing and sining.
Saturday Three - Because of the people from the week before, 16 musicians were there (counting my wife and myself), and then couple spouses just to watch. We stayed from 6pm to 9pm.
Saturday Four - Sixteen musicians again and several watchers. We set a firm time each Saturday of 6pm to 9pm. For this one I brought a PA system so the singers could sing while playing, etc.
We took David's advice and made a big circle and go around the circle and each person does a song (plays and sings). We can work around the circle about 5 times. It's a booming sucess at this point. I am thinking of how to invite people in, as the room really only holds about 25 to 30 people, so the musicians are filling it up. However, I am thinking they like it better this way. Perhaps I will do another nite with few players so more people can come and watch (perhaps using the more advanced players). At this point we have very very advance players, intermediate ones like myself, and also beginners. To my surprise the advance players are very very patient with the newbies.
So, David... bring Nick on down some Saturday.... the coffee pot is ready for you.
By the way, we are doing all acoustic music (bluegrass, old time gospel, John Denver, Dylan, Fogerty, just an assortment of everything). We have guitars, big bass, banjo, fiddle, and dobro, and occasional harmonica.
This hasn't been mentioned yet, so I'll toss it in for thought -
You could start up a "jam in the round" sort of thing where you set up space for some musicians (five or six as you suggest) and then the audience. The idea would be for each musician to lead a song that the others could follow and provide back up for. After each musician gets two or three turns, you could then rotate them out and set up a different group.
This would take some patience and planning, but could be a lot of fun. Plus each musician would probably drag someone along so you're guaranteed a bit of a crowd.
An idea along the same lines is a "songwriters' circle" where you have local songwriters each take a turn with a song. It's like the typical open mic but you don't run into the "three songs in a row that sound the same" syndrome that can often happen at open mics.
Another silly idea is to see if you can't get one of the town social clubs or even a local school to make and donate baked goods. Have a tip jar for the food area as well so you can contribute back to the people that give to you.
This sounds like a wonderful spot. Maybe I'll find sometime (somehow / someday) to get down there and have a listen. Since I'd have to go by Nick's on the way, might as well drag him along, too! :wink:
Peace
