General Music Chat

Well, I Did my thang tonight at the X and I have to say it was a disaster.
I'll have the cringes for at least 2 or 3 days and then that will subside...
I have nobody to blame except for myself...

Only half the guys who knew this material , actually showed up

A wiser musician may have opted at this point to pull out and say: "...'maybe next time..." But I wasn't wise...

Ok...so we (Mike the bass player and myself) go up anyway...

1) The sound isnt coming out right
2) My Guitar jack is fritzing in and out

When we started, All the structure of my originals went out the window, in favor of standard format...

Not their fault... I should have foreseen this and adapted my material for the guys who stepped in , not knowing my material... More to the point, I shouldn't have gone up there to begin with, knowing there were musicians not familiar with my material. Needless to say I got thrown off balance by the shit-load of mistakes, the drown-outs, etc...

Basically, I came in there with my agenda, and the Calvary that was there couldn't have known,

LESSON:
- Do NOT bring Unrehearsed original material to an open-MIc jam. Un-rehearsed material includes material that you have rehearsed, but that the other guy hasn't... (It is far better to simply hold off...Unless of course you're ok with looking like a jack-ass...)

Oh well... The cringes will eventually subside...

Well, I Did my thang tonight at the X and I have to say it was a disaster.
I'll have the cringes for at least 2 or 3 days and then that will subside...
I have nobody to blame except for myself...

Only half the guys who knew this material , actually showed up

A wiser musician may have opted at this point to pull out and say: "...'maybe next time..." But I wasn't wise...

Ok...so we (Mike the bass player and myself) go up anyway...

1) The sound isnt coming out right
2) My Guitar jack is fritzing in and out

When we started, All the structure of my originals went out the window, in favor of standard format...

Not their fault... I should have foreseen this and adapted my material for the guys who stepped in , not knowing my material... More to the point, I shouldn't have gone up there to begin with, knowing there were musicians not familiar with my material. Needless to say I got thrown off balance by the sh*t-load of mistakes, the drown-outs, etc...

Basically, I came in there with my agenda, and the Calvary that was there couldn't have known,

LESSON:
- Do NOT bring Unrehearsed original material to an open-MIc jam. Un-rehearsed material includes material that you have rehearsed, but that the other guy hasn't... (It is far better to simply hold off...Unless of course you're ok with looking like a jack-ass...)

Oh well... The cringes will eventually subside...

Well that sucks.

I've been stood up by guys with booked gigs before, not open mic.

One had the GALL to ask to be my manager afterward.

Sorry to hear this Grant! The realisation that you are dealing with imperfect human beings is in my opinion the TOUGHEST lesson to be learned in the music Biz. You can cover every base conceivable and they will ALWAYS find a loophole!

Grant if I have an original thats not a standard structure type song that anyone could follow, when I did open mics I just did them solo with an acoustic.

If it was a group I wasnt familiar with, I would just go with a I IV V blues progression of some sort, so everyone could lock in, and sometimes that doesnt even work. Better to do this at an open mic than at your own gig!


Anyway that sucks, hang in there

Sorry you had a bad night, but it happens. Ever draw a complete blank on a song you have been playing for 20+ years? I have, and I have seen real pros do it, too.
Don't dwell on it, just learn from the mistakes and move on.

Like John says, better to do something solo ("Hey, you guys sit out this one, ok?") or just do something familiar to everyone. (But please, not Mustang Sally again!)

Mike its funny you mention how things youve played a gazillion times can go hay wire.

My band and I were talking about this the other night.

One night I started Gimme 3 Steps in the key of C, we play it in D, when the bass kicked in I thought he was out, he knew I was out, somehow we reeled it in and fixed.

Sweet Home Alabama of all songs. Theres a guitar riff in the original that ends with some harmonics. Basically the way we play it, I use that riff over and over to key our singer when to come back in. So we are playing the song one night and he keeps looking at me, the way singers do sometimes, like I farted or something. Finally he comes over while we are playing, grabs my arm and shakes me saying Donda da da, Donda da da, donda da da, Im like oh yeah!

I use a whammy pedal, and occasionally I have it set for say an octave up or down, but think I have it set for a 5th, smack that pedal, who knows what will happen.

One night we blew the breaker for the stage wiring. so we get everything going again, and I cant get my guitar to work, my amp is lite up, my pedal board, I change out amps, still nothing, finally I realize my damn wireless on my board is turned off, I have to switch it on whenever I power up and I totally forgot.

I just sold an old Mackie mixer from way back in the 90s, When I sold it the guy who bought it noticed a dent in the top. Way back there this club had this huge aluminum stair case thing on wheels, somehow it feel over on the board in the middle of a set, almost hit me, our singer looked at me are you alright I said yeah, check your mic, it was good so we just kept on rockin til the end of the set the straighten everything back up.

I could go on and on with stuff like this.

Oh another good one, our drummer has this little roll he does to end songs with, if he does this certain roll you know he is fixing to end the song. One night i cant remember what song we did, but we did a verse and a chorus and he did his roll and we stopped. We were all laughing, so the next song the same thing, we would do a verse and a chorus and stop. In an hour set we probably did 35 songs like that. We still refer to it as the readers digest set.

I agree John, the rare occasion I do go to an open mic I usually just take my acoustic if I'm not taking friends with me. But you never know what you're going to get at open mics, sometimes it's brilliant and other times it's a train wreck. But these tips I've learned:

1) make sure your instrument is tuned and ready before you go on (if you have old strings you can bet one will break in mid-song so have newer strings on the guitar)

2) know exactly what songs you are going to perform. Nothing looks dumber than a few guys looking at each other deciding what to play

3) don't overstay your welcome. Three or four songs are plenty

4) play songs you play effortlessly; if you're still in the process of learning the tune leave it at home

5) smile, thank the audience and your host even if it's a disaster

I think everyone experiences disaster at some point.

Is everything one does expected to be grand?
Eh not all the time no..you just the best you can and hope for better the next time.

Don't bother cringing, it's over already. Pick yourself from off the deck and look to the next time. Every time you do what you do, good, bad or indiscriminate, you gain experience.

I'd revel in the fact that yours would be disaster was in front of only a small crowd of people. I know people that have outright sucked the place up in front of 5-600 folks and THAT is something to cringe over.

Good point from Jimmy - know your songs! Last week (12 string night) I was doing two songs with lyric sheets (printed BIG!), and stumbled a little on them, but I had practiced them enough that I only needed a little reference. But last song (Nights in White Satin) I had only started working on doing the lead part (while maintaining the rhythm chords) the night before, so f*cked it up, but kept going ...

Found a new FB group - nothing but updated open mic info for New England area. More open mics than you can shake a stick at. Trick in making money around here is to find a place that will pay you to host these things!
At the last 3 open mics I've done, I've been the only one to do an original song. Grant, I noticed you did 2 originals and 1 cover. What's everyone else's experience with open mics and originals?

Mike i have some goofy ass originals that I pull out for open mics, most Ive been too, are just people itching to get up and play, so one of those deep emotional tunes youve put your heart into, never seem to come across its always hurry up next

So for open mic originals I had one I used to call the f**k Up Song, where I just talked about all the things that had f**k up getting up to play, you know I spilt my beer, burned a hole in my jeans, my dog bite me, etc etc, kind of stream of thought, but i had a neat little rythym that most anyone could play too.

I havent dont any lately, all Ive done lately is sit in with other bands, but thats kind of the same thing, I look at thier list and make sure I know say 3 songs on the list backwards and forwards, if I dont know thier material and they cant play something I know, then I dont get up there.

But if they have 2-3 I know, I will do one, if they are getting into it and the crowd is digging it I will say man could we do such and such, I always address the guitar player, if he smirks or acts like he doesnt want me too I will say thanks and walk away, ussually thou I can get in 3 songs, cause I ham it up and cut up more than most bands do, so it promotes them.

If you see a group and you dont know a song they do, DONT GET UP AND MAKE A FOOL OF YOURSELF, you may close the door on some future gig down the road, most of the time when Ive set in with someone they get my number and I have had a few call to see if I could fill in for them on a gig.

Grant if I have an original thats not a standard structure type song that anyone could follow, when I did open mics I just did them solo with an acoustic.

If it was a group I wasnt familiar with, I would just go with a I IV V blues progression of some sort, so everyone could lock in, and sometimes that doesnt even work. Better to do this at an open mic than at your own gig!


Anyway that sucks, hang in there

Thanks John. Funny thing....the material I had was standard 1,4,5...But in some places the counts were held down for 8 instead of 4 (By design, it was to enhance solo spots for the lead and for a Sax on one of the songs) .

This is where things went south... Even then, I realized (as I was playing) that the others were bound on 4 count...so I simply tried to adjust...It might have been fine, but my guitar started to crap out...and I'm not sure, but i think somebody was also jacking around with the PA settings...

Anyway, I could adapt the material for these occasions easy enough... I just kick myself for not having been better prepared for that situation ahead of time... (You can bet that wont happen again next time LOL!)

I agree John, the rare occasion I do go to an open mic I usually just take my acoustic if I'm not taking friends with me. But you never know what you're going to get at open mics, sometimes it's brilliant and other times it's a train wreck. But these tips I've learned:
1) make sure your instrument is tuned and ready before you go on (if you have old strings you can bet one will break in mid-song so have newer strings on the guitar)

Check

2) know exactly what songs you are going to perform. Nothing looks dumber than a few guys looking at each other deciding what to play

Check

3) don't overstay your welcome. Three or four songs are plenty

Check (Had three max)

4) play songs you play effortlessly; if you're still in the process of learning the tune leave it at home

Check...This is the tricky part. Mike and myself were very well rehearsed with our three songs...The problems began when the lead player (also rehearsed) couldn't show up... From there, it went south...

5) smile, thank the audience and your host even if it's a disaster

I actually did that,,, then i stepped off with my tail between my legs... But I grinned all the way out the door...

No sweat Dog. If you have never had an on-stage train derailment before you were long overdue. That's what open mic nights are for, to shake out the kinks. I get much more annoyed when we are doing a nice paid gig for a long time client and the gremlins take over.

The basics:

Make sure the gear works and have a "plan B" if something doesn't work. Know your material and make sure the others know it as well.
Smile and be prepared to go with different (easy) songs if something is not working.

Last night the J7 band rehearsed and we are running through our material and still shaking out the rust from taking 8 months off. We are playing the old Peter Green/Santana tune "Black Magic Woman" and I am wondering why my guitar is sounding so thin... "come on, this is the Les Paul !! Oh... wrong overdrive pedal, oops." Punches in Mesa overdrive... "hello Carlos! "

Stuff happens.

being a "jazz guy".....i'm pretty used to winging it. playing music i've never heard before and trying not to stand there w my shrunken whatsis in hand...."hey, everyone, look what I'VE got". but, sometimes $hit happens.

it's always a great feeling making it across the tightrope w/o falling on yer bum .....and even better if you can do a little arabesque or two along the way. but music isn't like you're sculpting w some really expensive one of a kind slab of marble. w one errant chisel strike it's uh, oh..venus de milo time (yeah, uh i MEANT for her to be ARMLESS!) . w music we get to move forward and on to the next bit of business.

i think it's always worse and seems like a bigger deal to the musician who makes the mistake than it comes off to the audience or even the other bandmates.

as for how it came off the tracks for you grant, you changing up the time from a more "standard" form.... time can be one of the toughest things to communicate. esp on stage playing a new piece of music that hasn't been rehearsed and the other musicians are trying to anticipate the next event based on the "usual" patterns.

as was suggested above....always best to keep things simple and straightahead.

not sure why, but this put me in mind of an audition i'd gone on yrs ago in nyc. one of the big movie companies was looking for a band to use in an upcoming flick. they wanted the group to actually be playing and doing original music.

total cattle call w many, many groups there. the group i was playing w at the time got to the final round and all the groups... maybe about a hundred or so musicians are sitting on the floor waiting their turn while ea group goes up to perform one song.

we go up and didn't exactly knock it outta the park. we were ok but nothing special. i get off the stage and these two guys come over..."hey, great bass playing man! our bass player didn't show, would you help us out and play with us when it's our turn?" they tell me they have a chord chart that i can follow along with. sure, i'll get up there and play some tune i've never heard before in a room full of a hundred or so other musicians.

so, two or three bands go on and then it's their turn. the gtrst hands me this chart....not very clearly written w a gazillion chords, key changes, and several sections. i look at him and say "you're kidding, right?" "no, man...it's real straight ahead. you'll hear it".

so being a confident 21 yr old w big cajones i get up there on stage and the drummer counts off their fusion tune at a really fast tempo. i'm sweating bullets but actually hanging in there and feeling like hey, i can do this. and then the gtrst stops playing rhythm and starts soloing. it's all on me to represent these chord changes that make little sense. we finally finish and i know i didn't nail it but i'm feeling pretty good about how well i WAS able to hang.

applause from the room, a few people compliment me on having the stones to get up there and say some nice things about my playing. neither one of the guys i helped out thanked me. i think maybe the drummer kinda nodded at me as we left the stage. i went over to collect my girlfriend from where she was sitting and i see and hear the two guys hashing over our performance. one of 'em said to the other ....."well we did the best we could being stuck w that guy. too bad he couldn't read a chart". they left before i had a chance to go over and have words w them...probably a good thing.

oh, the other thing i remember, after this went down there was a guy who was admiring my old '63 P bass. he said "wow, cool bass! can i see it?" like a total asswipe i lifted the bass in his direction and snarled "here, now you see it" before putting it in it's case.