So I am moving house in the next couple of weeks and I'll be within a ten minute walk of a rather hip, happening town center that attracts a lot of musicians and artists and so forth. You can just walk up the high street and see an open mic night almost every night of the week and that's always something that makes my eyes light up a bit. As someone who has a good set of pipes and is a reasonable guitarist I want to get back into doing that kind of stuff, and actually having a social life more generally. However, I am not your standard music fan. I have... Shall we say refined tastes. My natural inclination is to just play, well, my kind of music. Shockingly there are some acoustic Slipknot and Machine Head songs, all stuff that I can kick the crap out of. But that doesn't really help if no-one knows or likes them. Even playing what are definitely much more popular song that fall within that ouvre like Bother by Stone Sour or Disarm by Smashing Pumpkins, you kinda have to be in the right place. Even back in 2006 when I was last into that kind of scene I was struggling to find things in karaoke books and to play songs that the crowd in your average bar knew. Last time I was out at karaoke and did an Aerosmith song I was genuinely stunned that five people had heard it before. So I turn to you as people who are substantially more normal than I am; what the hell should I be playing? I have a great voice and I like to show it off; and I can learn most anything you can reasonably play as a one-man-and-his-(pointy)-guitar act.
I would research the venue when you get there, see what the vibe is, see who the regulars are, talk to some folks to get insight on what they like. Get to know your audience, then cater to them. Warm em up, become a regular, and then crack out your Slipknot and Machine Head and whatnot. Or just say 'fuck it' and play it from the get go. Introduce people to awesome music through acoustic renderings.
Back in the early 90s, which is the last time I did open mikes or karaoke, I always stuck to easy and mellow stuff to start with - Gordon Lightfoot, John Denver, and the like. I had a great voice back then, too, and good technique, but there was always someone better than me, so if I showed off, I risked being blown off the stage. It's easier, and more fun, to sing now. My voice has acquired a serious rasp as I've gotten older, and my technique is sharper than it used to be. Now I just don't care about anyone else; I sound like me, and if the people don't like it, they shouldn't be at an open mike anyway. I'm good enough to blow most of the competition off the stage if I want to, but that's not generous, so I don't try. My repertoire these days is heavy on my own arrangements of very old folk songs - there's a lot of old stuff that's dark and violent and pretty chilling. It opens a lot of people's eyes. I include some Jethro Tull, Stan Rogers, Gordon Bok, and stuff I scrounge off old folk collections. Rock it up a bit and it sounds like Led Zeppelin in their acoustic moods. I don't sing in public much these days. Just for family and for some recordings I'm making. I'll gear up and do it more when I move back to the Pacific Northwest next year. Something about Southern California turns me into a second-rate Kenny Loggins, and the world does not need that.
It's tempting just to do that. I'm going to be drinking anyway, which tends to put me in an "I don't really care what you think" kind of mood. And of course it'd mean I don't have to learn anything new, which is always a bit of a gamble when playing both pissed and in public. You and I have different ideas about the purpose of open mic
I've no idea what's popular right now... When I think of acoustic + rock, I'm thinking something like MTV Unplugged and Nirvana. I heard a funny acoustic cover of Bad Romance once. I mean, you could make male versions of popular songs by female artists like Taylor Swift, Lana Del Rey, Rihanna, etc. People will recognize them, at least. Or cover So What? with an acoustic guitar. I think that'd be great! (the song by Anti-Nowhere League, popularized by Metallica). Or Self-Esteem by The Offspring. (I have my big brother's taste in music)
Oh you are a woman after my own heart Probably one for after a few drinks though If you've never heard of him then you should look up Richard Cheese and his band Lounge Against The Machine; they do jazz covers of a weird array of metal and punk songs and they are... Actually really quite good. See that's the thing; that's exactly the kind of stuff that I think about too. Pearl Jam and Alice In Chains and, well, music that was popular before I was old enough to be into music, and not even that popular here in the UK. At least that's the kind of stuff that normal people may have heard of and so that's definitely on my list. And I do a very good Eddie Vedder even if I do say so myself. At least that's not going to just totally go over everyone's head. And I suppose thinking back to my teens in music; I could always do Every Rose Has It's Thorn
Then there's Ed Sheeran; he's pretty popular still, right? Speaking of covers, I'll just leave this here. I doubted there was a force on earth that could make Miley Cyrus sound good, but I was wrong.
Well my ex's eleven year old cousin likes him. That counts right? Turns out that when talented musicians play things they sound better And that is genuinely quite a good cover, even if it's hardcore
I only found out about him when I was listening to this Finnish band called Blind Channel and they had covered Don't. It didn't sound like their song, so I googled it. Turns out Sheeran sounds and looks obnoxious. If you want to play something that sounds happy, but turns out to be pretty grim when you start listening to lyrics, there's this. But I guess unfortunately the best way to get people's attention is to play hit songs they know. Check the UK's top 100 (oh look, Ed Sheeran is numero uno!) and work from there. And since Christmas is coming, there probably has to be some obligatory Christmas number, like All I Want For Christmas Is You.
I can confirm this is true Ooo fun Although I do already have a somewhat similar song in my repertoire for that purpose I guess that's the real problem; what's selling today is mostly to tweens and teens which is not really the kind of crowd in anywhere that sells whisky. That's what makes it tricky. It's trying to figure out what people who are about my age (25 to 35) have been listening to for the past ten years while I've been rather out of touch with pop culture.
Can you play the blues? If so do what I would do and improvise some blues melodic scales, throw in lots of vibrato ala B.B. King. I'd be impressed if I saw somone go up on stage and play the heck out of some blues guitar.
The experience of being ignored in the corner can get you down after about '100 gigs,' I reckon from observation. The guitar man in the pub - Southampton docks - has 200 people dancing on tables to all the Monkeys/Beach Boys/Beatles call and response numbers. He makes a living. But if you want to play your own stuff and be listened to by musicians I'd head more 'folk scene,' the folk clubs' open mic, & their pubs. Building contacts that way takes you toward folk festivals, and then festivals. Or, take it easy and play Sheeran and Oasis numbers. That's a very crowded scene - and the musos will hate you ... Realistically, you do a bit of both because you're itching to get out the door and get on your guitar.
I cannot. I never really learned music as such, I only ever learned to play specific metal songs. I'm actually not great at strumming chords at all, I never got the knack for it so most of the time if I'm playing acoustic things I'm just vaguely strumming so I can show off my voice. Well as it turned out I found my gorgeous little Swedish meatball and got all loved up and so I haven't been quite so bothered about going out and being a rock star. But sometimes @Lemie and I record ourselves playing cute songs for each other, because we're disgustingly sweet like that. But when I'm doing that I don't worry so much about playing to the crowd.
Not really sure how willing you’d be to try new stuff, but people like Bob Dylan and Jeff Buckley come to mind for me when I think of awesom guitar/vocal performers. It also kind of depends on your vocal range and you playing abilities. I don’t think songs by Dylan are too hard in either of those aspects; if you want a challenge, though, or to show off your falsetto, Buckley is good for that. I love “Gunshot Glitter”. I’m not good at the guitar; I can barely play the chords. But I do love the vocal range he uses in that song. Mumford and Sons also has some songs that probably wouldn’t be too hard to perform. If you like funky and weird, Talking Heads is pretty cool too
Wait... I thought you lived in a small town (...live by, you know what I mean). Does that mean there will actually be stuff happening this summer?
I'm horrible with chords, I was cursed with small hands can barely wrap my hand around the neck of Suzie, so it's difficult to do chords... I'm kind of a three fingered Betty when it comes to playing my electric. If I shine at all it's in note progression scales, left and right down the neck. Getting thirsty talking about necks. Earlier today I was inspired by some postings on the music thread, a posting of David Gilmour playing acoustic WishYou Were Here. David Gilmour is my favorite guitarist on this planet or any other. Played the opening of that song with a few changes, more slide and vibrato in places. I'm self taught, my original guitar teacher when I was 16 doesn't count 6 months of strumming chords to songs I couldn't remember. He stole my $600 axe my amp and my fantasy novels... I'm impressed that you can play metal songs, I can't even remember anything I play so I record all my sessions. Wish I had some better recommendations closer to your style.
I do live in a small town, but it's next to a slightly bigger and much hipper town, and only a little further away from a rather bigger town. Lots of choices for exciting things! I just never learned to play stuff with traditional chords almost at all, that was never the stuff that I liked to listen to and I am definitely not one to play stuff just for the sake of learning. I have ADHD and so I find practising things that I don't have a direct interest in to be something of a trial, and I have a very low threshold for frustration too. So when it comes to chords I'm something of a ten thumbed cripple. For me at least it's actually easier to learn fast, complicated riffs than it is to learn chords and strumming patterns. I just can't sync up what I can hear in a song with how you're supposed to strum in a song, so I'm always a bit stilted and crappy with seemingly simple chord songs. I can play some (to most people anyway, not to actually good guitarists) fairly impressive stuff, including a few blistering solos, and lots of very fast, technical riffs, but in truth I'm just following the instructions to play them. There isn't really any space to listen and interpret, you just follow the tab. It's certainly more challenging to play things fast, but you can start slow until your hands know where they are going by themselves and then you just have to speed up. And just generally, playing riffs is a whole other thing to playing chords because there's lots of movement on the fret board, constant frantic action instead of slow progressions. I do like some acoustic music, but it's almost exclusively made up of acoustic versions of metal songs, or metal bands doing moody songs. About the only acoustic guitar music I genuinely like that isn't directly metalic is Tom Morello's The Nightwatchman, but no-one else has heard of that either
A three fingered Betty and a ten thumbed cripple sounds like the title for a Kung fu actioner. I'll try sto post something in forum my meager playing skills.when I really want to get fancy I lay the guitar flat and play it top down. Note progression is all I have.