Re: Woo Hoo: first solo gig, but on Guitar...
- From: Misifus <rafseibert@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 04 Sep 2007 17:46:40 -0500
Oz Bass wrote:
Did my first purely solo gig on Friday, on acoustic guitar. A promoter I
know had a support act pull out that morning and was desperate. He
knew I played acoustic and sang, so he rang me and asked if I was
available and interested.
I was going to say no, but I have been thinking about (and putting
off) getting a solo acoustic set together, plus I had an off night, so I
went ahead and took the plunge.
So it was only a single set of a half hour but, after 30 years playing in
bands and duos, it's still pretty high pressure the first time standing in
front of a roomful of people with no other musicians onstage to take the
heat off.
The only negative was that, because I've never done a "real" solo gig on
acoustic, any delicate bits (finger-picking and slide) went out the
window and I just strummed and sang (okay; bashed the crap out of the
guitar and bellowed down the mic). I relaxed a bit towards the end of the
set and did some finger-picking on Blind Blake's "Diddy Wah Diddy" and Gary
Davis' "Cocaine Blues" at the end.
The bottom line is I got a good reaction, had some girls up dancing, and
I've been asked to do more gigs (for real money).
The pluses: no dealing with other musicians - instead of having to pull
teeth to find out elementary shit like what time we start/finish, load in
times, etc., I had it all in that one phone call. I like it when the
business stuff is purely my responsibility 'coz then I know it'll get
done (yeah, yeah - I'm a control freak). I also knew everyone would turn
up on time and not get shit-faced during the gig.
I only had to take an acoustic guitar (I brought my Dobro as well but
didn't end up playing any slide this time). The gig was a mile from home -
I could literally have walked there with all my stuff.
PA was provided and the sound-check was just get the levels, and was
done in less than 2 minutes.
Also a big plus is knowing that all the positive feedback I got was my own
work - I'll be the first to admit it's great to get an ego-stroke like that.
Minuses: none, really, except for the "first solo gig" nerves, and I got
through that so next time I'll relax and have fun.
Pay was only 50 bucks, but for a last-minute, half hour walk-in gig less
than 3 minutes from home on a night I didn't have anything booked, I was
happy enough.
Thump
That's the sort of gig I normally do, these days. Sounds like it went great.
The normal rule of thumb for acoustic playing an singing is, practice at 110% of your ability, perform at 80%. You obviously took care of that in eliminating the subtleties from the first of your material, and found that you could bring some back in by the end. That's great.
-Raf
--
Misifus-
Rafael Seibert
mailto:rafseibert@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
blog: http://rafsrincon.blogspot.com/
Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rafiii
home: http://www.rafandsioux.com
.
- References:
- Woo Hoo: first solo gig, but on Guitar...
- From: Oz Bass
- Woo Hoo: first solo gig, but on Guitar...
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