First open mic!

philpot

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That's right folks, I played in front of a "crowd", by myself, for the first time. I even sang. Which was probably a stupid idea, but still ;)

I played Harana/Serenade, a shortened version of Weeps, and Good Riddance. I could have played more, but at that point I lost my nerve :p I got a few compliments and the guy that ran it told me to come back and told me I should come to another open mic he runs in a city near me on Wednesdays. Well, I had a hard enough time convincing my mom to let me go to this one, so the other probably won't happen, but I might make a weekly thing of this. It was super fun ^.^
 
Excellent! Good for you.
 
Awesome bro!! I also played at an Open Mic at my school yesterday!! I did Kiss from A Rose the Kalei Gamiao cover, and then an encore song. I messed up a little on the encore song, "crazy g," but it's ok :) I had fun and that's what it's all about!!! Keep Jammin
 
You guys who have pulled an opn mic gig off really impress me. Wish I had the nerve to do it. In the "kind of artsy" part of town here,they have "First Thursday" each month where the shops stay open late and lots of them serve complimentery adult beverages. Sort of like a street fair. Been tinking of busking a little up there before I tackle an open mic.
 
Way to go Phil! Big kudos to you! I played my first one about a month ago and am going to play my third tonight. I know first hand what you were feeling going into it. I am trying to get to the point where it is no different than playing by myself at home in my uke room. Funny thing is I was more nervous at the second one than the first.

C'mon Mom, let him go to another! WTG!
 
I have a good situation. I've played (guitar) for years in the band at church, so I play and sing for a couple hundred people on a weekly basis. If getting into a band like that, doing anything, is an option for you, it will build confidence. The funny thing is that I'm almost never nervous singing in front of a crowd, but when I did my set at UWC, I was pretty scared. I have no idea why. It may be that I dedicated the first song to someone in the audience, and then I felt pressure to make it good.
 
Way to go Phil. Keep it up. It's a lot easier the second time!
 
go phil go! you are awesome!
 
Thanks guys! You guys are way too kind considering it probably sucked ;)
 
Aloha Phil,
You go man..congrats..it gets easier each time..but you still get that nervous feeling ..
 
I'm a regular at a bi-weekly open mike at a restaurant where there are usually some pro musicians and some rank amateurs, with me in between. After a year or so, I started becoming pretty comfortable and stopped getting stage fright. I thought I'd reached a kind of performing maturity. Then they had a thread on the Flea Market Music bulletin board about stage fright, and someone suggested taking beta blockers to reduce anxiety. I realized that since my heart attack last year, one of the pills I now take daily is a beta blocker. So maybe I just thought I'd learned to stay calm, and the truth is that my calmness is because I'm now properly medicated. (And not only do heart pills keep you calm, but they have names like Carvedilol and Enalapril, who I believe were two of the lesser-known elves in Lord of the Rings.)
 
...one of the pills I now take daily is a beta blocker. So maybe I just thought I'd learned to stay calm, and the truth is that my calmness is because I'm now properly medicated...

Hey, there may be something to that theory. I didn't start playing a musical instrument until shortly before my first heart attack so I never performed publicly until after I was on beta blockers, and it's just never really bothered me. Well, come to think of it I sang once or twice with my wife many years before, and I think I was pretty nervous back then.

So, yeah, let's put eveybody on beta blockers!

John
 
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