Heyo, so tonight I played my first gig. I did two sets totally about an hour each. The first set was a rock set split between piano and guitar (one of the songs you'll find here) and the second set was a jazz set.
I found out that I'm very insecure about my guitar playing and my singing and especially doing both at the same time, and even more insecure about my piano playing. It needs a lot of work, but i enjoy it. I wasn't ready to play tonight and greatly desire another chance to do it better. People were encouraging but it was obvious that a lot needs to happen before I can be taken remotely seriously on either guitar or piano. Oh and this just in, I don't have a very good voice. As a matter of fact, I can't stand my voice. It's weak and pathetic and shouldn't really be used ever again in such a context....at least I still got karaoke.
The second set went considerably better. The patrons of the restaurant apparently love jazz. I had only planned on playing a half an hour set (mostly because I hadn't played in a long time and my lips couldn't handle it), but I ended up getting encored into doing another half-hour. I just played tunes out of the "fake" book with my computer as my backing band and everyone loved it. I actually ended up almost $90 in tips. I thought that was a little ridiculous but hey, no complaints here. I'll be completely honest with you, I'm an extremely limited jazz musician and in general don't have a whole lot of ability on my instrument and I don't have enough ideas to be entertaining. Basically what I mean is that if you hear me play for ten minutes you've heard me play for an hour, at least that's what I think. In any event they liked it and I'm going back tomorrow. I'll try to get some video of that.
Anyway, to top it all off I got free food! Which brought the gross value of the evening somewhere around $120. Not bad for an evening of jazz and rock. I wonder what I could do if I actually got good...
Until next time,
Toodles!
I found out that I'm very insecure about my guitar playing and my singing and especially doing both at the same time, and even more insecure about my piano playing. It needs a lot of work, but i enjoy it. I wasn't ready to play tonight and greatly desire another chance to do it better. People were encouraging but it was obvious that a lot needs to happen before I can be taken remotely seriously on either guitar or piano. Oh and this just in, I don't have a very good voice. As a matter of fact, I can't stand my voice. It's weak and pathetic and shouldn't really be used ever again in such a context....at least I still got karaoke.
The second set went considerably better. The patrons of the restaurant apparently love jazz. I had only planned on playing a half an hour set (mostly because I hadn't played in a long time and my lips couldn't handle it), but I ended up getting encored into doing another half-hour. I just played tunes out of the "fake" book with my computer as my backing band and everyone loved it. I actually ended up almost $90 in tips. I thought that was a little ridiculous but hey, no complaints here. I'll be completely honest with you, I'm an extremely limited jazz musician and in general don't have a whole lot of ability on my instrument and I don't have enough ideas to be entertaining. Basically what I mean is that if you hear me play for ten minutes you've heard me play for an hour, at least that's what I think. In any event they liked it and I'm going back tomorrow. I'll try to get some video of that.
Anyway, to top it all off I got free food! Which brought the gross value of the evening somewhere around $120. Not bad for an evening of jazz and rock. I wonder what I could do if I actually got good...
Until next time,
Toodles!
Hey Hey!
ReplyDeleteBravo! (or rather, Brave-O!)
Don't be so down on yourself. It takes major Cajones (or Djembe's if you're old school and only half of a Christian band like me) to put yourself out there. And nothin' wrong with your voice, you just need to find it and learn to work it! I look forward to hearing more!