I’m on the last day of a ski holiday. I’d just returned the hire skis and walked through the hotel bar where one of the guests had a guitar. I asked if it was his or if it belonged to the hotel. It was his. He asked if I could play, to which I said “Yes” followed by the guitar being handed to me.
So I played and sang few songs. The other guy did too. A few people in the bar sang along with us. The bar staff looked happy and most people who walked through the bar did too.
Years ago I had a similar experience. I was to meet with a guy I’d lent my acoustic guitar to in a small, cozy pub. We indeed met there and when he handed over my guitar to me the bar maid asked if I could play something, and that she would gladly turn off the music playing in the background. I complied, and many regulars sang along for about half an hour. I was then presented with a bottle of wine from one of the guests, which, quite obviously, I didn’t drink alone… It was fun!
You’re both far braver than me. If someone in a bar asked me to play I’d panic and bail out. My youngest brother played and sang all the time in waterfront bars in Panama City Beach Florida for $200 a night plus his tip bucket. Before he retired to Florida he played all over West Virginia in a country duo.
That’s awesome. It’s the joy of having a handful of songs in your back pocket, as Justin describes it, so you can pull them out at a moments notice. Rock on!!!
I agree @tony . My back pocket of songs isn’t quite big enough yet. We’ve an open mic in a couple of weeks, at which we are doing 4 new (to me) songs, so I’ll have a few more after that.
I used to think it was way too hard to memorize songs, but a fellow club member challenged me to memorize the few I always played back when I was a beginner and when I took up the challenge it didn’t end up being anywhere near as hard as I thought it would be. So very worth the effort
When I played keyboards in a band, I used to marvel at the way the guitar players and bassist could memorise the chord sequences.
At the time I thought it was probably because the open chord shapes on a guitar were so different that they helped with memory whereas on a piano they don’t change much (a sharp or flat makes some shapes slightly different to those with all natural notes). I still think this is the case.
I’d no idea at the time, how the bass player could do it.
I now suspect they had a better understanding of chords in the key than i did. So even if they forgot the next chord they could make an educated guess.
Also maybe a bit of Justin’s advice to keep strumming even if you can’t remember the next chord. I had to do that in one of the songs last night. Victor Wooten has similar advice for bass players. It’s good advice.
Indeed. As a beginning I found this very difficult to do. After a while you realize the mistakes don’t matter as much as keeping the groove. Play on.
It was fun!