Just had a magical and unexpected moment. We are between houses and and filling in the time (we are retired) by camping in our caravan (camping trailer). Unfortunately it’s middle of Aussie winter (mild) and raining heaps. Sigh.
There was a break in the weather so I grabbed my fav guitar playing chair and went down to the river to do some practice on triads and other stuff. I was facing away from the bike and walking paved track behind me.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw a guy waving at me and yelling “Play us a tune”. He had another guy along with him and a young woman a few steps back from them.
So I quickly did a sing along favourite of mine, Credence Clearwater’s Have you ever seen the rain using Justin’s thumb and finger technique and my enthusiastic singing. Woo Hoo, it went down very well and they wanted more so I played another handful of songs before they said they had to run along and they thanked me for the fun time.
The young woman hung around and we harmonized together on several songs, then my wife showed up and we performed one of songs we do together. She thanked us and asked if we’d be around tomorrow before she left.
As you may be able to imagine I was pretty happy with such enthusiasm and attention and I mention it here in the hope that some of the beginners I welcome to the forum can read it and realize such experiences are within their grasp if they just hang in there.
I’m clearly in the amateur category when it comes to playing and singing. Much of what I’ve learned has come from Justin Guitar.
Great story Tony. The sort of magical moment to brighten your day and stay with you for a while. Not sure about “amatuer category” I reckon you have a great sound and anyone that can just pull songs out of their pocket with no lyric or chord prompts is instantly god status to me (ooops sorry @Richard_close2u I might have mentioned religion ) (Doh!! Did it again Sorry Admins for I have sinned
There’s nothing better than hearing live spontaneous music. Those people you met are probably also thinking the same as you. What a magical moment that someone plays some songs just for them. You made three people very happy. Lovely story.
Your winters must be a lot warmer than ours. I can’t imagine being able to sit and play outside during our winter in Lausanne Switzerland. Perhaps for 2 seconds before your hands freeze.
Hey Craig, great stuff. It brings back memories of a camp kitchen jam I had at Albany when we were in WA as part of our big lap. I took my guitar to the campground’s kitchen and sat at one of the picnic tables and started playing songs from my repertoire. There was another fellow there drinking red wine out of a tin cup.
He seemed to like my music, didn’t say a lot, then got up to leave, grabbed a $50 note out of his wallet and gave it to me as a tip. Woo Hoo. I thanked him and he said he’d been on his push bike all day (he’d ridden it all the way from Canberra over the recent months) and a bit of music was just what he needed.
Hey Ian, thanks for your comments. Yeah, it was one of those spontaneous moments, joyful for all, Yeah, Aussie winters in this part of Australia are reasonably mild. Along the coast, as we are, you don’t even get frosts. Still it was only in the high teens (celcius) and quite windy, not the sort of weather that makes you feel like being outside. We’ve been cooped up in the caravan with lots of rain the last couple of days so when it cleared (briefly), I got the guitar and went outside.
What I’ve learned from lots of camping with the guitar is if it drops below 15 or so, my fingers freeze up pretty quickly and so does my motivation to be out in the weather.
Tony, if you can play on the spot when asked, and make people happy doing so, I wouldn’t put that in the amateur category. When most people who are maybe non-musicians listen to someone playing, they wish they could do that. Well, they can, but need to invest the time you do to playing and singing. Most don’t want to do that. Sounds like a fun time and you made some new friends. Kudos to that!
Heck yeah Tony. Thats way rad. Singing on demand is uh, demanding.
They will tell the story about being on vacation a hearing some guy singing and playing guitar on a creek bank for the rest of their lives, and how cool it was.
Great story Tony, thanks for sharing! Brings a smile to my face. This is what it is all about. I have memories of similar moments on the other side from before I started playing guitar when there was someone on the beach playing a few tunes in the summer at a picnic, wowowow, that was always so awesome. Music up and close and shared. Certainly one of the reasons I eventually started learning to play myself. And many happy returns to you!
I book a wide variety of musicians to be our feature act at our club’s open mics. This is a paid gig for them and I know there’s no way I’d compare to their level of playing, hence the amateur label. I’m quite happy with the “intermediate” or “intermediate amateur” label. Appreciate your sentiment. Thanks.
Thanks for your kind words. The camping guitar chair I use has been a real find. Its the Jet Pilot model and the side arms come off which makes it comfortable and perfect for seated guitar playing.
(ooops sorry 
Sorry Admins for I have sinned 
