Small community realization time.
So my wife has started doing open mics. She’s been occasionally going to a pub in the next county over. They host one monthly, and back in December, I think, they did a ukulele-specific one. She liked the vibe in the place so much that she’s been back a few more times. But it’s in a small town and it’s an hour drive each direction, which stinks. She’s wanted to do an open mic in our city, but she’s been intimidated because there’s a ton of amazing talent around us.
About a week ago, we went to a local brewery to watch a guy play because we wanted to see some music but didn’t want to go far. As we listened, I realized that I was pretty familiar with this guy’s music already, and I couldn’t place why. So I started talking to him and we tracked it down to him submitting some songs to some of the storm relief charity albums (I bought all three of them). I linked two of them earlier in the discussion. At any rate, turned out he had a song on the same album my wife did. AND he performed at the album release party. So that started some conversation.
My wife was talking to him about playing and mentioned the open mic thing. And he told her that he runs one every week in town and invited her out. So we went this week. AND, I had already crossed paths with a couple of people who were also performing. Waylon was there. And there was another guy up there performing who played in front of my guitar group a few months back. I ended up talking to him a fair bit because he stuck around for all the performers. It was pretty cool. I actually kinda felt like I was part of the music community (and I wasn’t even the one playing that night). And then Stephen (the organizer) approached me near the end of the evening and said, “I hear you play guitar” and invited me to play at his open mic. I’m not ready for that…yet. But my first go at an open mic will probably be playing with my wife so I don’t have to worry about vocals.
For whatever reason or another, I’ve decided that one of my next songs is going to be Wicked Game by Chris Isaak. The chords I had for it involved using a capo and it’s easy enough to strum the rhythm part. But I felt like something was off and I started digging. The versions that sound “right” don’t use a capo. So instead of playing an Am with the capo on 2, you play the Bm barre chord. But the progression from Bm to A and then to E looked quite attainable. I’ve been working bit by bit on barre chords and getting better with them, so I decided that because this progression looked attainable that this would be where I would commit to using a full barre chord in a song.
I’ve been just working on that Bm > A > E progression for a few days now and I don’t have to fumble with the Bm chord anymore. I’m not doing the changes fast yet, and I do have to focus to get the Bm. And it’s a big move getting from E back to Bm. At least I have an anchor finger I can use to help with that move. But I’m getting smoother.
I’m using my electric guitar to practice this early because it’s just a ton easier. But I’m going to do the rhythm part on my acoustic when I’m actually ready to play it. My wife decided to play it on her uke and we’re eventually going to play it together. And maybe after that, I’ll start working on the lead guitar part on my electric. I don’t have a whammy bar to do some of the trem stuff, but I think I can find an alternative option with my Les Paul to keep the right vibe. Of course this begs for maybe a looper pedal or at least recording multiple parts and combining them.
Also interestingly, during this “figuring out” process, I was switching the key around in the Songbook Pro app. One of the instructional videos I watched said the song is in the key of E Major Mixolydian. Now I haven’t gotten into the theory behind modes at all. But something clicked when I was switching the key in the Songbook Pro app. The version I had said it was in the key of G (this app handles the capo funny - it doesn’t like the chordpro syntax for capo positioning) which showed the Am, G, and D chord shapes (with the capo on the 2nd fret). I wanted it to show me the chords without a capo. And to get that to display correctly, I have to tell it to show me the song in the key of A. Apparently the app doesn’t like messing with the modes. Which explains why in the past I’ve noticed that the key it says in the app doesn’t look like the key that the song is actually in. I guess I just have to fudge it and tell the app to use whatever gets it to show the chords I want.
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