Hello everyone,
I’ve been around here for quite a while getting my guitar skills up there and have run into a sort of potential deadly killer of my journey!
My goal is, and has always been to perform the songs I enjoyed in my youth (I’m 65, so the 60’, 70’s some 80’s).
So with that in mind, I’ve been practicing my self to death and learning my favorites as I go. My end goal was to ultimately perform in front of an audience that likes the oldies. I’m even taking private voice lessons to make sure I sound good! I have been practicing very hard.
My thought was to first perform in an open mic setting, with a backing track to do the bass, and drums, and potentially another instrument, with other guitar parts recorded by me. So I’d be singing the cover with my acoustic or electric live.
Sadly, I’ve just done a LOT of reading online and it seems that having a backing track (getting the stems from karaoke-version.com) is frowned upon in an open mic setting!
This is a HUGE KILLER for me! I have exactly zero interest in writing my own music! Are there any alternatives other than having a band that somehow wants to play the same thing as me?
What to do? It’s seems my years of blood, sweat, and tears learning to play is going to be confined to my living room.
Should have asked this question before I got started, but didn’t know enough of what to ask…
Joe
Joe,
Firstly, you should not make assumptions, rather pay a visit to the Open-Mic events where you may perform and speak with the organisers to understand their specifics.
That said, I can talk from my own experience.
The majority of people performed covers of songs at the Open-Mic I attended.
People did not use BTs. I’d not say it was frowned upon but rather just not permitted. The reason being that typically the sound system setup and the need to make fast changes between many performers makes it impractical to mix in devices that might provide the BT.
Typically an Open-Mic setup provides a dynamic mic or two plus leads to plug into a guitar. So most people play acoustic. Some did play an electric but direct with an amp or any effects pedals in the signal chain.
So I expect all you need to do is begin to focus on playing and singing without a BT.
Wow, that kinda rules out anything that needs a bass or drums like Led Zeppelin and a lot of Beatles stuff I like… I also love so much pop 70’s stuff that wouldn’t work great as acoustic… Even my Eagles favs have some strong bass and drums, not to mention electric.
I think my world is going to narrow down significantly.
I spend most of my time playing electric, but for OMs I tend to play acoustic as it’s just easier to set up. In my experience there are very few songs that can’t be covered on the acoustic - sure it might have a different vibe, but it’s part of ‘making it your own’. I certainly don’t aim to sound completely like the original at an OM.
You’re completely opposed to performing a single-instrument arrangement of such songs? Given that there are acoustic and/or finger style covers of even the heaviest metal songs, I’d say pretty much anything can be played by one person and their guitar, all while still sounding good.
You can play anything solo on acoustic guitar, quite literally anything. That’s why the guitar is such a popular instrument.
Sure they are.
First of all - the looper. Why don’t you play and sing with a self made backing track? I can’t sing at all, but I play guitar covers of my favourite songs using exclusively BT’s played and recorded by me.
If you need some additional instruments like bass guitar or drums you still have a couple of options to choose. One of them is decent multi effect (currently I use ZOOM G2 Four) which has quite usefull drum machine and pretty nice octaver - I don’t have bass guitar, but it sounds OK to me. Another solution is Trio+ Band Creator - YouTube is full of tests and reviews of this device.
And an additional advice - don’t try to sound like an original song, play it your own way, add to this performance a little bit of your personality… 
While I have nothing but respect and awe for many many talented artists that sing opera, or play jazz or bring people to tears with fabulous country music, I just don’t have the love for it.
Likewise while I do have some favorites on the acoustic guitar my heart isn’t in it; my heart and joy is tied to rock and beat of songs like The Beatles Taxman, Get Back, or the driving tone of Zeppelin’s “Rock and Roll.” I’m not sure if I can’t rock out to Johnny B. Goode on stage if I’d ever be satisfied. I want to play some of the solos I enjoyed on stage while hearing my rhythm guitar I recorded in the background while I sing those songs I loved. I just can’t imagine dreaming of hearing the Eagles’ “Already Gone” on acoustic - although I’m sure someone has done it…
If I’m going to have to play my favorites on an acoustic with no tracks, I guess I’ll leave it to those folks who love such things.
A shame really, should be a place for folks it’s myself who have no band. Very discouraging after all the years I spent learning all this… But acoustic mic isn’t for me, sadly.
Thanks for your support!
I posted this elsewhere a couple of days ago but worth putting here to demonstrate playing rock on solo acoustic.
If that is your dream, your gig, your vision. Persue it.
If that kind of show is what you want to do…do it!
BUT If you feel like that is what you need to do, I don’t think open mics are the medium for you though. At least, not as a good place to get your show on the road.
A show as several sides to it.
- How you experience it and all the scripting, tricks, helps…
- how you bring it to the crowd, how they xperience it.
- The expectation of the crowd; what you can do to entertain hem.
There is an audience for what you do and there will be some in the audience that count your type of show amongst the things they’d like to see but they wil be a minority.
(when it comes to JustinGuitar Community open mics though, we welcome any kind of guitar related performance though but you are there for many more reasons than in a public open mic. so when I speak about open mic here, I mean the PUBLIC ones)
Open mics are aimed at people that make a the song “their own” like @mathsjunky pointed out and you will have to be good if you want the convince the part of the audience that is still on the fence about the concept. You also need to be “damn good” to convince those not so into it.
You’re practicing a lot and that’s great; playing along with a band that desn’t adapt itself naturally but stays rigidly on track like a backign track, requires a lot of discipline and precision. Stuff I didn’t have when I started out and I must say, I still find that hard 
Your songs will resemble the original and the closer to the original you AIM to be, the less forgiving the audience will be if you don’t. Be wary of that. The open Mic crowd will love you hit the right notes and singing in tune for sure but they also need a creative take to a song; a personal perspective and one that fits the vibe of open mics. I only play covers at these kind of events, even some 80’s popsynth stuff and 90’s dance I transformed to guitar!
My versions aren’t as long as the original too; giving you more different songs in the same amount of time.
I think your kind of gig could start off as an opener for a coverband, a tribute band, a food (truck) festival etc. Your backings will a broader spectrum that you can amplify with a PA set.
Be wary with “karaoke versions”. They will sound cheezy and cheap.
Try to find (or buy) backing tracks that good enough toplay through a PA set on an event 
Also, in the meantime, make video’s of what you can do to promote yourself and build your network in the scene I spoke of! People will need to know what you are capable of and how well you can carry the songs.
BOTTOM LINE:
I think Open Mics isn’t the right audience, showcase what you can in video’s, promote yourself and try to score some other type of events as described
There are, also, some OMs (I think they tend to be called “Open Band” or “Band Jam”) around where there’s a full band, and you can chose to pick up any instrument in the band and play a song.
The limitation there, of course, is that the rest of the band needs to know the song.
Cheers,
Keith
Keep your eye out for ‘performance’ open mics.
Our local OM caters for whatever people would like to share 
Although the majority of performers are singers with acoustic guitars, we have full bands, poetry recitals, Hang drums, harps, storytellers, and yes, one regular who simply sings along to a fully recorded backing track.
Hell, they even let me squawk along to my e-guitar! 
Remember, OMs are about entertaining the audience, not fulfilling your dreams…
I’ve attended a few open mics where my wife has performed and I’ve seen quite the range. Some of them are 100% acoustic. The best you get is a mic pointed at your instrument.
Some are really flexible. One at a pub we like is totally fine with a full band showing up to perform. They’re just going to schedule you so there’s time for setup and sound checks. This same one is open to comedians and probably magicians and anybody else who shows up. This pub has a full sound system ready to go.
The one she performed at last week was somewhere in the middle. I dunno how willing the organizer is to stretch things. Most folks were on acoustic guitar, but I did see an electric. And at least one performer also had a small pedalboard. One performance was a duo, so he could handle two folks plugging in their acoustic guitars along with their mics. For this one, the organizer is a local musician who was hired by the brewery to run this open mic every week and he brings his own sound system. So you either have to be able to stand on your own or plug into his mixer and small PA setup.
One way I see this particular style of music going is the looper option. If you could simplify your setup as much as you can. Include something like a Beat Buddy pedal or a drum pad where you tap out your own rhythm for the looper. Basically, you’re setting up your entire performance live. You could probably get away with little bit of yourself pre-recorded, but folks are going to want to see you put the song together. I see solo musicians doing this with some regularity. Some busking, some at small venues on their own.
If you can have everything you need in a small pedalboard rig and can just plug in and go, I could see some open mics being accepting of that. You’re just going to have to check open mic events out and ask whoever is organizing it how much gear you’re allowed.
This is interesting. Did you just read online or you actually checked this with specific OM venue?
I never had impression that open mic venues have issues with backing tracks. If this is the case indeed, it might be more to technical aspects than to what audience expects. I don’t see why audience would mind backing track, especially if you will play your guitar and sing on top. I think if you want to try this, just check with a specific OM venue and prepare and test everything tech wise. You on a stage tweaking knobs for 20mins doesn’t make any sense. The easiest way is to use modeller with line out. Set levels of your guitar and backing track in advance on your modeller and if necessary for volume, plug in your line out to PA of the venue. You are good to go. 
All fantastic - follow your dream, this is your retirement, do with it what you yearn for.
There’s nothing wrong with that in principle though it would take an awful lot of preparation work making sure the pre-recorded parts and your recorded parts synced perfectly and you had a great sound and a great mix. You’re making life hard for yourself.
Do you live in a big town or city? If yes, there will be dozens of different types of live music events that put paid to this internet disinformation.
But, all that said, @JackPK beat me to it.
Invest in a Trio+ and the FS3X footswitch.
You teach it the song by playing very basic chords. If the song has multiple sections with different chord progressions you teach them one at a time and store them together. The Trio+ will play back the song sections in the order you program - intro, verse, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, chorus etc. Whatever the song needs.
The Trio+ listens to your basic chords and will offer a drum and a bass accompaniment. These have almost limitless options to tweak them to get what you want. Once you have drums and bass you are happy with you can then loop multiple layers of guitar parts - or none - meaning you simply play one guitar part live with drum and bass backing.
Songs are stored on an SD card and one SD card can hold 10 songs each with upto 5 sections.
@Rossco01 was perhaps the first to play at a JustinGuitar Open Mic with his Trio since when others have used them, including @brianlarsen.
At the open mic event you need no additional cabling or special favours from the event organiser. The Trio+ needs mains power so an extension cable from the wall to the performer space is all you need. Take your own guitar cable to go from guitar to Trio+. The footswitch has its own cable. The feed to the open mic pa will be direct from your Trio+ with a 1/4" jack to the mixer desk.
ps
It is always good in a post-covid hygiene-aware world to take your own microphone. Shure SM58 is the industry standard but others are available.
As you are talking hygiene (so presumably vocals) , I suspect you meant Shure SM58 @Richard_close2u (feel free to delete this message).
Wow, I really appreciate the input here! It gives me some hope and I see hopefully some possibilities! I’m super tech oriented so the electronics doesn’t bother me - I really like that.
I especially appreciate the honestly, and it’s helping to think through what I want to do more.
A number of people mentioned that doing covers as I was hoping to do - would be making things really hard on myself - could you be more specific? How would I make things easier? By changing the song? Wouldn’t that be a negative thing? After all, I’m thinking people want to hear something that sounds like the original, right?
I should probably mention that I’m particularly picky on cover songs in general and so strive to do my best to follow the original song…it’s an OCD thing I guess.
But is that too high a goal? Am I setting myself up for failure? So far, I like the songs I have learned pretty well - I have about 10 that I’m working on that are sounding pretty good - in the right direction anyway. I can see at least with more practice if be happy with the way they sound. I just need to get further with my voice lessons!
I guess my biggest problem still boils down to venue though…
Awesome help here!
I think they’re probably talking about all of the technical work involved in recording all of the parts that you describe and getting everything synced up. It sounds like a lot of effort for an OM.
I think at an OM people want to be able to recognise the original if you’re doing a cover but that doesn’t mean they expect to hear the entire band. At some point they won’t know what they’re hearing you play live and what is recorded and may not appreciate the end result as much you’d hope. When it’s a singer with an acoustic guitar they know exactly what they’re seeing and hearing.
Whether it’s too high a goal or not is a bit moot. I think it’s more effort than you need to put in. Your audience won’t be listening THAT closely and are unlikely to have a note-by-note recollection of each song.
Thanks @simon_plays_bass I did mean SM58 and hit the wrong button …
If anyone is unaware SM57 is more typically used as an instrument mic.
If people want to hear live versions played very close in resemblance tk an original in a small local venue, there are no end of covers bands. Have you considered joining one? Then you get to play all night.
The vast majority of live audiences are happy with a loose facsimile and a chorus to sing with.
At an open mic you might get two songs or 10 minutes. Your processor as you envisage could necessitate endless hours to learn the song and guitar parts verbatim, more hours to record your multitracks, more hours to mix with stems. Then you need a friendly venue where the host is happy to run your backing track through the pa somehow. And press play-pause-play etc as you perform.
Then half the audience might be talking or queueing at the bar.
You can easily present a fuller sounding cover with guitar, drums, bass using a trio+.
PS
Are you intending playing any guitar solos live or just rhythm?
PPS
Have you been frequenting open mics to get a sense of them?