I’d really like to do an open mic but still not feeling good enough yet. I’ve had some invaluable comments from this forum before.
What do people think of this Leonard Cohen Cover ? I think the guitar part sounds a bit messy / too jumbled and my singing isn’t cutting through?
Any comments or ideas how to polish it up would be really helpful. Thanks!
I enjoyed it very much. 
And I would have enjoyed listening to that during open mic.
It’s a bit rough and needs work here and there but I guess it will just come with more practice. It’s also nice example of what I’ve heard in Justin lessons that it’s important to keep going even if things are not perfect rather than pausing.
Regarding singing volume, you may be right that sometimes the guitar is too loud.
From my experience, one thing that long term could have huge impact is more steady foot tapping (foot metronome). Also during “breaks” (e.g. 2m15s). It helps a lot with staying on time.
Spot on Lewis, get yourself signed up!
For the voice I guess the advice would be keep your head up as much as possible and face wherever the mic is, ok to look down for those tricky changes 
I enjoyed it. As to getting the voice to cut through, that probably depends on what equipment you have. If you can run the guitar into an amp separately from a voice mic that’s close to you, that should help. If the voice and guitar are about the same distance from a mic, the voice will often be overpowered by the guitar.
Hey Lewis,
Enjoyed that mate. Well done. Chord changes, rhythm all sounded good, and your voice was good as well.
You’ll get some sound advice here on sound levels soon enough. I wont offer any as I’m having similar issues, so will follow this thread closely.
As far as being ‘good enough’ for the Open Mic. It’s not about that at all. Its about sharing your music in a stress free environment, creating your own milestones, and getting valuable feedback for development. Playing among friends if you like. Thats what Im telling myself atm, as Im doing my first OM in the next one. 
Cheers,
Shane
Hi Lewis I think you are ready for an Open Mic, I strongly encourage everyone to join regardless of what level they are at link below. Anyway I think some good advice from kamkor and my only suggestion would be perhaps either change of positioning of your mic (I assume either laptop or phone recording this was?) Or perhaps investing in a 2i2 interface at some point to have separate tracks for mic and guitar.
Regardless of your equipment I invite you to join us all at next OM Open Mic 008 - Call for interest
Hi Lewis, a lot of good feedback here already.
I went to go look at your older video from a previous thread, and noticed you’d deleted the video! Which is a bummer, it’s nice to look at people’s previous videos and progress.
I’m hoping to do my first JGC OM next month (like @adi_mrok posted the link to). I’ve watched the recordings of a couple of them and of course based on the forums here it’s a really welcoming group.
If you’re planning on doing a real-world OM it would depend on the crowd, I would think, and what they’re expecting. If they’re expecting real polish, then keep polishing until you’re happy with it. If they’re not, do your best and go for it.
Go for it Lewis!!
Your playing and singing are great.
Dont «waste» your talent not playing for others.
Sounds awsome👍
I really enjoyed that, Lewis, great energy and rhythm in the guitar. Certainly at a performance level suitable for the Community Open Mic and the local face-face I go to.
The guitar was a little loud relative to the singing but I think that is hard to deal with with a single phone/pc mic when making a video. You didn’t seem to be holding back at all. So you may find you can get better volume and projection singing if you play standing up. And work on your breathe support ie singing from the diaphragm.
From a guitar playing polish perspective, with that strumming pattern and tempo, you may find the bouncing of the right leg makes it more difficult to be as accurate as you want.
Hi Lewis,
That sounded really good, I agree with all the good that has been said above… You are more than ready for a performance 
Greetings,Rogier
That was really good Lewis. I think you are being overly critical with yourself. That was good enough for an open mic. As Nike one said, “just do it”.
I loved it. About your singing…it can get better just keep on practising. Your guitar playing seemed fine to me. I would really love to see you perform. Do record it whenever you are doing it and share with us. One thing I like about some people is that they take their first steps into performing in front of an audience. This opens up a whole another world for artists. Once you start to enjoy it, it’s so much more fun. Yes, initially you are nervous, you panic, you F*** up…but that’s okay. I can’t think of anyone I know who hasn’t experienced this. But it becomes better and better as you continue doing it. You should just go for it man…straight up…
Now few points here:
I don’t know at which Stage you are now in your journey but I felt that you weren’t staying in the tempo. Not just different tempo in the different sections but also minor shifts inside one section. I don’t know if this was intended or not but I just though of pointing it out. If that’s not intended then I can suggest you to always practice with a METRONOME. Staying in TIME is important my friend !!
Dynamics- Try to add more dynamics to your strumming. With that amount of strums it’s very easy for an audience to get monotonous if there’s no dynamics. Feeling the song is important. Try to express the song through your strumming.
Dynamic Improvements | JustinGuitar.com
Feel Good Strumming | JustinGuitar.com
*Audience Interaction- This is a more performance based tip. Whenever you are performing…try to interact with you audience. In the video either you are looking at the frets or your eyes are closed. You should try to express more through your body language. I am not saying to just look and say something in the audience, even an honest eye contact can do the magic. Just try to express yourself more.
Playing Without Looking | JustinGuitar.com
I am not trying to make you feel bad in any way. I just pointed out areas which I felt would help you to become better. So don’t get depressed or anything 
…Cheers mate! All the best for your show.
Great vibe you have going on, let’s tweak it some more!
As a singing guitarist…or guitar playing singer (whosh is more accurate these day :D) my solid first advice follows Bob Marley and The Wailers:
get up, stand up!
You need to stabilize your diaphragm to get more power.
Get on your feet, get “grounded” with your feet flat on the ground, hold your chin stragiht and don’t point it up (as people tend to do when trying to go for higher notes).
Now imagine being in a big open space, a hall, a hangar or something and you see somebody in the distance, doing something that’s not ok (trying to force a door or something). You yell “hey” to that person in a commanding tone. You need to be powerful and loud enough to reach him. Now do it again but focus on what you feel in your abdomen. Do you feel a contraction? Your body is creating support in order to be powerful/loud enough. The first step towards a good vocal support is creating this tension on purpose
Be careful not to deprive yourself of breath though. You can chose to focus more on this when going for longer or higher notes. You don’t have to do it all the time!
remove the capo for half a note higher, as you can work your way up later again.
I think Lieven’s advice is great. I thought your performance pretty good but you seem to be struggling to project your vocal so that’s something to work on. It could also be a symptom of nerves whilst recording. In terms of an OM your performance is absolutely perfect for our JG OM. If you are talking about a real open mic then I’d get some practice in with a real mic on a stand which is what you’ll get at one of those…it’s quite a different experience from playing without one. It’s not uncommon for people to sit down at real OMs but more common for people to stand, so get a guitar strap and get used to that as well.
Thanks everyone! I’ll start ironing out the timing and will do Justin’s lessons on strumming.
I admit sometimes I don’t put the groundwork in and just try and wing it without a solid idea of where the vocals fall on the beat in places.