First Solo Gig in 24 years

jeffcoop · Oct 13, 2016

Here's my gear for tomorrow night's gig: '12 D50 Standard (open D), '07 F30 (standard tuning), '12 G312 (down a half-step). All have K&K pickups (Pure 12 in the G312, Pure Mini in the others); I'm hoping that will make switching between them relatively seamless.

My run-through in my basement this afternoon did NOT go well. I'm falling back on the trope from my theater days that a bad dress rehearsal makes for a good opening night.

richardp69 · Oct 13, 2016

Congrats jeffcoop. Good luck and good on you. I always love playing to an audience. Even if it's not as well received as I like, it's a rush for me and I just have fun with it.

gjmalcyon · Oct 13, 2016

And the F-130R I bought from you is saying, "yeah, that could've been me ...."

If good wishes for actors is "break a leg", what is it for singers?????

In any event - best wishes and luck.

Opsimath · Oct 13, 2016

Congratulations and best wishes for your return debut. Will be looking forward to hearing how it went, but no doubt you'll do fine and everyone will enjoy the show.

walrus · Oct 13, 2016

Good luck, Jeff! I'm sure it will go beautifully!

walrus

marcellis · Oct 13, 2016

jeffcoop said:
....

I'm falling back on the trope from my theater days that a bad dress rehearsal makes for a good opening night.

I'm an old theater hand too. Writing, acting, composition, set construction/deconstruction, handyman. And you can take comfort from the certainty -- that old trope is true. If a dress rehearsal is bad - your performance will be much better. That applies to any end phase, stage blocking, or even part of the staged reading process.

If you bomb on 1 of those phases how can the your actual performance be any worse? It's better to have your screw-ups in advance. You WILL have them. So it's better you decide the time and place to shake them out of the system.

Merde!

crank · Oct 15, 2016

So how did the gig go?

Cougar · Oct 15, 2016

jeffcoop said:
Here's my gear for tomorrow night's gig: '12 D50 Standard (open D), '07 F30 (standard tuning), '12 G312 (down a half-step). All have K&K pickups (Pure 12 in the G312, Pure Mini in the others)....

With that batch o' guitars, it had to be a fun evening!

jeffcoop · Oct 15, 2016

The two hours flew by. I made a LOT of mistakes (more than usual, and I'm usually mistake-prone) in my playing, but my voice was in good shape, and on the whole I think it went fine. It was a friendly crowd. I have another appearance coming up in five weeks; if I can bring in a decent crowd for that one, this might become semi-regular.

I can tell from the guitar and capo that I'm playing "Big Yellow Taxi" here:

richardp69 · Oct 15, 2016

Jeff, that's great. Have fun with it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

txbumper57 · Oct 15, 2016

Congrats Jeff! Glad to hear it went well! Everyone makes some mistakes playing live, the important thing as you know is to not stop when you mess up and just keep on trucking like nothing happened. Sounds like the Crowd was a good one and good luck on the next gig. Hopefully it does become a regular thing for you. I'm sure it sounded great with that line up of Guilds too!

TX

davismanLV · Oct 15, 2016

Great photo, Jeff. I can't IMAGINE getting up in front of people and playing and singing.... maybe one day. But good for you doing it! Wish I coulda been in the audience! I'm sure you were amazing!! :encouragement:

p.s. - great guitar lineup!!

Neal · Oct 16, 2016

I still find solo gigging scary as crap. It does, however, get easier every time out.

Having a line-up of acoustics like that certainly helps!

Cougar · Oct 16, 2016

jeffcoop said:
The two hours flew by.... my voice was in good shape, and on the whole I think it went fine....

Two hours, jeez. Having your voice in good shape sounds like a big win to me. Playing and singing (or singing and playing) is no simple, automatic thing, unless you're just using three chords like Dylan used to do it, which I don't expect you were doing the whole time. :encouragement:

jeffcoop · Oct 16, 2016

Thanks, all. Tom, I've been singing solo in public for nearly four decades, and my voice (though hardly phenomenal, as those who were at LMG IV can attest) is solid enough that I don't worry about it, as long as I'm not beset by illness or allergies. Playing, on the other hand .... Cougar, definitely more than three chords, and several fingerpicking patterns to boot. I didn't push right to the edge of my capabilities--I dropped two songs at the last minute (replacing them with easier ones) because I wasn't confident of my ability to pull them off. But even so this was a stretch, especially for someone with my physical issues. But I always pressed on (the only time I restarted a song was the one song for which I needed a lyrics sheet--the music stand was positioned at first such that I couldn't see it, and so I had to stop and move it). And the reviews have been largely positive (though admittedly from a very friendly audience). Definitely looking forward to doing it again next month.

jeffcoop · Nov 18, 2016

Second round tonight. On the plus side, I'm feeling better prepared this time, to the point that I'm going to attempt some more challenging material. On the negative, I woke up this morning with a tickle in my throat. But I'm feeling good about my prospects. It's supposed to go from clear and warm to rainy and cold during my performance, so I'm inserting "Four Seasons In One Day" into the set list.

Cougar · Nov 18, 2016

jeffcoop said:
Second round tonight.

Pity this is not going to be streamed live. :very_drunk:

kdavid · Nov 18, 2016

Tell us how it went.
Wish I could've been in the audience

jeffcoop · Nov 18, 2016

Six hours until I take the stage. Cougar, there is no freaking way I'm going to livestream this. But I'll be recording it, and if a portion is decent, I might post it.

Westerly Wood · Nov 18, 2016

jeffcoop said:
Six hours until I take the stage. Cougar, there is no freaking way I'm going to livestream this. But I'll be recording it, and if a portion is decent, I might post it.

oh i hope so, would love to see some of it

First Solo Gig in 24 years

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