Back in December I saw a wall post on Facebook from the Student Program Board (SPB) asking for any UH students who play acoustic music to hit them up for a performance opportunity. I did, and I was accepted immediately. I guess my enthusiasm gave them confidence in my abilities.
Over the next 2 months I had to practice and figure out what to play. I really wanted to debut a new song, but I wasn't able to come up with anything I considered satisfactory. The next challenge was to decide if what covers to do, and if I should maybe learn some new ones. I learned a Dave Matthews Band song,"So Much To Say"
and worked on "Collide" by Howie Day
and "Folsom Prison Blues" by Johnny Cash.
My next order of business was looking at looping pedals for my guitar. What a loop pedal does is record a riff or whatever you want to be looped, or played over again, and repeats it until you tell it to stop. This would have been helpful so I could show off my soloing capabilities. Alas, I wasn't able to find one I liked in time to get used to using it. Oh well. I didn't NEED the loop pedal, though I really wanted it.
The big day came up. February 24th, 2011. I was feeling pretty nervous. The only live stuff I had done in the last 5 years was some open mics around Houston. The open mic crowd is pretty forgiving, so not much of a gauge as to how I'm actually sounding or performing. This show would be my first time playing for regular ass people since my cousin Keith and I played as Morning Wood in 2004.
My nerves and anxiety were pretty high as the first performer went on. When I came on the stage and set up I realized I was drawing a blank; thankfully, I had my set list typed up. I played through Dave Matthews' "So Much to Say" with a minor hiccup I don't think anyone noticed but me. Before moving on to "Don't Cry
" by Guns n Roses my wife, Gabby, asked if I turned on the video camera. I had not, so she turned it on for me. I felt pretty good about Don't Cry so I thought I was losing my nerves. I was wrong. I had to skip over Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues" because I forgot the words all of a sudden. I literally remembered them right after my set was over and I was leaving the stage. The rest of the set went pretty well. I did well enough to not be mad with myself, which isn't easy. I tend to be so critical of my mistakes that I overlook the good stuff.
So, to conclude my story, I got decent recordings of the rest of set which included: "Don't Cry", "Drive
" by Incubus, an original song called "Upon Goodbye", "Wonderwall
" by Oasis, "Kryptonite
" by 3 Doors Down, an original called "Trust You", "Times Like These
" by Foo Fighters, and an original, "Overload". I have placed a link to youtube where all these videos of my performance can be seen.
Over the next 2 months I had to practice and figure out what to play. I really wanted to debut a new song, but I wasn't able to come up with anything I considered satisfactory. The next challenge was to decide if what covers to do, and if I should maybe learn some new ones. I learned a Dave Matthews Band song,"So Much To Say"
and worked on "Collide" by Howie Day
and "Folsom Prison Blues" by Johnny Cash.
My next order of business was looking at looping pedals for my guitar. What a loop pedal does is record a riff or whatever you want to be looped, or played over again, and repeats it until you tell it to stop. This would have been helpful so I could show off my soloing capabilities. Alas, I wasn't able to find one I liked in time to get used to using it. Oh well. I didn't NEED the loop pedal, though I really wanted it.
The big day came up. February 24th, 2011. I was feeling pretty nervous. The only live stuff I had done in the last 5 years was some open mics around Houston. The open mic crowd is pretty forgiving, so not much of a gauge as to how I'm actually sounding or performing. This show would be my first time playing for regular ass people since my cousin Keith and I played as Morning Wood in 2004.
My nerves and anxiety were pretty high as the first performer went on. When I came on the stage and set up I realized I was drawing a blank; thankfully, I had my set list typed up. I played through Dave Matthews' "So Much to Say" with a minor hiccup I don't think anyone noticed but me. Before moving on to "Don't Cry
" by Guns n Roses my wife, Gabby, asked if I turned on the video camera. I had not, so she turned it on for me. I felt pretty good about Don't Cry so I thought I was losing my nerves. I was wrong. I had to skip over Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues" because I forgot the words all of a sudden. I literally remembered them right after my set was over and I was leaving the stage. The rest of the set went pretty well. I did well enough to not be mad with myself, which isn't easy. I tend to be so critical of my mistakes that I overlook the good stuff.So, to conclude my story, I got decent recordings of the rest of set which included: "Don't Cry", "Drive
" by Incubus, an original song called "Upon Goodbye", "Wonderwall" by Oasis, "Kryptonite" by 3 Doors Down, an original called "Trust You", "Times Like These" by Foo Fighters, and an original, "Overload". I have placed a link to youtube where all these videos of my performance can be seen.
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