You are handed a guitar and asked to play something....

Rocker

Inspired by the "I'm hopeless when anyone is watching me.." thread by @grappagreen, what do you play when someone hands you a guitar.  It could be an acoustic guitar or an electric.  How do you get out of that one?

I thought about this several years ago and have the following repertoire for such emergencies:

* A flatpick version of 'Wildwood Flower' in the key of G.

* A self written flatpick tune in the key of C.

* A self written song in the key of A. 


The song has a chorus and I start by 'teaching' the audience the chorus and asking them to join in.  Also I ask that the audience clap in time to the flatpicked tunes hinting that it helps my timing and their input is needed.  Flatpicking in open keys has the advantage that accidental strikes of adjacent strings actually helps so I adopt a loose flexible style for those tunes.  Tuning the guitar is now easier as I use the App on my phone which gets it close enough.  This was not always the case.....

I am always on the lookout for ideas on what to include in my solo repertoire.  As it always includes an unfamiliar guitar or guitar and amp, my lack of ability and the general thinness of the guitar sound tends to leave me somewhat exposed.  So the question is: what do you play when you get lumbered into this situation?  

DLM

Animal noises

Jimbro66

About 20 years ago a very good drummer said to me that if you pass a guitar to most guitarists and ask them to play something they’ll almost certainly go widdle widdle widdle widdle and rarely play any recognisable tune. Discounting for a moment that drummers never play anything tuneful he did have a point. A lot of guitarists play solos and fills and rhythms but don’t have much, if anything, of a repertoire of listenable tunes. Some do, particularly classical players, but very many in mainstream music don’t. Often it’s because they have no interest or motive to learn tunes that can be played unaccompanied. Fair enough. But most of us have been in that situation where someone says “ Oh, you play guitar! Can you play something for me/us please?”. Ummm........

fields5069

I instantly forget songs whenever I have a guitar in a "crowd" of 2 or more people.

That said, I could muddle through:

- half a world away by Oasis
- Papa's taking us to the zoo tomorrow
- So long, Marianne, even though I can only remember 2 verses.

kennedydream1980

Postman Pat

Tenebrous

A fingerstyle piece almost always. More recognizable than just chords, & more fleshed out & meaningful than doing a little solo.

Usually something by S&G or an arrangement of an Adele/Sinatra song.

BRISTOL86

Electric - Intro to John Mayer’s arrangement of Michael Jackson’s ‘Human Nature’

Acoustic - Intro to ‘The Last Steam Engine Train’ by John Fahey

Danny1969

I like to play something that has a tune, a bassline and some chord structure so it actually sounds like a bit of music. Just take any song you know the chords to then work out how to play the melody over the top ... some are easier than others. I got versions of Somewhere over the rainbow, Cavatina, While my guitar gently weeps, Wonderful life, A day in the life 

fields5069

Electric would probably be the rhythm part of Ever Fallen In Love? and Wave Of Mutilation.

soma1975

On acoustic

Babe I'm Gonna leave You
Don't Think Twice It's Alright

On Electric:
A bunch of cliched blues rock licks. 
Sometimes the Always on the Run riff. 

grappagreen

Generally my best attempt at one of the Chic tunes... everyone loves Nile..

Oh and of course it's something that's actually playable given my previous post

Lestratcaster

Acoustic guitar it'd normally be something open chord based or a fingerstyle thing. Electric something on the overdrive channel, a riff or something.

Jimbro66

Although it’s not material I gig I do play quite a lot of acoustic and electric thumbpicking stuff for my own pleasure so can draw on that if asked to play a tune. Probably things like Yes Ma’am, Sidewalks of Bordeaux, etc. And there’s always the good old standby Windy and Warm. It depends who’s asking

I also like @Danny1969’s approach of combining melody with chords and a bass line - like jazzers do.

Roland

First thing I do is check out the guitar, probably starting with arpeggiating Am7 at the 5th fret, correcting the tuning, and trying the harmonics. Then I play a finger picked piece suited to how the instrument sounds and feels. Then I hand the guitar back.

Kilgore

Finger picked versions of either Nobody Knows you When You're Down and Out and/or Fly Me To the Moon. 

CeeJay

My goto at the moment would be 'Starman', only because it's the only song I know from start to finish! 

TheBigDipper

Electric? An Cat Dubh. It doesn't need the delay, just a nice clean/edge of breakup tone. Sounds good on acoustic, too. 

Acoustic? Horizons. Or Blackbird. 

JAYJO

House of the rising sun. I know but its not as cheesy as stairway lol..

Philtre

Stairway...

CeeJay

Philtre said:

Stairway...

I can do the intro. I'm bolloxed after that! 

Philtre

CeeJay said:

Philtre said:

Stairway...

I can do the intro. I'm bolloxed after that! 

I can't even do the intro.

Seriously, I go for either "Zoot Allures" or "What's New in Baltimore" by FZ.