Someone hands you a guitar and says "Play something.."

Octavio

Happened recently at a party, well I say party, it was really more a gathering of middle aged people  Someone handed me an acoustic.

I play electric daily, but nothing that these people will ever have heard of. I presume they're after something from a wedding playlist, which is fine (no judgement).

What songs do you play solo acoustic in such circumstance?

darthed1981

Live Forever.

Open_G

Proud Mary (more CCR than Tina stylee). 

It’s one everyone can sing along to, and is about 2mins 30 seconds if people are blatantly not into it. 

RickLucas

This:
https://youtu.be/6bfPwtUTP4k

merlin

RickLucas said:

This:
https://youtu.be/6bfPwtUTP4k

Not this?

lovestrat74

Give peace a chance

merlin

lovestrat74 said:

Give peace a chance

GIF Piece A Chants. 

axisus

The natural choice would be The Beatles/George Harrison's Something

munckee

Wild horses probably. Maybe high n dry or wish you were here. 

Danny1969

I think if someone hands you an acoustic  guitar at a party it's kind of handy to be able to play something they can recognise so I generally play something that has the melody, some bass notes and some chords. So it kinda sounds complete rather than just some chords. 
So you can take a common song like this version of Isn't she lovely and just put enough snatches of chord and bass notes so they can follow it as a tune. what I'm playing is simplified but it's enough for them to get the gist 




For electric you can do the same thing. Take a common Beatle track and just play enough melody over just enough chords and bass notes for them to recognise it as the song. The notes of the melody will generally be in the chords so it's quite an easy trick to do. 



I have a few party tricks I can do which are flash looking but not as hard as they look. Spanish Fly, Eruption, Eugenes trick bag. Stuff I've worked on for years. Most of the parties I go to though are full of musicians and nobodies gettings guitars out, everyone is just getting hammered. 

lovestrat74

merlin said:

lovestrat74 said:

Give peace a chance

GIF Piece A Chants. 

Or, as the painted message on the viaduct (M25 near Rickmondsworth) says...

GIVE PEAS A CHANCE!

S56035

A Gary glitter song if you dont want to be asked again.

S56035

lovestrat74 said:

merlin said:

lovestrat74 said:

Give peace a chance

GIF Piece A Chants. 

Or, as the painted message on the viaduct (M25 near Rickmondsworth) says...

GIVE PEAS A CHANCE!

Been painted over a while ago

stickyfiddle

Wonderwall, Blackbird, Sweet Home Alabama? 

blobb

The opening few bars from Never Let Go by Camel opens a few eyes, I've found.

Lestratcaster

Ed Sheeran song

munckee

Danny1969 said:

I think if someone hands you an acoustic  guitar at a party it's kind of handy to be able to play something they can recognise so I generally play something that has the melody, some bass notes and some chords. So it kinda sounds complete rather than just some chords. 
So you can take a common song like this version of Isn't she lovely and just put enough snatches of chord and bass notes so they can follow it as a tune. what I'm playing is simplified but it's enough for them to get the gist 




For electric you can do the same thing. Take a common Beatle track and just play enough melody over just enough chords and bass notes for them to recognise it as the song. The notes of the melody will generally be in the chords so it's quite an easy trick to do. 



I have a few party tricks I can do which are flash looking but not as hard as they look. Spanish Fly, Eruption, Eugenes trick bag. Stuff I've worked on for years. Most of the parties I go to though are full of musicians and nobodies gettings guitars out, everyone is just getting hammered. 

If I could play like that I would take a guitar to every party and wear shirts with tassels!!

BillDL

@Danny1969 ;  On your natural finish "Strat" the tremolo bar sits unusually high and has an odd shape to it.  I really like the look of that and I think it would help to make using the trem a lot easier for me.  Did you make that bar or modify an existing one?

If I was handed a guitar at a group gathering or party the people would most likely be of my own generation, so I would be inclined these days to play something with an easily recognisable intro that they could all sing along with straight off to save me from singing, like "Let Your Love Flow" or one of the "strummable" Eagles songs.

LionAquaLooper

Someone hands me a guitar and tells me to play something? I'd tell them to fuck off. I'm not anyone's performance monkey  

viz

I seem to do What a Wonderful World, or How Deep is your Love, or You’ve Got a Friend. 

Danny1969

@munckee ; Your very kind but it is easier than it looks. 

@BillDL ;
That's a Hank Marvin type trem arm, I brought that Strat body of a Shadows fan and he included the trem and arm with it. Basically shorter and higher than standard. I prefer it to standard trem arms.