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?
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. [Albert Einstein]
Nil Satis Nisi Optimum
Comments
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.
My feedback thread is here.
Acoustic - Intro to ‘The Last Steam Engine Train’ by John Fahey
My feedback thread is here.
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.
Been uploading old tracks I recorded ages ago and hopefully some new noodles here.
Oh and of course it's something that's actually playable given my previous post
I also like @Danny1969’s approach of combining melody with chords and a bass line - like jazzers do.
Acoustic? Horizons. Or Blackbird.