ghodaddyyo
February 19th, 2000, 08:31 PM
I just finished playing guitar for a company Annual Awards Banquet. I was recruited about a month ago and asked to play guitar for a group constisting of a keyboard player, bongo player, and 4 Choir singers. I was asked to play Seven Bridges Road - Eagles, Closer To Fine - Indigo Girls, and a song called Angels - Some Christian Rock Band (which I was given to learn 2 days before the performance).
I was a nervous wreck. I know that it's just a cheesy company function, but I'm a perfectionist by nature. For the first few weeks of practice, we could not get anyone together. I practiced along with the tapes to learn my parts, but had trouble meeting the keyboard player or the bongo player. When we did meet, our timing would be off so badly it would throw off the singers. So eventually we got the songs practiced to a tolerable level and the day of the event comes. It's in an executive party room of a local Dave & Busters. The place seats about 300. There are PA speaker pointing to the crowd, but no monitors pointing any sound back to us. By the time the accoustics of the building hit us, our timing was crap.
The event begins and I'm a nervous wreck. Our 3 songs are intersperesed throughout the event rather than all together at one time like I hoped. I'm totally nervous because of what we sounded like earlier. We play the first song and on several occasions I had to reduce the volume to let the keyboards carry the rhythm. I end up blowing the solo in the first measure so I improvised the rest (this is the Angels song I only had 2 days to rehearse). It turns out people loved it, and applauded loudly. The next song, Seven Bridges Road is only me instrumentally with the 4 Choir singers. The singers sing acapella first and then I come in with the guitar later. This song was great as there was not too many instruments to clutter the sound. This songs gives us a standing ovation and requests for encores and I even get publicly congratulated on the guitar so I take a bow. With this momentum the last song goes off without a hitch so when I'm done, I grabbed my girlfriend and headed straight to the bar. People started to overwhelm me at the bar, so I did the old humble routine because I know I messed up many times.
So- no matter how bad you sound, people will respect you for just getting up there. I believe the bongo player had a bit too much to drink which messed up the beat a bit, so I never recommend heavy drinking before a performance. A drink or two is okay, but don't let it slow you down. Party when you're done!
I was a nervous wreck. I know that it's just a cheesy company function, but I'm a perfectionist by nature. For the first few weeks of practice, we could not get anyone together. I practiced along with the tapes to learn my parts, but had trouble meeting the keyboard player or the bongo player. When we did meet, our timing would be off so badly it would throw off the singers. So eventually we got the songs practiced to a tolerable level and the day of the event comes. It's in an executive party room of a local Dave & Busters. The place seats about 300. There are PA speaker pointing to the crowd, but no monitors pointing any sound back to us. By the time the accoustics of the building hit us, our timing was crap.
The event begins and I'm a nervous wreck. Our 3 songs are intersperesed throughout the event rather than all together at one time like I hoped. I'm totally nervous because of what we sounded like earlier. We play the first song and on several occasions I had to reduce the volume to let the keyboards carry the rhythm. I end up blowing the solo in the first measure so I improvised the rest (this is the Angels song I only had 2 days to rehearse). It turns out people loved it, and applauded loudly. The next song, Seven Bridges Road is only me instrumentally with the 4 Choir singers. The singers sing acapella first and then I come in with the guitar later. This song was great as there was not too many instruments to clutter the sound. This songs gives us a standing ovation and requests for encores and I even get publicly congratulated on the guitar so I take a bow. With this momentum the last song goes off without a hitch so when I'm done, I grabbed my girlfriend and headed straight to the bar. People started to overwhelm me at the bar, so I did the old humble routine because I know I messed up many times.
So- no matter how bad you sound, people will respect you for just getting up there. I believe the bongo player had a bit too much to drink which messed up the beat a bit, so I never recommend heavy drinking before a performance. A drink or two is okay, but don't let it slow you down. Party when you're done!