Hi Again, I'm on a roll this week at another Open Mic. 1st time at this venue, really nice bar , good vibe and more importantly a nice PA. Good crowd in who mostly moved to the front when the Stick started.
Time only for 4 pieces , i always start with an original instrumental, its cruisy and easy for me which is good for adjusting to the sound & light etc etc. I can modify its arrangement on the fly depending on hows its going.
Next up is a Blues feel with a kind of walking bass on the left hand under a sequence of themes on the right hand, again I shuffle it around and sometimes extend it if I'm really enjoying it.
My highlight tonight was " Aint no sunshine " since I have to sing & play , it was nice to get some good comments about the vocal , one aim of mine to move the focus a little off the stick on to the performance & the song itself. Its the best I've ever done it so far. Wound up with quick tempo latin feel instrumental.
Another good step along the way , no one had ever seen a Stick so it had the "Wow" factor effect which tends to happen. This was all on the Alto, expecting to go back next week with the Grand. B

GIG-STICK!!!

Great to hear Bruce. Great to hear you are adding vocals to your set. Sounds like it was a fun gig, thanks for sharing.

Singing and playing, and you also got to be Grand Ambassador of Stickness! Doing great work there, Bruce--well done and keep rocking it out!

Rock star status........achieved!
Good show Ahab!

Do you find its getting easier?.....I mean playing live without a net?

Cheers,
Wok Dplanck

The more you play outside your comfort zone, the less comfort you need. In other words, the more you play without a net, the less you need it. It doesn't get easier. It gets liberating

"Live without a Net", Kev, thats a Van Halen Video!

But yes I do find it easier but as Olivier says also liberating, and really thats been the plan, these days I look at the art of playing it live and the performance as being equally as important as what I do at home. I'm really starting to love the live playing part though I still need more material. My playing is getting more spontaneous and I really enjoy the challenge of thinking a little ahead of where I am whilst playing at the same time. I could see people moving and enjoying the blues thing last night so I just extended it to go round one of the themes one more time. Stuff like that builds confidence I think. And in reality its not always perfect of course but the other thing you learn is never to flinch and so long as the timing remains solid its cool.
Long way to go , but I'm pretty happy now to plug in and go for it, so thats a bit of a milestone I guess.