On Saturday we had our first gig that was not just an open mic. This was a proper 45 minute set with 12 songs. Swing 47 is myself on vocals, guitar and ukulele with Danielle on clarinet. We do not have much of an on-line presence yet apart from on Soundcloud. We may have to do something more if we are performing more. I have set up a Steem account @swing47 and will see what is worth posting there.
We were performing as part of Balstock, which is a free festival that takes place in various venues around the small Hertfordshire town of Baldock. We were in The Heorge Hotel on the jazz stage. The performance area was not huge, but people would be able to hear us in the adjacent restaurant area and bar where there were a lot of people. We had a few friends and family along. We did a souting mission the night before to check out the venue.
This was the view next to the very fancy mixing desk of the first band The Gabriel Taylor Band. These guys are barely out of their teens, but can really play.
Each band had 45 minutes with 15 minutes to change over. I was a little anxious when their fans demanded an encore that ate into our set-up time. When we got up there it took the sound guy a while to sort out levels. He was using the tablet to do it remotely. He had put on some loud music that was a little distracting. Eventually we were ready and launched into the first song which was Django Reinhardt's Minor Swing. We had a few songs on guitar before I switched to ukulele. At that point the sound guy had disappeared, but I did not want to swap the cable over without him turning things down as it can make a loud noise. He was not too long. I do not have much video yet, but this is from that middle section. You can hear the audience singing along to this well-known song. We alternate vocals with instrumental sections on several songs.
It is a bit short, but I should have more video to post soon.
I swapped back to guitar for the last few songs. We save a couple of high energy tunes for the end with a climax of the Cantina Band tune from Star Wars. I was concentrating on trying to play the right chords, but I could feel some good vibes from the audience and we got good cheers for each tune. At the end some people came up to say they had enjoyed it. It is a real buzz and the time flew by.
I posted recently about finding guitar picks that work for me with my hand issues. I used a Snake Pick this time with some others in reserve. I just use my fingers to play the uke. I made myself a lanyard for that as I felt I was in danger of it dropping at times.
It was a great experience and we are grateful to the festival organisers for allowing us to perform. We actually have another possible gig this month at a cider festival. That may be outside, so I hope the weather stays good.
It was great that @molometer could make it to the gig from Cambridge. He was a little late as he had problems parking. The town was packed. We gave up on finding a space on the street and paid to part at the station. We did get to see a few other bands, but next year I will try to stay longer.
Rock on!
The geeky guitarist and facilitator of the 10K Minnows Project.
- I'll buy guitar picks for Steem
- Get a Wirex Debit Card to spend your crypto.
- Get some passive income with Mannabase
- Get paid to search at Presearch
- Battle for cards on Steem Monsters
- I have Steem accounts to give away to worthy people!
It sounds great. We used to have a programme of jazz groups that played around Leicester. My friend was in one that played on Tuesday nights, they were a shambles, never had a playlist or plyed the things they had rehearsed the previous week. But the audience loved them, turned up every week. There was also a never-ending stream of stories about different band members getting into one scrape or another. I think people enjoy the intimacy and spontaneity of performances like yours. Look forward to more videos!
There are some really great old songs and people know a lot of them anyway. We mix in some more obscure stuff that is fun to play. I still like rock stuff, but this could be a good niche for performing.
arrrgh I was just getting in to that! more video next time! (and well done, I think its great)
There should be more soon. @molometer has some. To be honest I might not have seen myself playing this stuff a few years back, but it is fun.
Awesome Steve !! although short, the vid sounds and looks great !!
Super cool man! My kind of scene :)
To this day I have not found the perfect pick lol. They tend to do all kinds of things in my fingers, and most are likely clueless to the fact that I am constantly playing a type of "balancing act" game and re-shifting the pick around while I play.
I once used a type of 'sticky pick" that worked well, (I forget what it was called) but it actually worked too well for that matter, and I wasn't able to move it the way I needed at certain times.
I've become accustomed to using heavier gauge picks now, and am always hunting for that perfect pick. Usually it's some cheapo plain one that ends up finding my sweet spot. My bigger issue lately is intonation on a 100 dollar Jasmine. We make it work though!
Great share, keep them coming!
Cheers.
I've tended to be a thick pick guy. Just can't see how people use the really thin ones. I've tried the little jazz picks, but they don't work for me. I have a big collection now, so I can try different types to see what I can use. It is surprising how much variation in sound there can be.
I hope to have more music posts soon. I have not sussed out the new song contest yet. Just been too busy.
If you're playing Yngwie Malmsteen style, you might want a thin pick LOL.
It sure is, especially in considering so many variables (string gauge, electric vs acoustic, style of music, picking technique, model of the instrument) The list goes on. I try not to get too crazy with it, but it's tough if you start accumulating different guitars, amps, ect.
It's kind of a bummer to not see #openmic still happening, but I'm happy we still have musicians posting here and brewing up ideas for contests and what not.
I've been practicing more, and intend to get some uploads complete in the near future as well :)
I've got a new song I need to finish. Preparation for the gig was taking all my time recently.
Nice job. It looks like everyone was having a really good time. That is cool that you might have another gig now. Pretty soon you will be flying all over! :) It's also good to hear that you found a pick that works well for your hand issue.
We try to make it fun for the audience as well as ourselves. We are doing some busking this weekend. Not expecting to make money from my music.
The Morecambe and Wise theme tune? Where's the heavy metal!
We're a swing band (not swingers). Saving the metal for other projects.
Thanks for using eSteem!
Your post has been voted as a part of eSteem encouragement program. Keep up the good work! Install Android, iOS Mobile app or Windows, Mac, Linux Surfer app, if you haven't already!
Learn more: https://esteem.app
Join our discord: https://discord.gg/8eHupPq
Hi @steevc!
Your post was upvoted by @steem-ua, new Steem dApp, using UserAuthority for algorithmic post curation!
Your UA account score is currently 5.945 which ranks you at #355 across all Steem accounts.
Your rank has not changed in the last three days.
In our last Algorithmic Curation Round, consisting of 118 contributions, your post is ranked at #11.
Evaluation of your UA score:
Feel free to join our @steem-ua Discord server
Resteemed, your post will appear in the next curation with a SBD share for you!
Your post has been supported and upvoted from the Classical Music community on Steemit as it appears to be of interest to our community. We also support jazz and folk music posts!
If you enjoy our support of the #classical-music community, please consider a small upvote to help grow the support account!
You can find details about us below.
The classical music community at #classical-music and Discord. Follow our community accounts @classical-music and @classical-radio or follow our curation trail (classical-radio) at SteemAuto!
Delegation links: 10SP, 25SP, 50SP, 75SP, 100SP, 150SP, 200SP, 250SP, 500SP, 1000SP