Well here's my first entry to the Steemit Open Mic Challenge Week 67, and I'm really happy to join a thriving open mic community.
It's my own arrangement of an old blues song by Joe Callicott called "You Don't Know My Mind" AKA "Laughing To Keep From Crying".
The original is played in standard tuning, but the arrangement I came up with for it is in an open D tuning, enabling a lot of double string snaps and drones. In fact I only use 4 fingers for the entirety of this song, well one thumb an 3 fingers that is. I pick with my thumb and forefinger, and on the fretting hand I'm just using the middle two fingers to fret the strings. It allows me to get a hard driving rhythm going through out it.
Really sorry, I ramble on a bit at the start, so hit it 40secs in to get straight to the music!
I'm playing my favourite guitar, which I've had for many years now, a '65 Gibson LG5. She doesn't have tons of ringing overtones, but then a good blues guitar doesn't. What it does have is a lot of low end grunt which helps give a warm tone with plenty of punch. It has a nice broadness to the treble strings (guage13's) and its all held together with a nice round full bass
I'm going to set up a decent valve mic to my zoom4 for next week's open mic. The sound here isn't too bad for the camera's own microphone, but it could do with filling out around some frequencies. I know it's not all about the production here though, these are just my personal preferences when I'm leaving stuff for people to see, theoretically for ever. Haha.
I ran open mics in Nottingham for well over 15yrs finally handing the last one over to other good hands around 2014. I always loved the whole ethos of the open mic scene, and I can most certainly feel the same great spirit here. Scammers aside that is. You never used to get many people making a determined effort to scam there way on stage for a couple of pints, but even that wasn't unheard of! ;)
If you'd have told me we'd be doing online global open mics 10yrs I'd have thought it an interesting concept but that it was pie in the sky thinking.
Open mics are a fantastic opportunity to learn from performance playing, and a great place to try out new ideas and many a working musician have passed through open mics. The great thing is, that they're such good fun that many quality and often successful musicians still love to frequent the open mic, inspiring and often helping others.
Anyway I'm rambling along on a wave of open mic'edness excitedness, as I did at the start of the video... doh!
Please also check out my photography posts if you have any interests lie there. It's been a bit of a thankless task trying to get viewers there, but patience will be a virtue I'm sure. One of the problems with photography is plagiarism. I know it strikes almost every where, but photography is particularly prone to it. However I'm very verifiable, both visually and with posts to my facebook page, where I hold good respect in the photography communities, also curating and moderating for 2 respected Street Photography groups.
Please check out my introduce yourself post. https://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@martinsandersuk/hi-steemians-please-allow-me-to-introduce-myself-i-m-a-man-of
I was lucky enough to be selected @mike74pm's 'The Fresh 5'. Amongst other stuff there is a youtube video of me recording the song "Cocaine, All Around My Brain" in the studio.
Mint mate, loved it. Welcome to the openmic community, looking forward to see what else ya got!
Thanks @thesimpson, I've been made to feel very welcome. Such a fantastic community.
I'll definitely be contributing to this community with heart and soul and a lot of love, to find this kind of community at steemit is a bit like going back in time yet turning up in the future. I have a lot of blues to play and some original songs too, and I'll be putting all my effort into entertaining and not to disappoint any of you guys that enjoyed this.
So pleased you enjoyed it mate, thanks for dropping into comment here.
See you next week :)
Nice man! You ever toured in the north of the UK, Im originally from Middlesbrough, but now living in the states. I do miss merry old england!
Hey @thesimpson, yes I used to play at both Burnley Blues festival and The Great British Rhythm And Blues Festival held at Colne, mainly the west of the north, lovely exciting places like Preston etc. ;)
That guitar sounds great!
Thanks @tincon Yeah, this guitar is very special to me. I've played a few other guitars of the same model, but none have felt or sounded the way this one does. I think they're very reasonably priced in the USA ;)
Sounds fantastic man. Please come play again next week. Love it and hope we get to jam sometime.
Hey really, thanks so much too you @luzcypher and and your team along with the great generous support shown by @pfunk and @ausbitbank(wow, and all the others that I've just found out about, who support this project and musicians!). A truly amazing concept, and a really, really, top job guys. A global online open mic ....... I'm still pinching myself! Yes I'll be here next week without a doubt ............. and a jam, oh yeah, that'd be really cool!! Is that really a possibility????
Cool tune & performance, man! Welcome to Openmic - hope to hear more from you!
Thank you so much @passion-ground, and yes you can count on that for sure!
This sounds awesome... I love it, please do not stop playing music..
Hey @papaudeme, thanks, I'll never stop playing music!! :)
welcome welcome oo you rocked it up for us! great to have you here and the performance rocked cant wait to hear more your end
Hi thanks very much for dropping in here @soundlegion, yay, you guys do such an amazing job, pulling this whole show off, and I do feel very welcome indeed. I think you've already got me hooked here, I'll be doing all I can to support @openmic, in whatever way I can, after all, that's the nature of the beautiful beast.
I've listened to a lot of really cool music here, (in fact your second place had the first place with me, pretty close huh? :) ), the likes of which I probably wouldn't have heard except for all your efforts, big up @openmic team.
I'm absolutely bowled over how welcoming everyone has been, and to be given the @curie vote makes me feel so humbled too, it looks like I'll be able to power up to start building my SP. a bit quicker for this. A huge thanks to the @curie team and whichever member of the team saw my post and deemed it fit to submit for curation. Of course I'm aware of the rarity of getting a curie vote, I'm under no illusion it's going to be like this everytime I enter. I am totally honoured.
I've always been a huge fan of the open mic, I ran a couple of live venue open mics for many years, after honing some of my playing at them for years before that, and so I'm very aware how great they are for everybody to hone their skills to performance level. I know you'll be getting a great buzz as you see people progress and develop, because, they have this unique global opportunity that has the same caring, nurturing feel as open mics of old, that go back beyond the '60's.
I've listened to some really cool music here, the likes of which I probably wouldn't have heard except for all your efforts, big up @openmic team. I'm absolutely bowled over how welcoming everyone has been, and to be given the @curie vote makes me feel so humbled too, it looks like I'll be able to power up to start building my SP. A huge thanks to the @curie team and whichever member of the team saw my post and saw fit to submit me for curation. Of course I'm aware of the rarity of getting a curie vote, I'm under no illusion it's going to be like this for me everytime I enter. I'm totally honoured. I'll hopefully get another song videod in the next two days, it really is great way of keeping that very unique feel of the open mic, a live performance by all entries entered that week, just as it's always been, the only difference being video and posting.
So cool, see you in the week. :)
This is great
Thanks @victor08
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Good post! .. I will follow you follow me too and we help each other ... I would appreciate a vote in my last post thanks
https://steemit.com/openmic/@misc.jocs/my-most-appreciated-possession
You should really do some reading on etiquette @misc.jocs, this kind of comment is a big put off to everyone at steemit. Hope that helps
Thanksss
Thanks @raul93
awesome post dude ..loved it..pretty good one
Thanks @catemenia, glad you love it. More to come yet. :)
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