Feb Open mic night

It was a great  open mic night on Monday night. It was quieter one but it seem to make more room for chat around the songs and the reason why people where playing them. This is a part of the night i like as you can learn so much from people.

Over the last few i have been watching the way people strum. I have always been guilty of being a little hash bash on the acoustic but I've taken it as a challenge to incorporate this into next months session and so since I've been writing and rehearsing new tunes i have been looking at ways of strumming differently. 

There are a few of the guys that don't use plectrums and drag there hand across the strings which sounds really good when they do it. Iv tried it a few times but it just doesn't sound the same. Ive been practicing this and it consists of a picking the bass notes with your thumb and dragging the rest of your fingers across the strings so it sounds like each string its getting played 4 times as your hand falls up and down.

Ive been working on a song which is a driven ballad that i feel i will be able to use it for next months meeting.

This month i did a few of my own songs to test the water with them live for the first time. I should really record them while playing as i always have trouble reminding myself on what i would do different, out of 10 things i would change i seem to only remember half. The feedback was great from the boys and its always good to do new stuff for the first time. I did a cover of metallica's nothing else matters after hearing the band jazzkantina do it. Its an amazing version, i opted for the more strum strum strum version but again feedback on the vocals was very positive.

the best thing about these nights are everyone of all abilities just doing their thing.