Open Mic Experience

Here's a view of the open mic venue in Westfield, MA. It's held in an art gallery called the Gaslight Gallery one a month.

I had a chance to perform there last night and did four of my own songs plus an oldie, King Of The Road. Everyone sang along with that one. We ended the night by having all the musicians come up and do a couple songs jamboree style.

I used "technology" to display (for me) the words and chords of my songs. I had a Kindle with songs in Chordpro format. It should have worked flawlessly, but I'm still getting used to it...it wasn't perfect. I completely attribute my problems to pilot error. The small crowd didn't seem to mind as I made fun of myself. (I told them I was turning pages.)

I recently picked up a looper and I'm going to try to work that into some performances later on. I guess I will need to just practice this stuff. Hopefully, with more singing, my voice will get better, too.

I've actually done a couple of these open mics in another venue, Patty's 410 in Chicopee. I am having fun, though.

FYI - the photo is a pano shot I made with my new HTC One X phone. I like the phone as it has a larger screen than my old iPhone. It's also thinner and fits my pocket better. So far, it's a good upgrade choice I made (only cost me 99 cents). I'm going to see how well it records music at our next band practice.

Phyllis and the OGRB's

Here's an update on music, songwriting, jamming, and things in general.

I found a band. I didn't "found" it, in the sense that I laid the foundation stone. My band mate, Ken, did that. But he found me - I found him - all thanks to Craig's List. I've been quite happy ever since. I've got that feeling I had in high school when I was in my first band. We even hit that magic moment during certain jams. The music flows, independently, from each of us and magic happens. Not always. Just sometimes. But that's good.

So, there are six of us and, for sure, we're struggling with the normal human stuff that any group has to face. We do have a bunch of material we're testing out. We've each had to balance work (well, not me so much), home, family, and practice time. Our goal is to play out. I envision jamming with Sir Paul one day. Realistically, it's more like we'll play some open mics, pubs, bars, and just make good noise.

We don't have a band name, yet. I've started referring to "us" as Phyllis and the OGRB's. That's because, inside my head, OGRB means "Old Guy" and she ain't. But, for now, the rest of us are. I suppose we could say it means Olden Goldie Rock Band, but that's lame. Maybe Ostentatiously Gifted Rock Band? Yeah, that works, too.

Once we get a name, we can get a website, print business cards, get T-shirts, maybe have someone write a graphic novel about the superpowers we develop.

For now, I'm OK with Phyllis and the OGRB's. It's a placeholder.

Oh, and every once in a while, we sound OK. It's a work in progress.

FWIW - I still jam with Bill Martin. He and I like a softer sound. More folk, less rock. He's helped me tailor a couple of my original songs. He tends to make them shorter, fulfilling that "less is more" thing. It works, too. Thanks, Bill!!!