A few weeks ago, Drue, my guitar teacher pitched an idea. He conducted an ‘Open Mic’ night at a bar in South London near his place where musicians popped by and sung a few songs. Would I like to try?
In an all honesty, I baulked at the idea. Regulars here know I bought my guitar around mid January and have been learning over the past 4 months. I’ve learnt a few songs but performing is a different cup of tea. So, I just muttered I’d be busy with work and would think about it once my current project was done.
I joked about the idea to my mom that evening and her response was ‘Do it when I’m in London. C’mon!’. So, before I knew it, I was at Gigalum waiting for my turn. Drue would sing and I would play and I could pick any 2 songs.
I picked the 2nd and 3rd songs I learnt – Way Back Into Love from Music and Lyrics and Fix You by Coldplay. Fix You is special because listening to Boyce Avenue and Tyler Ward play Fix You live in November was what inspired me to finally learn the guitar, something I’d always wanted to do.
I was very nervous and my fingers were shivering, sweaty and slipping off the guitar! I had never made so many mistakes in these songs (small ones here and there), I never dared to look up even once during the performance and I also went back to what I call ‘nervous strumming’ i.e. when my hand moves up and down robotically vs flicking the wrist.
But, what the hell.. it was my first time and it was one heck of an experience.
And here’s the video! (Due apologies for the sound quality! Just put together the video from the iPhone with no editing)
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A Learning a Day 