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August 2006
Posts: 3145
Location: Marlton, NJ | My 9 year old son wants to learn how to play the guitar and he keeps asking me to show him Day Tripper... amazingly he learned the first few bars. It brought back memories of the first song I ever played in front of an audience... it was Dueling Banjos at a talent show in high school. Of course we rocked it up and added a harmonica, so it was pretty cool. I had an Ovation Matrix back then (1982?) which lost its life on a church altar when the strap fell off (lots of marble and granite on the altar!).
It would be interesting to hear of everyone elses first experiences. |
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May 2006
Posts: 97
Location: Chicago | I think my first song was "God Be Merciful to Me" to help lead worship for a small campus fellowship meeting. |
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July 2005
Posts: 3411
Location: GA USA | May have been Pooh Corner. I was big into L&M. |
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September 2003
Posts: 9301
Location: south east Michigan | "We Are Three Little Elves"
In a stage presentation of the timeless classic "The Shoemaker And the Elves", by the 3rd Grade class of Jefferson School Elementary.
Aren't ya glad you asked??? :D
Later in the Capain YoYo and the Seadogs phase it had to be "Summertime Blues".
Fast forward to my current acoustic duo gig..."The Kids Are Alright". |
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March 2005
Posts: 12761
Location: Boise, Idaho | Mine may explain my performance anxiety. I was in a beer bar shortly after I started playing guitar and came out of the john to a round of applause. Found out while I was peeing that my friend, whose dad owned the bar, had announced that I had agreed to play and sing for the group as soon as I got out of the john.
There had been a gal singing and playing a guitar with a small amp and she made the announcement and handed me her guitar.
I played and sang Bread's, "Make It With You" because its the easiest 3 chord song out there and was popular at that time. I was so drunk and nervous, I couldn't remember the last verse and started repeating one of the first two. I don't know if any of the other drunks in the bar noticed the mistakes, but it took me years to play in public again. I think the next time was at our wedding. |
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April 2006
Posts: 1017
Location: Budd Lake, NJ | In 5th grade--clarinet solo--with a 4th grader to provide piano accompaniment--who lost her place halfway through. Since the eggs and tomatoes had been confiscated at the door, I didn't fare too badly; and my folks told me they were proud of me. That was really all that mattered, anyway.:-)
Karen and the crew:
1111-4, CE868LX-4, Viper 1271 Natural, maple Tornado, American Strat, Steinberger Spirit 5-string bass, Galiano mandolin, Vega 5-string banjo, fiddle of uncertain antecedents |
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March 2002
Posts: 14842
Location: NJ | ". . a stage presentation of the timeless classic "The Shoemaker And the Elves" . ."
. . to RAVE reviews.
"Three Coconuts" by the Detroit Times!
". . Brad Durasa IS the elf! . ."
I think mine was probably some Christmas tune when I was in the Choir in HS . . . |
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March 2005
Posts: 12761
Location: Boise, Idaho | I forgot about band in grade school. I didn't sing in a choir until college, about the same time as the drunken bar incident described above. Memory is fuzzy. |
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March 2002
Posts: 15682
Location: SoCal | "This Land Is Your Land" -- 5th grade |
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October 2005
Posts: 5332
Location: Bluffton, SC | The Wedding Song at a good friend's nuptuals. The bride's sister sang and I played. Halfway through the song I dropped the pic into the guitar because I was sweating (it) so much. I found out in that split millisecond what "and time stood still" really meant. Then I started finger picking, the sister started singing again and all went well (until afterwards at the reception when I said I thought it was pretty funny and the sister almost jumped over a table trying to kill me).
Ah, good times... |
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March 2005
Posts: 12761
Location: Boise, Idaho | I know this is supposed to be about the first, but Weaser just reminded me of what was probably the third. I played and sang "Wedding Song" for my wife's sister's wedding. I was still learning it on the Matrix as my wife drove the Ford Fiesta from Idaho to Kansas. Pretty cramped.
They had a nice stool for me to sit on at the wedding. Ever had your leg start shaking when you put the middle of your foot on a bar for too long? Yup, that happened in the middle of the song and it was all I could do to hold onto the guitar. Also got the verses screwed up. Only good thing was that I was supposed to turn on my father in law's tape recorder as I went up there and I forgot.
By the way, Weaser, the wedding song is made for finger picking. |
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December 2001
Posts: 7247
Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | Late 1969 or maybe 1970 some town talent show. A rocked up version (solo electric) of This Land Is Your Land with a Hank Williams style break in it. I was 11 or 12, took 2nd place. |
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October 2005
Posts: 5332
Location: Bluffton, SC | Originally posted by Mark in Boise:
By the way, Weaser, the wedding song is made for finger picking. Now you tell me. You're only about 28 years late, Mark. :rolleyes: |
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December 2003
Posts: 13997
Location: Upper Left USA | Put me down for Wedding Song.
At a Wedding, no less! |
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November 2005
Posts: 1126
Location: Omaha, NE | I don't remember my first guitar performance...must have been some time in high school, probably playing at one of the all school masses they had.
First time performing an instrument in public would have been in band in fifth grade. I played sax. By seventh grade, I was in the jazz band, playing improvised solos. |
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January 2006
Posts: 5881
Location: Colorado Rocky Mountains | 1955, a waltz clog tap dance. I was 4 years old. |
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January 2002
Posts: 14127
Location: 6 String Ranch | Isn't That So, by Jesse Winchester |
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March 2005
Posts: 12761
Location: Boise, Idaho | Weaser, it was almost exactly 28 years ago that I learned it. |
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April 2006
Posts: 2491
Location: Copenhagen Denmark | My best buddy at the time ( 1978 )was busking on the pedestrian street in Copenhagen,money was low, so I decided to help him out,by playing the plastic bag ,ya know them thin crispy sounding things,holdin`it with one hand and scratchin`/tapping it from behind it with the other,people stopped up,wondering what instrument I was playing,I was n`t nervous at all,but bein`the hippie I was back then,it might `ve bin due to the funny stuff I had been smokin`,He ( R I P ) made a handsome profit,and bought me a cup a tea and a cake :cool:
I miss You Mickey ! |
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August 2006
Posts: 55
Location: Pennsylvania | I'm still a vergin. Never sang or played in front of people before.
I have been observing an open mic night in my area for some time now, and would like to give it a try one day, but i'm chicken... :) |
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June 2005
Posts: 274
Location: Maryland, USA | The National Anthem at my elementary school fifth grade graduation, I actually used my good ol' Ovation Viper.
Got it less than 3 months before that day. |
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April 2006
Posts: 2491
Location: Copenhagen Denmark | Just cackle away Bob..You `ll be fine,and after that,you could allways open up a 2hand shoestore ;) :D |
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October 2005
Posts: 5332
Location: Bluffton, SC | Originally posted by Mark in Boise:
Weaser, it was almost exactly 28 years ago that I learned it. And you never called???
I heard it for the first time about three weeks before I had to play it and I'm sure I did a very sub-par version but it all worked out in the end. My buddy is still married to that girl and, while I never see her sister, the three of us laugh about it today. |
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March 2005
Posts: 12761
Location: Boise, Idaho | I found the album in a clearance pile at some store just a few months before we got married. My brother, who played it at our wedding, found the sheet music, but it is wrong. I still have his copy. I resurrected it for my folks' 50th Anniversary. I had to ask my brother's family not to play along, because I could only do it solo. They all ad lib everything very well, but I'm a stickler for authenticity and we just didn't mix. That was probably my 4th public appearance, with about a 20 year gap between 3 and 4. |
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July 2006
Posts: 171
Location: Oregon | Hmm back when I was five or seven or something like that. Played some old guitar tune at a recital. Buffalo Galls or something.... |
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First song onstage or in front of an audience...
