I was determined to perform last night, so I showed up early to get a slot at the "theme night" and I did. The theme was "Eat Your Words," a clever wordplay on songs about food. When the theme was announced a couple of weeks ago, I knew instantly the songs I wanted to play, so I practiced and practiced and practiced.
And it paid off.
The more I do this, the better I am able to ramp down the adrenaline surge I feel when I first take the stage. I used to think it was stage fright, but it's actually the opposite, I'm charged up, and that makes me hurry and play faster than I should. That then leads to mistakes, and I exit kicking myself for being foolish enough to think I could do the same thing I've practiced.
Last night was great! I'll admit that two weeks ago I performed and started with a little trick I concocted for myself: Do a slow into to the first song, and let the tempo take it from there. And it worked! I breezed through my set making nary a mistake (another trick I know is to just keep playing if you goof). So, I did my songs, and after the show was over, I had a number of the regulars come up to me to chat, ask about my guitar, or just to congratulate me on my song choices -- and my performance,
What a great feeling!
I know most of you guys are pros at this, so this read is probably as boring as waiting for ketchup to pour, but it did wonders for me, and I'm already working on my next set!
Oh, in case you're interested, I was one of the few who actually played and sang songs about food. My choices were The Eggplant That Ate Chicago (Norman Greenbaum's {Spirit In The Sky} first effort as Dr. West's Medicine Show and Junk Band) and the 1940 ditty by the Ink Spots (redone in 1975 by Manhattan Transfer), Java Jive.
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