"You play guitar!? Ooo. Play us a nice song!"

[wheresthefbomb]

I play Agalloch's "Kneel To The Cross" cover \m/

 

[MrNotFlyWhiteGuy]

I always play some classical songs that I know, people love it and don't care enough about classical to know if you're playing the song correctly or anything like that.

 

[theycallmetc]

I'm going to lose any little cred I've built up here...

...but when that happens I always bust out some John Mayer/Keith Urban/Jason Mraz tunes. On occasion I'll do some Elliott Smith or Death Cab for Cutie (two of my all time favorites) but I get mixed reactions. If it's a girl and it's just us, I usually get a great reaction, because they tend to be really intimate songs.

But if it's a group gathering? Yeah, you can bet I'm playing some John Mayer or Jason Mraz. Once someone asked me if I could play some Protest the Hero. That was unexpected. But who knew, Bloodmeat actually sounds ok on a flat top acoustic (that's me trying to get my cred back).

The last song I learned was actually Move On by Jet. I'm totally adding that to my "someone hands me an acoustic" repertoire. Great tune.

 

[meteor685]

i dont know if my friend is rite when he tells me this.

he always tells me "You dont have to be good at guitar to be "good at guitar" ".

 

[JoshuaVonFlash]

i dont know if my friend is rite when he tells me this.

he always tells me "You dont have to be good at guitar to be "good at guitar" ".

He means you don't have to play crazy shredy stuff to make good music.

I.E. B.B. King, David Gilmour, Keith Richards etc.

 

[Cabinet]

I always play some classical songs that I know, people love it and don't care enough about classical to know if you're playing the song correctly or anything like that.

That's what I do too. I rip off some of the most popular melodies from Bach's fugue in D minor and then just move around some chords in the harmonic minor scale.

"Wow that's so beautiful"

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) 

 

[theycallmetc]

i dont know if my friend is rite when he tells me this.

he always tells me "You dont have to be good at guitar to be "good at guitar" ".

If he means it in the context of this thread, I guess it could also mean that you don't have to be that good to impress people, and sometimes you can be really good and you won't impress people.

Some guy can play sick chord inversions and I bet everybody that passes by will just think he's strumming chords randomly, whereas someone with a couple of poorly played cookie cutter licks might impress people. Only someone who has a musical notion will see through these things.

 

[naw38]

I remember I was jamming on an acoustic, playing some King Crimson riffs for some folks in town, and one of the girls I was with asked something like "did you mean for that to sound bad or do you just not know how to play?"

I'm currently working on a repertoire of Opeth, Elliot Smith and Tom Waits songs so I can go to an open mic night and play the most depressing set ever.

 

[Cabinet]

I remember I was jamming on an acoustic, playing some King Crimson riffs for some folks in town, and one of the girls I was with asked something like "did you mean for that to sound bad or do you just not know how to play?"

I'm currently working on a repertoire of Opeth, Elliot Smith and Tom Waits songs so I can go to an open mic night and play the most depressing set ever.

"There's...nobody here..."

 

[Konfyouzd]

If he means it in the context of this thread, I guess it could also mean that you don't have to be that good to impress people, and sometimes you can be really good and you won't impress people.

Some guy can play sick chord inversions and I bet everybody that passes by will just think he's strumming chords randomly, whereas someone with a couple of poorly played cookie cutter licks might impress people. Only someone who has a musical notion will see through these things.

That's exactly what he means.

There's a lot of times when someone that wants me to teach them how to play because my lead playing is apparently more advanced than theirs (matter of perspective me thinks) but when it comes time to just eff around and jam and there are non musicians around, people almost always prefer to listen to that guy pluck out songs that everyone knows than to have my play something that they've never heard before regardless of how nice it sounds...

It's like part of us always wants every song to be a sing-along...

I simply can't provide that for most folks as it bores me to tears. I guess I could try for the sake of entertainment, but for the most part when people catch me walking somewhere with a guitar and ask me to play it, I'm on the way to sell it to someone I met on Craigslist... I can't help but think I'll pull it out, break it and lose a sale...

Nahh... That's not the real reason. Realistically I'd rather not waste my time showing people that I prefer leads (which require some backing chording in most cases) to just strumming out other people's songs... To me that's what iPods and concert tickets are for.

 

[meteor685]

If he means it in the context of this thread, I guess it could also mean that you don't have to be that good to impress people, and sometimes you can be really good and you won't impress people.

Some guy can play sick chord inversions and I bet everybody that passes by will just think he's strumming chords randomly, whereas someone with a couple of poorly played cookie cutter licks might impress people. Only someone who has a musical notion will see through these things.

one of the many reason why i dont play guitar for others!!!!

 

[Alex Kenivel]

Alex, you play guitar, can you play dust in the wind?"

I remember it like it was yesterday. I hate that damn song. but just for moments like this, I learned the dynamite hack version of Boyz n the Hood and songs like We are the Champions. The Super Mario theme song never fails me either

 

[naw38]

"There's...nobody here..."

I thought that was pretty funny, then about half an hour later I got that song in my head and I realised it was super funny. Good work.

It used to be that in those situations I'd play Rob Manuel songs(I Deed The Toilet, Beer, She's In A Wheelchair) or play weird inversions and yell out lyrics about not being able to sing and play and how it would make me sad.

I don't often get in that situation anymore though.

 

[BucketheadRules]

Another idea - if you can play and sing this, I'm pretty sure you'd get laid there and then, regardless of the gender and sexual preferences of the company you happen to be in. I can play it (it's not too hard) but I don't want to sing it, I probably couldn't do it without messing up. The song is brilliant though. There's the Robbie Williams version too, which is decent enough but really isn't the best one - this is the original, and it sounds like a lost Beatles track.

 

[Konfyouzd]

Gonna just keep one guitar in an open tuning at all times and just strum away wildly when people ask me to play...

I just realized GDGDAE (first 4 string are mandolin tuning and the bottom 2 give you a drop G) is a sick sounding tuning and I can pretty much flap my hands around haphazardly and find something that sounds good.

 

[Mischief]

I keep my acoustic in an open tuning, and whenever I'm doing acoustic covers (which is quite regularly), I usually open up with Misery by Maroon 5. It's easy, it works well with my voice, I've played it enough that I can sing and play without thinking about it, and it's poppy enough to get a good reception almost anywhere.

 

[Alex Kenivel]

I can pretty much flap my hands around haphazardly and find something that sounds good.

That's how I write songs!

 

[Konfyouzd]

That's how I wrote one yesterday.

 

[Vhyle]

I usually just play some popular 90s songs, like STP - Plush, AIC - Nutshell, Candlebox, blah blah. Or I'll play some Opeth (first verses in The Drapery Falls come to mind), or some Riverside.

Or I'll play Travelling Song from my first album, because it has a lot of "pretty sounding" chords.

Edit: or Bathory's A Fine Day to Die. 8)

 

[HoneyNut]

Playing Eric Clapton never makes me feel less of guitarist.

Wonderful Tonight
Layla (acoustic/ and original)

Eagles:
Hotel California

Police: Message in a bottle
Cat Steves: wild world
I have these couple handy just in case!

Just got tired of people asking me to "play a song for us". Everyone wants a to have a good time. It's important to share that passion we have once in a while (yeah, I should say that to myself)...