Post your first real song you learned and played in front of an audience

I wish I was making this up. But first real song. Played in front of people. Would have to be Kum Ba Yah. Played on my Yamaha 12 string I purchased in 1973. While singing around a church camp campfire.
Well, My first song in front of a person could have been along those lines, but I was thinking something like Mary had a little lamb or 3 blind mice which would have been in an elementary guitar book in front of my teacher at maybe 13 years old.

But by "real" in my post, Epiligue was a song that had so many techniques to learn in addition to the actual notes. Hammer ons, pull offs, single and multi string bends, vibrato, volume swells. etc. And then I had to play it by memory and in time with the rhythm of my teacher, in front of other students and teachers from their various college music classes. When I was finished, the butterflies turned into, " MAN, I wish I had more songs to keep going, so I could jam like a mini concert."
 
Well, My first song in front of a person could have been along those lines, but I was thinking something like Mary had a little lamb or 3 blind mice which would have been in an elementary guitar book in front of my teacher at maybe 13 years old.

But by "real" in my post, for me it was a song that had so many techniques to learn in addition to the actual notes. Hammer ons, pull offs, single and multi string bends, vibrato, volume swells. etc.
For me..... after playing at Church Camp.... I didn't really get up in front of people with a guitar again till something like 2006 when I joined the churches worship team. Prior to that and again since about 2015..... the four walls of a bedroom is my stage.
 
For me..... after playing at Church Camp.... I didn't really get up in front of people with a guitar again till something like 2006 when I joined the churches worship team. Prior to that and again since about 2015..... the four walls of a bedroom is my stage.
I actually decided to buy my first replacement guitar in around 2000 when a transformative event at my church occurred. My buddy and I were putting up walls with steel studs and sheetrock, when he had to do something and I took a break. I tried the worship team's drums and got hooked. I went to the music store that evening and bought a kit. Once I got confident at my ability to learn drums fairly easily, that confidence led to me getting a friend to help me find a guitar. He had a friend at a pawn shop who set a Strat aside for me. He also made me a deal for a little amp. So for $700 I got my 1989 Gunmetal Blue Strat and Princeton Chorus amp. Now I obviously haven't given up on guitar again, and even added bass to drums and guitars.
 
I actually decided to buy my first replacement guitar in around 2000 when a transformative event at my church occurred. My buddy and I were putting up walls with steel studs and sheetrock, when he had to do something and I took a break. I tried the worship team's drums and got hooked. I went to the music store that evening and bought a kit. Once I got confident at my ability to learn drums fairly easily, that confidence led to me getting a friend to help me find a guitar. He had a friend at a pawn shop who set a Strat aside for me. He also made me a deal for a little amp. So for $700 I got my 1989 Gunmetal Blue Strat and Princeton Chorus amp. Now I obviously haven't given up on guitar again, and even added bass to drums and guitars.
Considering overall, I can keep a pretty solid beat.... but sit down to a kit. Tried several times thru the years. I can't get my feet and hands to talk to each other. I can either do the feet or I can do the hands.... just not at the same time.
 
Okay.... been thinking on this. I have actually back in the mid 70s played guitar a bit in front of people. My eventual wife and I was in a small Gospel Group. Something like 6 or 7 of us. Primarily we did our songs accompanied by a keyboard. No drums. No bass. However....I did play a few songs on guitar. Don't remember any of them 50 years later. But I do remember after we purchased our sound system, I plugged my Ovation into the board and cranked everything up and played "Proud Mary." Yes.... we were practicing in our church. That was fun.
 
Cat Scratch Fever. I was 13 years old and my uncle had a 3 piece band called Altano at the time. He invited me to come play at this bar called the Briarwood Lounge, that's now long gone. The owners let me in as long as I came in through the back and didn't go near the bar lol. I played it with them on stage while he sang and took on the lead parts and then waved and left when I was finished.

Was actually kinda cool lol
 
Can't remember the song but I'm pretty sure it was a twelve bar blues on a MIJ Morris acoustic sometime back in the 70s. I was at a logging camp on the west coast of Vancouver Island. There were about 20 of us tree planters living in a logging camp along with the loggers. Us tree planters had a bunkhouse to ourselves. A couple of us had guitars. There was no TV, or even radio. It was way off the grid. It was a two hour boat ride from the small town of Zeballos to get to the camp. Zeballos was a two hour drive on gravel logging roads from Campbell River. We would sit around smoke dope and play guitar in the evenings.
 
That would be violin age 6 in front of 2500 people standing ovation I started at age 4
Next at grade school my friend Raymond played guitar and I played keyboards The Doors Light My Fire in front of the school 1968
First song on guitar House of the rising sun the Animals in front of the school
between 8th and 9th grade played guitar in my first band 7 piece horn section I was lead vocal
next we turned into 3 piece band same drummer and bass player.
 
I have to say the first song I ever played in front of people was Paranoid, it was a practice session that a number of people showed up to.. with the first group of friends.
I played rhythm, and I was 21 years old
I’ve been trying to play paranoid for years. Can do the intro…. Sorta…. And some of the verse. Forget the solo.
 
Back
Top