First gig - sort of

[mfalkner]

Played in public for the first time, just a simple offertory at church. Was super nervous but managed not to drop my pick, got several nice compliments.

Although I was playing in this case as an act of worship, I can see where this could get addictive when pickin' for fun.

Mike F

[Jack Roberts]

I play at the local rescue mission once a month. Usually I'm not nervous or anything, but last time I knocked over my music stand and the banjo players music stand in the middle of "the uncloudy day".

The best thing I ever did for my playing was to voluteer to provide after-dinner entertainment at the rescue mission. Mostly I'm playing to guys who are just out of jail and don't have a place to call home yet. They seem to like the music. And they were very polite about the music stands. If I had done that anywhere else, I would have expected to have been laughed off the stage, but I guess these guys know better than all of us that stuff happens...

Jack

[wannabethile]

hey, im glad that it went good for ya. i also just had my first gig on friday. i was gonna play with a fiddle player and guitarist, but they douldnt make it. so i was solo. all in all, id say that it was a good learning experience, and i nw know what not to do next time. but it went pretty good. what songs did you play?

[ira]

good for you. it is addictive to play for others, and its great that you were complimented. i have found most folks to be complimentary for effort as well as for skill. keep it up!

by the way, what is an offertory???(its a cool word whatever it is).

[mfalkner]

Ira,

Thanks. I'm sure most of the compliments were "A for Effort", but some were musical people who seemed to genuinely enjoy the sound - even if it was a Michael Kelly mando <g>!

An offertory is simply a quiet piece of music played during many Protestant services while the ushers are circulating with the offering plates. Usually the organist plays it, but sometimes we like to throw in something different; I've played a couple on guitar, with which I am much more confident, but I got a lot better response with the mandolin.

I played a simple melody version of "In the Sweet Bye and Bye". Several folks commented that the mandolin had almost a vocal quality (using tremolo to sustain the notes), like a violin, and they could connect with the lyrics - in this case the lyrics are quite beautiful to reflect on.

Mike