A few years back I made the choice to try my hand at playing my guitar and singing while at open mic night at one of the bars I enjoy frequenting in town.
I didn’t actually believe it would ever develop into anything big, let alone an ongoing set of local gigs.
There were a few people at the bar that night who encouraged me to play more often after I finished a rendition of America from Simon and Garfunkel. I had only my acoustic guitar with me that night, however nowadays I use more stage equipment. I often play my electric guitar into a series of effects pedals before running the audio in and out of my laptop computer. The music recording software allows me to play bass and drum backing tracks while I perform on my electric guitar. It would be excellent to play in some kind of band in the future, however for now I am more than thrilled just playing as a solo act at numerous local bars. Thankfully the main bar that I play at the most has its own PA system inside. It would be a major challenge for me to move my own PA proposal around to every bar at which I perform. They even have a full stage lighting kit with a bunch of different spotlights and an array of multi-colored lights. For now I am just going to treat this like a regular part time work assignment without any delusions about getting a full stage show to travel the country or the world. It’s a really great hobby and a wonderful way to decompress from a long and grueling work week. It’s also enjoyable not having to deal with equipment rentals to get access to a quality PA system.