A few years ago I decided to try my hand at playing my guitar and singing during open mic night at one of the bars I like to frequent in town. I didn’t think it would ever develop into anything, let alone an ongoing set of local gigs. There were a handful of people at the bar that night who encouraged me to play more after I finished a rendition of America from Simon and Garfunkel. I just had my acoustic guitar with me that night, but nowadays I use more stage equipment. I typically play my electric guitar into a series of effects pedals before running the audio in and out of my laptop. The music recording software allows me to play bass and drum backing tracks while I perform on my electric guitar. It would be great to play in some kind of band in the distant future, but for now I am more than happy just playing as a solo act at local bars. Thankfully the main bar that I play at the most has its own PA system inside. It would be extremely difficult for me to cart my own PA system around to every bar at which I perform. They even have a full stage lighting kit with two spotlights and an array of multi-colored lights. For now I am just going to treat this like a part time job without any delusions about getting a full stage show to travel the country or the world. It’s a fun hobby and a fantastic way to decompress from a long and grueling work week. It’s also nice not having to deal with equipment rentals to get access to a PA system.