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UU Church Open Mic Night
Oct. 20th, 2012 09:31 am Our UU Church had an open mic night last night. I've known about it since summer, but it was the first one I'd heard of. I picked out a couple of pieces off my CD that I thought my fellow UUers would like (Atheist's Anthem and It's Okay To Be Takei) and pulled out the song I wrote about Neil Armstrong in case an extra song was a possiblility and practiced them a bit yesterday morning.
It was interesting. Just about as friendly a crowd as you can possibly imagine, but it was an odd feeling not really knowing anybody. I don't know how many times I'm going to have to "play out" before I can stop shaking so hard; it felt like someone had stolen my fingers and replaced them with sausages hoping I wouldn't notice but it didn't work. I'm not sure if this is because it always takes me a few minutes to be able to play well--I suppose this is what people call "warming up"--or if it's because it takes a few minutes to get used to having everyone look at you.
But 1) I can now fumble out most of the notes, shaking or not, and 2) everyone seemed to like it--there were a lot of bright faces and big applause at the end of Atheist's Anthem. I taught the chorus to It's Okay To Be Takei and everyone sang along. I came back for a second turn at the end of the night to do my third piece and everyone seemed to really like that one too, and I had several people (including one adorable little girl) tell me how much they liked my songs.
And I talked to the leader of the children's choir who would like some of my songs for the choir, so that made me feel good too. And I told her if she needed something written I would give it a try.
It was fun. I'm glad I went. I even sold a CD.
It was interesting. Just about as friendly a crowd as you can possibly imagine, but it was an odd feeling not really knowing anybody. I don't know how many times I'm going to have to "play out" before I can stop shaking so hard; it felt like someone had stolen my fingers and replaced them with sausages hoping I wouldn't notice but it didn't work. I'm not sure if this is because it always takes me a few minutes to be able to play well--I suppose this is what people call "warming up"--or if it's because it takes a few minutes to get used to having everyone look at you.
But 1) I can now fumble out most of the notes, shaking or not, and 2) everyone seemed to like it--there were a lot of bright faces and big applause at the end of Atheist's Anthem. I taught the chorus to It's Okay To Be Takei and everyone sang along. I came back for a second turn at the end of the night to do my third piece and everyone seemed to really like that one too, and I had several people (including one adorable little girl) tell me how much they liked my songs.
And I talked to the leader of the children's choir who would like some of my songs for the choir, so that made me feel good too. And I told her if she needed something written I would give it a try.
It was fun. I'm glad I went. I even sold a CD.
