Playing in your underwear

I love the way the "old pros" offer guidance and 'tricks of the trade' to "amateurs" and "new pros". I think we need more of that. Open mics are a great place to make that happen. If you're a pro of any stripes, it would be a good idea for ALL of us to try to advise 'newbies' through the basics of the business....Gear suggestions, tuning changes, changing the key to accomodate your voice or offer "Music Business Life Lessons".

I guess what I'm saying, is that open mics are a resource that we aren't really taking advantage of. For amateurs this is an invaluable resource to get 'plugged in' to the local music scene. 'Open Mic Nights' give amateurs access to professional grade equipment and guidance from seasoned veterans in the art of playing out in public.

For professionals, in playing open mics (and doing well), we can give the audience, a "commercial"; showing what we do, and how we do it.

It helps us build our fan base, and gives us more possible customers for our cd sales, Tshirts sales, or just more attendance at our shows.

It gives us the opportunity to learn from each other, teach each other, and engage in good, old fashioned fellowship.

As awesome as Facebook is~ It doesn't REPLACE the benefits of actual face to face interaction with our peers. It augments things for sure...and when I simply can't make it out of the house, it allows me to maintain contact with my fellow musicians.

But laying here in my underwear and creating storylines involving humorous misunderstandings and chilling revelations of angry Alpaca's, won't help me to be a better performer. I really hope to meet more of my Facebook friends in person. I want to learn from all of you.

....And to any amateur musicians sitting at home and wondering if you could be good at playing music in public.....Sure you could. Attending an open mic night could change your life.

It changed mine.