GUITAR GUY at the Party

[Youko]

Link to original post: [drupal=2653]GUITAR GUY at the Party[/drupal]



I have hit a dilemma in my life. My interests, college, girls, society, and logistics are crashing together in an incongruent mess. Yes, it isn’t the most important thing in the world, but I figured I should try to get some opinions from you all.

For those that do not know, I have been playing the guitar for seven years now, self-taught. Music is something that has always been a part of my life for as long as I can remember (from piano in first grade and alto sax in fifth) and it has been something in which I have been fortunately blessed to be skilled at. My musical ear is one of my greatest talents, which allows me to easily decipher chords, melodies, and their structures in a plethora of songs.

In other words, I’m the “guitar guy” in my group of my friends. And not the wanna-be, I’m-just-learning kind, either. I take my music abilities seriously.

Example – something I recorded in a couple hours a few months ago that you Metroid fans might enjoy:
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So, when it comes to my dilemma, there lie several facts/socially instituted truths:
- Parties occur frequently at college
- Most social meet-ups in college occur at said parties
- There are a fair amount of people who play guitar in college, but few who do so well
- For a guy, guitar-playing is a skill that is typically viewed as a TREMENDOUS asset when it comes to meeting/attracting girls
- PROBLEM: NOBODY WANTS TO BE THE TOOL WHO PLAYS GUITAR AT PARTIES SOLELY TO HOOK UP WITH CHICKS!

I’m not looking for hook-ups. I’m a good guy who has fallen on hard times and is constantly trying to improve himself. Sure, I’m a confident, funny, decent-looking individual, but my musical talents say all the right things about me. In my opinion, it’s a skill that shouldn’t go wasted in the search for someone to be with. It’s a big part of who I am and I want someone who appreciates those abilities.

So HERE’S THE BIG QUESTION: Factoring instrument transportation and other logistics into the equation, how does one actually play the guitar at a party without coming off as the oft-scorned “guitar guy at the party.”

For those who are still lost on what I’m trying to AVOID, listen to this: http://www.imeem.com/people/EjoTyj/music/m8PYajdV/mike-birbiglia-the-guitar-guy-at-the-party/



Finally, I guess I should plug that it’s my turn in Vrael (aka S.O.L.I.D)’s interview thread. So go ask questions that I’ll answer here or I’ll use SMod powers on you: http://www.smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=249664

 

[¯\_S.(ツ).L.I.D._/¯]

I played Alto Sax in fifth =D


Never mind my ****ty advice.

Oh and yeah ask Youko questions in my thread. Gotta update the OP, thanks for reminding me.

 

[Melomaniacal]

To be honest, I would just avoid doing it unless the party calls for it.

Maybe you should start a band of some sort. Join some other music club or something. With that, maybe you can organize some public performances. It sounds to me like you just have the desire to play for people. Most musicians - including myself - get that urge. If you don't want to be a part of a group, try to go solo, I guess. If you can't find the opportunity to play somewhere, maybe organize a music night of sorts. Play for people where playing for people makes sense, and you'll find someone.

I wouldn't advise you to just bring your guitar to random irrelevant parties and whatnot. That just ends up annoying most people, regardless of how you present it.

Oh, and it's much more acceptable if you're playing with other people at parties.

 

[¯\_S.(ツ).L.I.D._/¯]

What Melo says makes a lot more sense than what I said.

If you have other people playing with you won't seem like the douchebag who plays alone to get girls to hook up with them, and it won't be as out of place and random. I'm sure other people with play with you.

 

[Firus]

I agree with Melomaniacal, I would suggest trying to find an organization focused around playing music, or maybe organizing some sort of open mic night at a location where you could play. I know how it's tempting to pull out something like your guitar at a party or something -- while I can't think of any specific examples, I know that it's happened to me before -- but if it's unrelated to the party, you probably shouldn't pull it out.

You have serious talent, though. I love your rendition of Phendrana Drifts (so much that I ripped it from YouTube).

On an unrelated note: I played Alto Sax from 5th - 7th grades, and I played piano...I want to say from 1st grade to...sometime in middle school? I still play piano on occasion, but I don't take lessons for either anymore. I still have my saxophone somewhere too, but I dislike playing it because reeds are just so...disgusting. (I'm not OCD at all, I promise.)

I've played guitar, too, and I still have my guitar...but I'm totally self-taught, and therefore am not very good...I've had an urge to play it a little recently, though. Maybe I'll try and see if I can actually play more than 5 chords.

 

[SuSa]

Being self taught isn't an excuse for not being very good. I know plenty of people who are self taught and amazing musicians. I even know a few pianists at my school who couldn't even tell you the note or chord they are playing, but they are able to improvise and play beautifully (if you ignore the out of key notes here and there, and no... it's not just an accidental or anything, anyone with a music backing can hear the dissonance created by it, and it has occasionally ruined an otherwise beautiful piece of work for me)

I can't really say I've been playing guitar for 2 years, since I only really started taking it (along with music theory) seriously since March. (I always say January, but that's just when I started bringing my guitar to school to practice off tabs... no music theory yet, but that's when I actually bothered to start learning how to play)

So after almost a year, I'm still ages off where I want to be. (And Youko, what Firus said. That was a beautiful rendition of the song.)

Now off of my little rant:

I can't really give advice. I'm in high school, I just bring my guitar to school and ignore practically all comments on my playing. Whether they are good or bad, I just ignore them and keep playing. If I finish the song and they are still there and ask me something, I'm not going to be an ******* and ignore them. I'll answer them. When they ask why I bring it, I answer honestly: "I just love music."

I also tend to ignore the girls more so then the guys, because I REALLY don't want to give off the idea I bring it to try and hook up. Especially since I suck. :s

 

[Firus]

Being self taught isn't an excuse for not being very good. I know plenty of people who are self taught and amazing musicians. I even know a few pianists at my school who couldn't even tell you the note or chord they are playing, but they are able to improvise and play beautifully (if you ignore the out of key notes here and there, and no... it's not just an accidental or anything, anyone with a music backing can hear the dissonance created by it, and it has occasionally ruined an otherwise beautiful piece of work for me)

It's not "an excuse".

I'm not very good because I cannot successfully play anything besides one of 5 or so simple chords, or it simply does not sound right. Not in the sense that I can't tune a guitar or anything like that...even knowing the fingering, I've got to be doing something wrong for it to come out completely flat and like I'm just hitting the strings. They don't make the right sound because they're basically not vibrating at all.

I can't even play single notes, it's just the few chords. Anything else comes out without the strings vibrating practically at all.

I'm not saying it's impossible to be good while being self-taught, I'm saying with the guidance of someone who knows something about guitar, I would be able to figure out what I'm doing wrong.

Clearly it's not that I don't understand music since I was a very successful piano and saxophone player. And that was with minimal practicing. It's a lack of guitar knowledge that's causing my problem.

The idea here is that I would be trying again at guitar to see if I could work out these kinks. I worded it a little wrongly, but either way, I didn't mean there's anything wrong with being self-taught, I meant that that's my problem.

I can play the chords that I can successfully play pretty well, if I do say so myself, it's just everything else that's an issue.