Anybody do or done live solo gigs?

roberty

I used to do a lot of solo gigs, a long time ago. Started with open mics and eventually got invited to play some shows and met some people through that and before long we had a bit of a scene. It is tough to keep people engaged but playing to an audience regularly might be the best way to develop. You know straight away if something's working or not

ESBlonde

It’s all a bit different on your own. You need to be confident (fake it ‘till you make it) and engage with the punters. You are the front man, the band and the sound tech all a once, but key is the engagement. I went busking a few times to develop that skill better, trying to ‘engage’ with passers by will get you rejected lots until you get it.
Gigs can be all kinds but if you want ‘proper’ gigs you need to do plenty of popular tunes with tempo and singalong themes. You might consider a looper, a beat pedal and a voice harmoniser or even backing tracks for some songs. Daytime gigs can be done at care homes if you do suitable stuff, they tend to be just an hour playing time and are easier than resorting to brown eyed girl or Dakota or sex on fire.
The are several you tube folks that give advice on solo singer/guitar gigs, from gear to sets to picking suitable keys for your voice. 

I prefer to play gentle engaging songs with a nice guitar chordal challenge, but always remember to have plenty of popular pacey material to hand. You need to keep the drinkers in the venue or there’s no second booking!

P.S.
There are some very average singer guitarist that are successful entertainers and get booked back time and again. The skill is in providing what folks thing they want. I’ve yet to play wonderwall as a solo performer - one must have some standards old boy!

thecolourbox

Thanks again guys for the input - it's all useful in general even if not for the specific scenario I am trying to draw up and colour in.

I've no interest in doing it if the only options are pub strumming gigs or care homes. My piano job covers that sort of thing, playing everybody else's music, people pleaser music. I already play in a care home and other stuff like a concert in a local art gallery next month. I'm trying this week to finalise a booking for a Neil Sedaka tribute thing, and I've been booked for a wedding where I'll be singing a song each by Sleep Token and Bring Me The Horizon, so it's doing ok on that side of things. It keeps me in practice of learning new stuff quickly and my general musicianship, I'm good at it.

But the solo thing is deliberately meant to be the exact antithesis of that, the other side of the same coin I guess. Ie, playing music I'd like to hear (in the hope there are others too), and not having to play to the gallery as such. Can be more like my normal character rather than the masking character I do to be the shiny happy piano version of me.

I can't really push either "act" via the other one as they are quite different and would not really make sense to the respective potential audiences. Hey, you liked me playing Einaudi/Chopin/Swift/Abba on piano at a wedding last month. Do you want to come and see me sing a cover of Black Hole Sun? I don't expect people to be like... "Dude, really liked your version of High and Dry, would love to hear what you'd do with an instrumental piano arrangement of Moon River"

Gigs like the guy I saw last week would suit my vision for how it goes I think, so I'm hoping something like that might be possible even if it's alongside somebody else to share the risk.

Stratavarious

Brands/Personas..  maybe craft this alternative image and market it..

thecolourbox

Yeah that is what i mean to do. Piano Matt for my usual wedding piano stuff and any other stuff that is more like people pleaser. Then separately the Solo Matt doing the music I like. The people pleaser one is easy enough and that's my pocket money side hustle. It's the Solo Matt that's what I'm trying to work out

Stuckfast

I ran a songwriters' night for a number of years back in the late 90s / early 00s. It wasn't an open mic night, we'd book people to do half hour slots. Some random observations:

(1) I would say 95 percent of people played acoustic guitar, but occasionally someone would turn up with an electric guitar. This almost never worked. Typically it sounded fine for one song but quickly became annoying and boring, and never seemed to balance well with the vocal.

(2) How people come across on stage is every bit as important as how good they are. Probably more so. In some cases the people who did well used fairly traditional stagecraft to capture the audience. Others had their own approach. But either way it's absolutely vital to have or to fake the charisma that is needed to keep the audience engaged.

(3) By far most effective thing you can add to a solo singer-songwriter act to make it stand out is good vocal harmonies. A 'lead' instrument to take solos can work OK, but electric guitar is rarely the best option in this scenario, better if it's something acoustic. 

(4) Back then, a lot of acts wanted to sound like Jeff Buckley. It made me realise that actually Jeff Buckley's appeal was and is quite limited (and was possibly due as much to his looks as to his music). I think that style of music is particularly hard to do well, and even if you do it well, it's going to be too intense for a lot of people. It's a style that really requires the audience to buy into it and invest their attention. Hence you're gonna need to pay heed to point (2) to get them on side.

thecolourbox

Thanks for the insight and sharing your experience. 

On the one hand, I'm fine with appeal being limited cos i don't need it to be a big deal. I'm not trying to sound like Buckley necessarily, I'm obviously not that good. There are plenty of other influences in there.

But then on the other hand, the description of acoustic, vocal harmonies, etc etc is exactly the opposite of what I would like to hear - so i wouldn't really be that bothered to do it if that's what i have to do. I suppose we will think we are "normal" so maybe I'm hoping too much others feel the same way and would therefore enjoy my spin on things. 

I'm not having a good mental day today unfortunately. I just wish i had a useful skill that i could use to improve my day to day so i didn't even need to consider needing to do this

thecolourbox

Just by way of an update, as is usually the case, I've given up on this idea. Nobody was really interested locally, nobody also interested in the music I did release as a precursor to my originals collection (which I shall also probably not bother finishing now), so I have done that thing where I evaluate myself "outside" of myself, as objectively and coldly as possible, and realised that my music taste just isn't really of any use or interest to anybody but me, what I think would appeal has no basis in actual fact or reality and as such, my music is exactly where it belongs - in a place nobody finds it or in my spare room

Good luck to others who said they were considering similar, I hope you get on better with it than me.

Just need to find a different way to let off emotional/creative steam now...yay

Clarky

I did a couple of solo gigs some years ago when I release my solo album Shredz at an Exhibition
I was playing lead guitar over backing tracks of a few songs from the album

I personally found it really hard.. not just technically but also mentally..
no band members to vibe off of
no ebb and flow in the music - the backing track was just relentless
the levels of concentration required were really high..
The material was really demanding too.. there were moments that red-lined my technique
which is fun in the studio, but playing on the ragged edge on stage is kinda character building.. lol

The first show was at a festival arranged by the label.. it was all of the bands and artists they'd signed playing at this event
So I really wanted to put my best foot forward in front of my peers and the folks from the label..
no pressure.. lmao...
The second show was at GASFest... a far smaller and more relaxed event
and it was brilliant.. couldn't have been more different..
playing for fun... playing for my friends...
The performance was still highly demanding and I had to stay totally focused throughout
But I was so much more relaxed..