tookatooka
3159 posts
Dec 27, 2012
12:28 PM
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Sitting around the dinner table with friends and relatives I cockily pulled out my harp and broadcast to the assembled audience that I was going to entertain them with a nice tune. Put the harp to my lips and completely forgot the tune I was going to play. I thought if I could just get the first few notes out it would come back and I'd be away. No such luck. I apologised went to the toilet and tried to work out what it was I should have been playing. Bollocks, nothing, nada, zilch. How embarassing was that? Sigh.
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ReedSqueal
343 posts
Dec 27, 2012
12:50 PM
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Depends, at what level of inebriation was everyone? ;-)
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Go ahead and play the blues if it'll make you happy.
-Dan Castellaneta
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FMWoodeye
517 posts
Dec 27, 2012
2:28 PM
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Worst yet, it happened around the holidays. Now it will become a story to be told every Christmas, and your friends and relatives will laugh roundly. When you're laid out at the funeral home, knees will be slapped and guffaws heard as the story is recounted. Finally, as you lay in your final resting place, the headstone will read, "Here lies tooka. We're still waiting for the song."
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Frank
1712 posts
Dec 27, 2012
4:12 PM
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My Wife wanted to learn how to use the snow blower today, I was skeptical, not because it’s all that difficult - but just had a feeling by doing so there is an accident waiting to happen somewhere in the equation…Well about 5 minutes into it she was doing really well, so I waved to get her attention – she notices, stops turns the machine aiming it at me and pulls the handle – splattering me directly in the face with a blanket of wet snow from ten feet away…humiliating to say the least!
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Hobostubs Ashlock
1986 posts
Dec 27, 2012
4:53 PM
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allways have a back up song you can jump to it those situations
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Hobostubs
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kudzurunner
3741 posts
Dec 27, 2012
5:10 PM
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The answer to this riddle is easy. You will spend 2013 learning not just one but several songs that you will play at the table 365 days from now. You will return to the traumatic scene and kick ass.
That is the blues. Your worst failure is the grounds of your strongest, deepest identity and your profoundest success.
You'll win this one.
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eharp
2034 posts
Dec 27, 2012
5:10 PM
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but you gotta live with your failure for a whole year!
yikes!
hopefully there will be a family gathering before that.
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Joe_L
2270 posts
Dec 27, 2012
5:13 PM
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In the grand scheme of things, this ends up being nothing. Nobody got hurt. Nobody died. It's also very fixable.
Adam's advice is good advice. Learn some tunes. Practice them a bunch until you know them stone cold. Practice them a ton before your next Christmas gathering.
A bunch and a ton means several hours. Run through them until you can hear them or play them in your sleep.
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Aussiesucker
1225 posts
Dec 27, 2012
5:49 PM
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That has happened to me. I think the older one gets the more it is likely to occur.
What happens to me, and its happened numerous times, at our bluegrass jams it will be my call on a tune I know 100% & the fiddle player jumps in and grabs my lead. I'm totally thrown. Same key, different tempo, louder, & I cannot hear myself. He's a lovely guy, but when it happens, I feel like punching his lights out as it makes me look and sound awful! He does it to all the others but it doesn't quite impact on banjos, guitars & mandolins the same. I'm handling it ok now by standing at the furthermost spot away and telling him that I don't want any fiddle until I call. It works sort of....but he forgets! It's all good fun.
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nacoran
6331 posts
Dec 27, 2012
6:04 PM
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I had that happen just the other day. I was talking with another harp player after a show he'd performed and alternate tunings came up. I happened to have a harmonic minor in my pocket. I pulled it out and tried to show him 'Fiddler on the Roof'. If you have ever heard the tune you should be able to pick it out on a harmonic minor in a couple seconds, but I couldn't get it for the life of me. When I got home, I realized I had two harmonicas in my pocket. I must have pulled out the natural minor by mistake.
Anyway, remember, if there is another family gathering before next Christmas, you can get an early shot at redemption. I'd suggest 'Auld Lang Syne' or 'Here Comes Peter Cotton Tail'. :)
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Nate
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geordiebluesman
650 posts
Dec 28, 2012
7:18 AM
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Been there,Done that!, I got up at a jam night to play a song that I had practiced for weeks and then for about 3 hours straight before going to the gig.
i stepped up to the Mic turned to the band and said "It goes like this" and away they went but when I turned back to the Mic my mind completley blanked with 4 bars of music till the 1 chord came back around!
I panicked and started to play the intro to a completley different song whilst desperatly trying to recall the lyrics to the first verse,with literaly 1 note left before I had to sing and allready living the humiliation of having to stop the band and take the long walk of shame off the stage the words came back and i was up and running!
I remembered the Harp solo during the chorus and made it to the end of the song and amazingly only my wife noticed! (they ALLWAYS notice!)
I came off stage shaking like a leaf and it nearly put me off playing out but you have to have the bad stuff to appreciate the good and the next time I just thought "Stuff It"and went for it and it was all good.
Last Edited by on Dec 28, 2012 7:20 AM
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Rick Davis
1072 posts
Dec 28, 2012
7:56 AM
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What was the song?
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-Rick Davis
The Blues Harp Amps Blog
The Mile High Blues Society
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Kingley
2067 posts
Dec 28, 2012
7:53 AM
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Tooka - Don't sweat it. Just laugh it off, you'll be fine next time.
Geordiebluesman - That forgetting the lyrics things always happens, even to the best. Over time you learn to wing it and make 'em up on the spot if needed. Luckily most of those Geordie lads are seriously good players and can cope with anything thrown at them. They'd have covered for you whilst you got it together if need be.
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Frank
1722 posts
Dec 28, 2012
8:18 AM
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What was the song?
I'm guessing "flight of the bumblebee"
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BikerG
2 posts
Dec 28, 2012
8:21 AM
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As suggested above, laugh it off and then play something else.
I actually forgot what I was going to play while sitting in with a band. Thing is I was doing a solo, so I just played the next verse I had planned.
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mr_so&so
620 posts
Dec 28, 2012
10:50 AM
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Hey Tookatooka thanks for sharing your pain. I've been there too. For me it's the self-consciousness thing, I'm pretty sure, rather than the old-timers brain (but that might be debatable). It's actually happened a couple of times, and I was able to get my sh*t together after a bit of awkwardness getting started and finish the songs, but the situation rattled me so much that they were just "press-on and get out of there" kind of performances. I am confident that if I keep at it, I'll get more comfortable.
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tookatooka
3161 posts
Dec 28, 2012
11:10 AM
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Hi guys thanks for your tales and encouragement. Here's the offending piece that I forgot. The assembled company weren't blues fans like me so I went for something with a classical feel. I made it up but it may already be based on something I've heard in the past. I was hoping to Wow! them with this then pull out my backing tracks and pocket amp and turn 'em onto the blues. I should have played the blues first and kept this in reserve. Never mind. Thanks again. You're all great.
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