Your First Time. Be Honest.

Subject: Your First Time. Be Honest.
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 23 May 99 - 11:40 PM

Someone asked me a couple of nights ago if I remembered the first time I sung in front of people and what that first song was. They also wanted to know "was I nervous?"
This young lady was about 14 and is just finding her singing voice as a communication tool to use on the long road that lies ahead.
I'll never forget that experience many years ago. 'Twas in the high school gym, and I sang "The Ballad of Springhill", a pretty tame version of "Seven Nights Drunk", and "The Sinking of the Reuben James". Nervous? Not a bit. It was the "real world" that made me nervous. You know, those songs still hold up today. Learned 'em off records by Ewan and Peggy, Kingston Trio, and The Weavers.
I know for some, this means goin' back a ways, but if you can, I'd love to know.

rick

Subject: RE: Your First Time. Be Honest.
From: okscout
Date: 24 May 99 - 12:08 AM

I've always been primarily an instrumentalist. The first time I played "alone" was actually as an accompanist for my brother and his tuba. We played a piece called Beelzebub at a talent night at music camp. I began too fast, he tried valiantly to meet my tempo, but realized that it would be impossible. He stopped and made jokes at my expense, turning our performance into a comedy monologue. We eventually finished the piece, but not before I conquered my embarrassment. What a hard way to break into show business.

Nancy

Subject: RE: Your First Time. Be Honest.
From: Frank of Toledo
Date: 24 May 99 - 12:49 AM

I had a Silvertone guitar with Black Diamond strings and 2 45's of Hank Snow. I would stand in front of the Bluebird Island for hours and hours and hours till my dad would just scream with agony over my bad notes. But when my Dad took me to Wheeling , West Virginia and the weekend Hayloft Jamboree with Wilma Lee and Stony Cooper I knew that music was going to be my life. And then it happened...I heard Woody and Cisco and Pete and I was hooked forever on Folk Music...Wow that feels so good to talk about it and remember the joy of singing along with Hank and it makes it all worth the doin'. Thanks Rick, for the opportunity to relive the old days in my mind..........The first song I sang in public was Hank William's "Ramblin' Man".. I could settle down and be doin' just fine....Til I heard a train comin' down the line.....and on and on and on.............

Subject: RE: Your First Time. Be Honest.
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 24 May 99 - 12:50 AM

Nancy. You just brought back a memory. My late Mum made her debut in 1930 playing her accordion in front of a large orchestra. It was, I believe she said at the Royal York Hotel here in Toronto. Very ritzy. Some kind of inaugural ball or something. She had given the band her sheet music to the song "Tiger Rag" which has three parts. Apparently through nervousness she started with the third part - "hold that tiger..Hold that tiger etc." The band, who probably would not have known a jazz song to save their lives, played the first part! She said it was a DISASTER!

Subject: RE: Your First Time. Be Honest.
From: katlaughing
Date: 24 May 99 - 01:03 AM

Cute, Rick, so far eveybody's been "clean", so I guess I'll stick with the trend:-) Sorry to disappoint anyone! Did get 'em all in here, though, didn't ya? Hehehe

Really, honest to goodness, first time, was I think as concert mistress in grade school, about 11 yrs. old, I think I had a solo on the violin of Silent Night; then that same year, the quartet I was first chair in played the same song LIVE on the one and only television station in Western Colorado! I think I was too young and too busy being a bossy leader (teacher's pet) of the other players to be too nervous. The nervousness came many yrs. later when my brother and I performed a piano/violin arrangement of Ave Maria at a Unity church in Grand Junction, Colo. I shook so much, from my knees on up it sounded as though I was playing vibrato the whole time!

Now, I love to get up and perform, just don't do it very often. Get really flushed and hot, initially, then calm right down. It's just (imagine Carly Simon singing here) Anticipation!

Thanks, Rick, this is gonna be a fun one!

Love ya,

kat

Subject: RE: Your First Time. Be Honest.
From: Mudjack
Date: 24 May 99 - 01:04 AM

I didn't start playing guitar until I was thirty and about age thirty three went to an open mic The Starvation Cafe,in Fontana Calif. A great little venue for all kinds of music. Patrick who I become good friends with, was running the impromtu cafe and believed it was essential to have an open mic. I am forever grateful for him and The Starvation Cafe, it was there I got my first center stage experience at playing and singing the "Moonshiner" song. My hands were shaking so bad I could'nt control my flat pick, I got dry mouth and swear I stopped breathing for the duration of the song. Patrick was an encouragement in explaining everyone goes through the first fright thing. From there it was a matter of getting back up there time and time again and building a confidence level. Scared breathless is what I remember most.
Mj

Subject: RE: Your First Time. Be Honest.
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 24 May 99 - 01:10 AM

At a fraternity party in 1968 (yes I'm old) I was drinking beer and chasing girls with my friends. Several guys had brought along and set up guitars, a drum kit, microphones, a Farfisa organ and they were attempting some Turtles, Beatles, Stones etc, and everyone was dancing. I heard the guitar player ask the organist if he knew Poor Side of Town and saw the organist, who was doing the vocals shake his head no. I put my beer down and volunteered.

A funny thing happened. People were dancing. Some of the loudest drunks stopped to listen. A Norwegian exchange student named Barret, whom every guy had been chasing all night, came up and stood right in front of me smiling and swaying with the music. We finished the song and she says"I would like to be your valentine." One of the high points of my life, actually. One week later we were booking gigs as a band. I haven't stopped loving to perform since.

LEJ(now a one-woman man)

Subject: RE: Your First Time. Be Honest.
From: SeanM
Date: 24 May 99 - 01:16 AM

My FIRST first time isn't that interesting... my first pro gig was fun though. We were at the recent International Gold Panning Competition in sunny Coloma California. We'd had a member sick for a couple of weeks before the gig, so our recent rehearsals were spotty at best, and with half the group living in Northern California and the other half 500 miles south, there weren't as many as we could have had to begin with.

In any case, we arrived for check in (substantially late... traffic in San Francisco was extraordinarily ugly) to discover that the Czechoslovakian (sp?) contingent had taken over the pavilion we'd been directed to. Seems that they were holding a pancake dinner. After a couple of hours, we finally got checked in and were directed to the camp we were staying at.

Well, the next morning we arrived for our show. With about 4 hours sleep split between 5 people, we were looking and feeling our absolute best. After discovering our names spelt wrong on the schedule, and our introduction getting a bit... off, we were already a bit intimidated. We took the stage, and gave one of the most mediocre dress rehearsals possible. Voices freezing, missed notes, bizzare tempo changes, the works.

Fortunately, there were only about 3 people in the audience to begin with, and they didn't speak English.

We're much better now... Honest!

M

Subject: RE: Your First Time. Be Honest.
From: Mark Roffe
Date: 24 May 99 - 02:17 AM

Oh, wow - first time in front of an audience was in high school days, in 1963 or 1964. Our band was "The Sandy Rock Singers" which consisted of Lee, Mark, Larry and Stitch. Lee and Larry were the twin sons of the guy who did the Nestles commercials with his puppet "Farfel" (remember N-E-S-T-L-E-S, Nestles makes the very best...chocolate)?, I was Mark, and Stitch was this great relaxed, kind of roundish banjo player who looked like a grownup balding man even though he was around 15.
Our debut was at a Long Beach, Long Island NY "beach club," which is a seaside country club. We followed a very tight rock 'n roll band (whose musicians were a bit older and much more experienced than we were) in the outdoor dance pavillion. The teenage audience was really worked up from dancing rock 'n' roll. Suddenly "The Sandy Rock Singers" were announced...we went onstage with our acoustic instruments. As soon as we started playing, the kids in the audience were disappointed that the electric stuff had ended, and they started drifting out. We began playing, and then more drifted out (we weren't too great yet). But a handful remained, and dead center was this gorgeous, svelte 16-year old godess, red hair down to her waist, bikini...starting up at....ME!!! She was positively idolizing me, the guy with the guitar on the stage singing "Take a Stick of Bamboo," "Mighty Day (Seawall in Galveston)," and other Kingston Trio and PPM type folk hits. We may have lost the war, but who gave a damn with the gorgeous Barbara T. transformed into my groupie???

Mark

Subject: RE: Your First Time. Be Honest.
From: Roger in Baltimore
Date: 24 May 99 - 02:22 AM

Can't resist.

My first solo experience was in my Junior year in High School. I had been learning basic guitar for about two years and singing with others at parties. (It was the 60's and everybody sang folk music at parties).

I was practicing in my bedroom and realized that I was not completing my French homework assignment to write something creative in French. So I wrote my first song. I haven't maintained my High School French.

Well, my French teacher asked if it was truly a song and I said yes. She asked me to sing it. I did it for my class which still felt like playing for friends. Then she asked me to sing it for the French Assembly. Well, I mark that as my first public performance. Surprisingly it was disaster free.

I played a nylon string Gibson in those days. I mistakenly sold it to my sister after I bought a Martin D-28. Years later, I bought it back from her and gave it to my then wife as a Christmas present. I lost the wife and the guitar in one fell swoop. Sure wish I had her back, the guitar that is.

Here's what I remember.

Il y a une ville en France. Paris, Paris, Paris. Ou toute le monde aime danse. Paris, Paris, Paris

CHO: Paris est la ville, ou toute le monde aime allez.(3) Paris est la ville.

La toure Eiffel vous regardez, Paris, Paris, Paris. Vous mangez dans les cafes. A Paris, Paris, Paris.

Quand je suis tres vielle. Paris, Paris, Paris. Il faut que je vais alliez a. Paris, Paris, Paris

Roger in Baltimore

Subject: RE: Your First Time. Be Honest.
From: George Henderson
Date: 24 May 99 - 11:09 AM

I started in The Seven Stars Pub at Ponteland Folk Club in 1967, near Newcastle upon Tyne in England, when the resident band was called to do a TV show and the regulars had to keep the night going. I was so nervous the stage, which was an old door on top of beer crates rattled and nearly drowned me out.

I couldn't sing - I did a monologue - Piddlin Pete, which I'm sure you all know.

It brought the house down and I did Piddlin Pete weekly for about 6 months.

Then I got the courage to start a song and I haven't stopped since.

George

Subject: RE: Your First Time. Be Honest.
From: Peter T.
Date: 24 May 99 - 11:17 AM

New thread, George. Come on. Some of us have never heard of P.P. whatever that is.
Yours, Peter T>

Subject: RE: Your First Time. Be Honest.
From: MMario
Date: 24 May 99 - 11:30 AM

hmmm, well you can't really count the solo I did after my sister's wedding, lying flat on my back on the boardwalk in the moonlight, even though it DID get a three car "honk".... So I guess my first time was at the Georgia Ren-faire where the "innkeeper" always asked "Is there anyone here with a song to be sung, a tale to be told, or a toast to be toasted? In three day s of watching, I had never seen him choose anyone except someone with a toast. Though I had had a few cream ales, I felt safe enough when I shouted out "I've a song and a story!" Dang if he didn't turn around and say "Well stand up and do them!" With about 200 people watching ans several videpo cameras cranking, I figured performing would be less embarassing then backing out.... so I did a song I KNEW no-one else knew, with the story that went with it. That way, no one could tell if I flubbed it!

MMario

Subject: RE: Your First Time. Be Honest.
From: Art Thieme
Date: 24 May 99 - 01:30 PM

As David Wilcox said in his fine song "SEX AND MUSIC",

At first you say you'll do it for love,

But then you do it with friends,
but as soon as you do it for money,
Right there's where the innocence ends.

And why do you want them to love you,
What change are you trying to bring?
Do you lust after just their attention;
Do you want them to come when you sing?

Art

Subject: RE: Your First Time. Be Honest.
From: DougR
Date: 24 May 99 - 01:31 PM

I was about six years old when I performed publicly for the first time, in 1936. There was a singing competition for kids at the Central Texas Fair in my hometown. I sang, "Let Me call You Sweetheart," and I won second place, but I was hooked. Later I sang at a lot of weddings and it was at one of those that I had my most embarrassing experiences. The ceremony was scheduled for a country church a few miles out of town. I had arranged to meet the accompanist an hour ahead of the ceremony in order to rehearse the song I was to sing, "The Lord's Prayer." I arrived, met the accompanist, and we entered the church. I placed the music on the organ and the accompanist said, "Oh, I don't read music!" We stumbled through it but it was tough.

DougR

Subject: RE: Your First Time. Be Honest.
From: Vixen
Date: 24 May 99 - 01:37 PM

Great thread idea! I have not one, not two, but three "firsts!" I'll keep the suspense down, and share them all!

My FIRST performance was at the age of four or five, in kindergarten. The assignment was to learn a new song, and then sing it for the class. By that time, I'm pretty certain I knew dozens of songs, because I would listen to the Seegers, and Joanie, and Joni, and PPM, and the Weavers, and the New Lost City Ramblers, etc. for hours on end. Besides, I have a guitar-playing aunt who liked me to sing along, and my dad plays harmonica, and I'd sing with him too. OK, so I go home choose a song that is the most exciting song I know, and bring that into class on the appointed day. I remember practicing it several times, so I wouldn't get the verses confused. It has a lot of verses.

I then went into kindergarten and delivered my most rousing and energetic performance of...Frankie and Johnny.

The kindergarten teacher managed to shut me up, though that part is rather confused in my memory. She also had a conference with my mother, which as I recall, resulted in my Mom sticking up for me, since the assignment hadn't been clear, nor sent to the parents. My dad still relates this story with great glee.

My first musical performance after the kindergarten experience was thirty-some-odd years later in March 97, at an open mic, for which I prepared Leaving on a Jet Plane and Long Black Veil. I lost my nerve in the middle of Jet Plane, and stopped. The audience (bless them forever, Lord) yelled at me to finish.

My first PAID performance was a weekly gig Tim and I are still playing, doing a music hour for mentally retarded people. It barely pays our gas money to get to it, but it's a lot of fun. We've gotten to know the clients, and their favorite songs, and we have a good time giving other people a good time!

Thanks for letting me share it!!!!

V

Subject: RE: Your First Time. Be Honest.
From: Roger in Baltimore
Date: 24 May 99 - 03:13 PM

George,

Could "Piddlin' Pete" be the same story as "Piss Pot Pete"? If so, I've forgotten all but the title. Do you remember?

Roger in Baltimore

Subject: RE: Your First Time. Be Honest.
From: Allan C.
Date: 24 May 99 - 04:24 PM

My guitar playing partner,Keith Behner somehow booked the two of us to play a sort of "half-time" show at his eighth grade dance. We played a Kingston Trio song, "South Wind". Despite a very obvious (to us) false start, it actually went pretty well. But then the sisters (it was a Catholic school) insisted that we follow up with a song that everyone knew. Well, we only really knew the ONE SONG together. But I quickly broke into "Red River Valley" which Keith followed along with adequately. We managed to get through it okay and even had people singing along with us. Fortunately they didn't demand a third song. I am not sure that we could have complied.

But confidence was Keith's long suit. He immediately booked us to sing a birthday party. I don't know about Keith, but I have been performing with remarkable irregularity ever since.

The first booking I remember getting any money for was also a birthday party. It was during my senior year in high school. I was part of a short-lived trio at the time which contracted to do about a forty-five minute show. I have only a vague recollection of singing songs like "Bamboo", "The Water is Wide", and "You Can Hear It If You Try". We split the fee three ways and earned seven bucks apiece!

Subject: RE: Your First Time. Be Honest.
From: The Shambles
Date: 24 May 99 - 04:34 PM

I was persuaded to perform for the first time at a fund raiser for a Spiritual Healing Centre in Stansted Essex. It was not exactly a complete disaster, but it was 'pretty damn' close. It was held in marquee and I was sandwiched between a tenor, singing 'light ' opera and a little girl, dancing in a tutu.

I was proudly playing my new (it was the 1960's) Yamaha FG 140, which I still have. I had a harmonica harness, made out of a wire coat-hanger. It didn't work that well, as the wire bent forward, when I tried to play it and I ended up facing the floor (stagecraft).

It was during my Doc Watson, period and I was singing , quite appropriately, I thought, given the cause, We Shall All Be Re-United.

But unknown to me, there was this famous record producer in the audience,...................the rest is history.............. he signed up the tenor.

The last bit wasn't true, but the rest was, unfortunately. ......Now if I had only been wearing the tutu?

Subject: RE: Your First Time. Be Honest.
From: Cara
Date: 24 May 99 - 05:38 PM

Not including my poor family, the first (and only)time I sang alone in public was this year on St Pat's day in a pub where I know everyone, including the musician. we did "No Man's Land" and it was something of a disaster, since the whole thing was spur of the moment and I evidently forgot how to breathe, as well as several rather important bits of the tune. I have bad dreams about the whole thing. Fortunately, I was surrounded by friends so it wasn't all bad. And, I suppose anything would be an improvement if it happens again.

Man, but you should hear me sing that thing in the shower...

Subject: RE: Your First Time. Be Honest.
From: LEJ
Date: 24 May 99 - 06:38 PM

Liked the Harmonica on the coat hanger, Shambles. Would have been fine if you had wrapped another one around your head and put the hook over the outside edge of the harp to counterbalance the mouth pressure. :)LEJ

Subject: RE: Your First Time. Be Honest.
From: Graham Pirt
Date: 24 May 99 - 06:51 PM

Hi George

The Seven Stars at Ponteland brings back memories. I used to visit there at that time, usually singing with Ali Anderson. We were both at college there. Unfortunately my age meant that my first time of singing occurred some years earlier in '62 when I sang Black Leg Miners in a coffee bar folk club in South Shields.

Subject: RE: Your First Time. Be Honest.
From: maddy
Date: 24 May 99 - 09:05 PM

around 1958 or 59 i was listening non-stop to records by the oranim zabar trio, an israeli group, and memorizing all the songs (they came with with transliterations of the hebrew words). i was hanging out at a local jewish center (swimming, taking fencing lessons) and they were having a talent show of the classes and anyone else willing to perform. i was going to be there anyway with the fencing class. i don't know where i got the nerve, but i signed up, dressed up, showed up, and sang 2 or 3 songs - on a stage, with a microphone. it was probably pretty bad - i had serious pitch problems back then - but they loved it and i was complemented on my pronunciation.

Subject: RE: Your First Time. Be Honest.
From: katlaughing
Date: 24 May 99 - 11:49 PM

I forgot the one time I sang at school, instead of playing the violin. My best girlfriend, Muffie, and I worked up "I don't want to play in your yard", with my mom playing the piano accompaniment. We were about 7yrs old. Itw as for a school talent show and our moms made us matching gingham dresses with white pinafores.

I don't remember being too scared. I didn't know a lot of people in the audience, as we'd just moved there either that year or the year before (can't remember). I DO remember that I thought it was grand fun and that Muffie and I had a great time. The following year or two, she got rheumatic fever and had to spend a long time in bed, so we never got to sing together, again.

Sheesh, really hadn't thought abut that in awhile except in another thread to tell someone the song was in the Lester Levy link.

Thanks, Rick.

kat

Subject: RE: Your First Time. Be Honest.
From: Jory Nash
Date: 25 May 99 - 01:35 AM

Ahh...my first show was a high school battle of the bands. But I wasn't a band. Jez little 'ol Jory sitting on stage with his brand new Martin guitar. Plus a need to go to the washroom 7 times in the 15 minutes before I played. Got on stage, stared out at 231 people, who simply stared right back. I blanked out on what I was going to say, so I just blurted out the first thing that popped into my vacuous mind, which was "I'm so nervous I went to the bathroon 7 times in 15 minutes!" The crowd roared, I settled down, and it's been away to the races ever since.

Subject: RE: Your First Time. Be Honest.
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 25 May 99 - 01:37 AM

Maddy, I LOVED the Oranim Zabar Trio! Didn't understand a word naturally, but the tunes, and Geula Gill the singer - Wow! Wonder what happened to them.

Katey La France, these are supposed to be TRUE stories! No one has a friend named MUFFIE!!

Subject: RE: Your First Time. Be Honest.
From: Barbara
Date: 25 May 99 - 02:10 AM

The first time I can remember singing a solo was in front of the 9th grade girls choir, and, Lord save us, it was "Moon River". Now I spoze you can all tell how old I am. The choir director was an amazing birdlike woman, Violinda Nelson, HONEST!(almost birdlike, anyway... we said she looked like twin olives on a toothpick) and she picked me from 40 or 50 girls to sing the solo part. I thought it was a pretty cool song (now you really know how old I am) but her idea of what it should sound like differed radically from mine.
She was a strong proponent of that branch of classical performance that involves pseudo-english (UK) diction and singing melifluously through one's nose. To give you a further idea of her grip on reality, she taught us the scale to this poem:
(DO)I am a little pussy,my
(RE)coat is furry grey, I
(MI)live in the meadow not
(FA)very far away, I'll
(SO)always be a pussy, I'll
(LA)never be a cat, 'cause
(TI)I'm a pussywillow! Now
(DO)what do you think of that?
No matter how many times she demonstrated it, we could never get past DO without hysterics...
Anyway, I learned to sing "Moooooouhn Reeebuh, wiiiiiiduh then a miiiiile, Ahm crawwhsin' yhoo en stahhll..." and when I sang it, I could see most of my family in the second row with their faces buried in their hands to keep from laughing.
After that, performing in college coffeehouses was a piece of cake.
Blessings,
Barbara

Subject: RE: Your First Time. Be Honest.
From: KingBrilliant
Date: 25 May 99 - 05:08 AM

I've always loved singing, but only in private until recently. I used to spend hours upstairs as a kid with a guitar. Then I sort of went off it after I got married and my husband started telling people 'oh she can only do Paul Simon songs' - which I took to be a putdown (tho he tells me now that it wasn't intended that way). Then we started going to folk festivals etc, and I sort of vaguely cherished the idea of joining in a campfire singing sort of thing - so I used to take my guitar (which never got played). Then last year at the Guildford festival we enticed a friend of a friend back to our van for a curry, and so that e could play my guitar (he was away from home & missing hes). When we got back we found that he could only play if we had some sheet music for him to play from - which of course we didn't. So he fiddled about a bit & tuned it up. Then I grabbed it off him, and decided to have a go. I played & sang til about 4am (they couldn't shut me up once I started...). That was all it took really - just someone to start me off, and a few people to be nice about it... Since then I have expanded my repertoire (mostly from the Dig Trad dbase) & practiced a bit at singarounds & bought myself a lovely new guitar (the other one was from when I was at school - but has been improved a bit by sanding down on the expert advice of Bert (cheers)). So - this year I shall be singing away next to an old blue J4 camper van at various festivals throughout the South of UK. And thanks to all the advice & bits & pieces of info I have been picking up from the Mudcat I am improving & just generally really enjoying myself. (That 'weird chords' thread is great, & I have been applying that to just improvising stuff - it makes my guitar sound like a dulcimer-type easternish thingy [ish]). So I am not much beyond the 'first time' stage really - and the Mudcat has really been an important part of the process - so cheers'm'dears.

Kris

Subject: RE: Your First Time. Be Honest.
From: Jaxon
Date: 25 May 99 - 08:19 AM

I never picked up the guitar or tried singing until age 41. At age 47 I attended the 91.9 Summer Acoustic Music Week, which was held on Thompson Island in Boston Harbor.
By the student concert on Friday I had put together an all star band with Guy Davis on harp, Robert Jones on steel guitar, Kim Scanlon on backup vocals and me on my guild and doing lead vocals. In response to a couple of folk nazis we did a bluesy version of Honky Tonk Woman. It brought the house down. Although there were three more acts befoe the break, none wanted to follow us so they moved the break up.
What was interesting was that the "if it ain't folk, it ain't music" contingent were singing alog on the chorus with everyone else.
Jack Murray

Subject: RE: Your First Time. Be Honest.
From: KingBrilliant
Date: 25 May 99 - 08:31 AM

Wow - I thought I was a late starter at 35. Just goes to show that you can teach an old dog.... (nope, bad metaphor [or maybe the cap fits me too well!!!]). At the singaround thingy last month we bumped into a guy that we have seen around at various festivals & local events. He is 40 and has been singing publicly only for 6 months longer than me. P'raps its middle-age crisis thing!!! :)

Kris

Subject: RE: Your First Time. Be Honest.
From: puzzled
Date: 25 May 99 - 08:50 AM

I could have at least two firsts since i now play a different instrument than i did as a young person.  But there was a many years in between so i will tell about what i play now. 
About Twenty years ago i watched a man play ragtime.  I stood there thinking, "I bet i could learn to do that." I could read music so i bought some ragtime sheet music and i started teaching myself to play the piano.  I was 30 years old. Very slow going at first but i kept at it.  One of the things i did was to put an old upright in my business.  I would sit down to play for relaxation and i would also be able to practice on my dinner break on the days when i stayed way late.  One day about 6 years after i had started learning to play a woman came into the shop while i was practicing on a dinner break and asked me if i would come play for a special event the local senior center was doing.  It was two months down the road.  I tried to beg off saying that i was just a beginner but she was very insistent and i finally (with great trepidation) gave in.  I practiced more that two months than i ever had.
I was to play at 11:00 in the morning. I had left a note on the business entrance saying that I would not be there until after lunch.  I stayed at home practicing that morning trying to deal with my nervous fingers that had developed even before I left the house. It was a 30 minute drive to the town's senior center. I was trying the whole way not to think about how nervous i was. Without much success.  As I arrived a few minutes before 11:00 I realized that all the music i had been practicing on for the last two months for this gig was sitting beside the front door of my house.  I had not loaded it into the truck before i left.  There were a few numbers that i could play by memory at that time but none of them had been pieces that i had closen for the gig.  I hadn't played the memory pieces in the last two months because i was so intent on the pieces i had chosen for this gig.
Too late to go back home, i went in and played the pieces i knew from memory.  I remember a couple of things from that day's performance.  How sweaty my hands were. How glad i was that i was sitting down sense my knees were shaking so bad that i am not sure i could have stood. How badly i thought i played.  And How complimentary everyone there was and how they all hoped i would come back and play again for them.  As i left, i thought i would rather die.
But i got lucky and that very week i read an article about adults learning to play an instrument.  Three things in the article stood out to me. First the article said that the hardest part for most adults was to learn the discipline of practicing every day.  (that i could do) Second that most adults wanted to be able to play right away and were not usually willing to keep at it long enough to really learn to play.  (that was already one of my thoughts about life.  I feel like most people over estimate what they can do in a year and under estimate what they can do in 10 years).  But third and more important to me at that time the article said that most adults were terrified to play in front of other people for fear of making a mistake.  But that the folks listening were there to have fun and as long as the performer was having fun, any mistakes would be ignored (if recognized).  I took that to heart realizing that i was learning to play for the fun of it and obviously the folks at the senior center had had fun listening.
I kept practicing and started performing.  Now my band plays quite a bit and we are increasing the frequency that we play towards playing a lot.  It has been many years since i was nervous.  I go in knowing that i will have a good time and always do.

Subject: RE: Your First Time. Be Honest.
From: puzzled
Date: 25 May 99 - 09:11 AM

The other thing I learned from that first time. Whether playing solo or with the band I always play and sing from memory.

Subject: RE: Your First Time. Be Honest.
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 25 May 99 - 09:28 AM

Ah, how I remember...! One May evening in 1969 a nervous seventeen-year-old (me!) took his guitar and his girlfriend and his best friend and his girlfriend (for moral suport) to the Songsmiths' Folk Club at the Fitter's Arms in Walsall. I sang "I love you"* by the Goons, and followed it with "Draft-dodger Rag" by Phil Ochs (with a ready-made introductory story - Phil's first gig when he came to the UK was at the Songsmiths'). After a couple of bars, it was obvious I couldn't sing out in the key I'd pitched it at (C, probably), and I started again in G, transposing the chords as I went along. I climbed down from the stage a nervous wreck - but I was hooked!

And I learned a valuable lesson: always practice loud!

*The words:
I love you,
Oh yes I do.
I love your brother,
And your sister Sue. I love your Pa,
And your dear cousin Lou,
But most of all my darling,
I love ... your brother!

Subject: RE: Your First Time. Be Honest.
From: folk1234
Date: 25 May 99 - 10:31 AM

After many years of safely singing folk songs from the earthly bound cages of car and shower, I rediscovered folk music in 1988 thanks to the Branford Folk Music Socitey (CT). I truly believed that I was the only person in the entire world who still liked traditional music. I then bought a guitar, took introductory lessons in an evening public education program, and began going to concerts and house hoots. I very weakly attemped a few songs, but I can't say I really performed. I gained confidence and exposure over the next several years (Pinewoods '89 & '91, Swannanoa Gathering '93, Houston Folk Music Society, and Oklahoma City Traditional Music Assn) until I was ready to perform in public. Finally my public debut (9/93) was with The Oklahoma Traditions as we performed at the Nichols Hills Arts Fest. I played back up guitar, sang harmony, and lead in the singing of "The Whistling Gypsy Rover" At this point I was 54 yrs old!

I since have been to the Augusta Heritage '95 and back to Pinewoods '97 (plan to go again in 2000). I have to thank the wonderful people of local Folk Music organizations (Branford, Houston, OKC) and the great faculty and students at folk music camps for their warm welcome, encouragement, and sharing of expertise and music. I'm truly looking forward to making music with some other 'catters!

Subject: RE: Your First Time. Be Honest.
From: Peter T.
Date: 25 May 99 - 10:42 AM

I have never sung in public (except Gilbert and Sullivan on stage), but my first performance ever was the worst disaster I have have had on a stage, and nearly put me off everything for life. I was 4 years old, and we had this pageant, where there were 7 boy rabbits and 7 girl mushrooms, and they would dance around, and then it would start to rain, and the rabbits would take cover underneath the mushrooms. Got the setup? I was the 7th rabbit. On the day of the pageant, the 7th mushroom got sick, AND NOBODY TOLD ME. We all got out on stage, and danced around, and then it started raining, and everyone got under their mushroom but me. I was left alone in the middle of the stage in my rabbit suit, weeping and howling. I have never trusted girl mushrooms, 4th grade schoolteachers, or much of anything since.
It is only a short bunny hop from that to Greek tragedy, folks.
Yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: Your First Time. Be Honest.
From: LEJ
Date: 25 May 99 - 12:46 PM

Peter, that's hilarious! Maybe even You can laugh about it now? :)LEJ

Subject: RE: Your First Time. Be Honest.
From: Jon W.
Date: 25 May 99 - 12:46 PM

I played bass and guitar for a few talent shows, but my first time singing in "public" was at a family reunion. I wanted to do the song "Jack Haggarty" with my wife. She is a professional quality singer, having majored in music, sung in A Capella Choir at the University level, etc. She didn't think it was very necessary to rehearse, I guess, because we only ran through the song once or twice. We alternated verses, I strummed along on guitar, and the performance was dreadful. My wife was humiliated. She said we didn't sing on key, and frankly, most of the audience (my extended family) weren't paying attention anyway. My cousin did come up and congratulate me on the song. I apologized for being off key, but he told me that it wasn't I, but my wife, who was singing off key. In fairness to her, she couldn't hear the guitar very well - the acoustics were miserable. I've never told her what my cousin said, but it gave me the confidence to keep trying. It was several years before she would agree to perform with me again - and that time we rehearsed several times, and ran through the song (Neil Young's "Harvest Moon") again once or twice in the actual venue with the sound equipment, before the audience arrived. This time even my wife said I did good. I'm still very much a beginner - every time feels like my first time - but I'm gaining confidence. By the way I'm in my 40's now.

Jon W.

Subject: RE: Your First Time. Be Honest.
From: Peter T.
Date: 25 May 99 - 02:35 PM

Dear LEJ,
No.
Yours, Peter T. (P.S. I meant kindergarten teachers).

Subject: RE: Your First Time. Be Honest.
From: Cap't Bob
Date: 26 May 99 - 01:45 PM

Well.....er....lets see. The first I sang in public was at the Methodists church. Two of us cubs scouts were to sing "Jesus Want's Me For A Sumbeam". It was actually a duet and we practiced all week for the occasion. Everything seemed just fine until we started singing with the accompanists who played the song a key or two above our upper limits. Oh the terror when we got to the high notes and more or less fell apart. Then there was the looks on the faces of all those people trying their best to keep form breaking out in laughter.

Cap't Bob

Subject: RE: Your First Time. Be Honest.
From: The Shambles
Date: 26 May 99 - 01:49 PM

LEJ

I had enough HANG-UPS in those days, thanks.

Subject: RE: Your First Time. Be Honest.
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 26 May 99 - 05:17 PM

1. Piddlin Pete - there was a thread about it a year ago, maybe. Has it got a tune?

2. J4 camper van - no-one still has one of them outside a museum surely? The last one I remember was when I was at university about 30 years ago and it was an old van then.

Subject: RE: Your First Time. Be Honest.
From: Liam's Brother
Date: 26 May 99 - 07:25 PM

The first (and only, I believe) Queens College Folk Festival... about 1963. Not a bad lineup... Mississippi John Hurt, Doc Watson, Pat Sky, Michael Cooney + the winners of the talent contest from earlier in the day... that was another fellow and myself. What I really remember was being on an enormous stage and not being able to see anything beyond the blinding spotlights. I sang 2 songs. I think one was Barbara Allen. People applauded and then I walked off. I've done quite a few gigs since then but that was the biggest stage and they were the brightest lights of all.

Subject: RE: Your First Time. Be Honest.
From: alison
Date: 26 May 99 - 10:20 PM

I'm sorry.....I can't resist this....

It was dark, he was a hunk, we were in love..... **grin** hahahaha

loved the vision of the mushroomless rabbit, Peter, my 3 year old wants to know why I'm laughing so much...

Here's the thread where you can read Piddlin' Pete

I can't remember what I sang, but I know I was about 6 years old and the teacher took me to the P1 (4 year old classroom) made me stand on a desk and sing for them, then followed many years in school choirs, orchestras and bands and church groups (got my girl guide folk singer badge.. still have it.. looks like a couple of faceless monks playing guitars...)..... all great for building confidence......

slainte

alison

Subject: RE: Your First Time. Be Honest.
From: The Shambles
Date: 27 May 99 - 11:05 AM

Dan

Sounds pretty much to me that you started at the top?

I'm sure glad Doc Watson wasn't there when I played.

Subject: RE: Your First Time. Be Honest.
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 27 May 99 - 03:08 PM

Ah-hah. I should have gone back to the old thread later on, and then fought with the technoogy. Perhaps this weekend.

Now, about that J4 van....

Subject: RE: Your First Time. Be Honest.
From: Pete Peterson
Date: 27 May 99 - 03:35 PM

1959, high school talent show. I had a $29.95 Stella guitar, combination hygrometer and guitar (the warp in the neck was directly proportional to the relative humidity) and I had been playing for about four months and the blood poisoning (high action, steel strings, uncalloused fingers) had subsided. I sang Tom Lehrer's Poisoning Pigeons in the Park. Went over great (if you can't be good sing something funny). Years later I became a pesticide formulation chemist. How's THAT for foreshadowing? PETE

Subject: RE: Your First Time. Be Honest.
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 11 Sep 01 - 04:54 PM

Subject: RE: Your First Time. Be Honest.
From: Kim C
Date: 11 Sep 01 - 05:16 PM

Silent Night, first-grade Christmas pageant, 1973.

Subject: RE: Your First Time. Be Honest.
From: John P
Date: 12 Sep 01 - 08:19 AM

I was fifteen when I joined my first rock band as the organ player in 1969. Embarrassingly, I can't remember the name of the band. Our first gig was at a dance at Gull Lake Junior High School in Richland, Michigan. I don't remember what we played first. I only remember three songs that band did: "Matchstick Men", "You Keep Me Hanging On", and "San Francisco". I'm sure we played all of those that night.

JP

Subject: RE: Your First Time. Be Honest.
From: Jeremiah McCaw
Date: 12 Sep 01 - 04:51 PM

First time I ever sang in public? About 10:30 in the evening standing in line outside the Riverboat, waiting to get in for Lightfoot's midnight show ("Spin, Spin, Spin" had just hit the airwaves and now everybody else knew about him, too, dammit). I told my companions about a song by Phil Ochs called "Is There Anybody Here" and very quietly (I thought) sang a couple of verses for them. Finished and was thoroughly astounded to hear applause from the others in the line. Freaked me out more than somewhat!