Open stage - part two

We played at Swallow Hill's open stage last night. I backed up Julie on a song and then my daughter Alyse got to sing Going to the River. It was pretty cool, this 8 year old, singing during the open stage. She has no fear, her biggest problem was that we didn't use instruments like the other performers. She has learned that singing acapella is really cool. We still have to work on staying on beat, but we are getting better with time.

When we got home Julie and I discussed the performers. We immediately agreed that there were two artists that stood above the crowd. Our next agreement was that their songs were way too long. A note to all performers, take notice of the length of your song. Keep songs in the 3 to 4 minute range. Anything longer and you better have a lot of variety in what you play. This is especially true for solo folk performers.

Another thing that really showed the differences between performers was keeping time. My foot is the groove meter. If someone is doing a good job keeping time, my foot can't help but move with them. Last night it only moved on a few rare occasions. Note to self: get that metronome out again.