[wcap]

Well, we did this on Tuesday, and I think it went well. We got applause anyway, and no tomatoes were thrown! And we had some really nice conversation with some of these very nice people after we played. They seemed to really appreciate all of this. It was very much an elderly audience, for the most part - some folks didn't seem completely able to understand conversations we were having with them.

As it turned out, my older daughter (who was going to lead the singing) couldn't come, and my wife convinced me that the play list I had in mind was far too long (she was correct), so we didn't do all I had intentionally figured we might do. Mostly the singing thing was not a big part of it this time, but they did sing along on some of the things we played.

We started out with me playing Shenandoah (fingerstyle arrangement)...some sang along on this.

Then an instrumental - Shebeg and Shemore - very pretty old Irish tune. Guitar and flute (I sort of got lost part way through for no good reason...oh well....at least my daughter on flute kept going as though nothing happened!).

Then a medley of Swedish Fiddle tunes (my wife and daughter doing violin duets) - very nice melodies.

Then "I Can't Help Falling in Love With You" - classical guitar, fingerstyle, and folks sang along.

Then classical guitar, violin, and flute playing Childgrove (another old traditional tune).

Followed by the three of us on steel string guitar/flute/violin playing an assortment of old traditional tunes like Londonderry Aire/Danny Boy (folks sang along on this), Star of the County Down, Captain Henry O'Kain, Carolan's Welcome, etc. Ended with Ashokan Farewell (not an old tune, I realize), and The Ash Grove (got some singing along on this too). (By the way, I LOVE the sound of guitar, flute, and violin together, especially when my daughter takes the melody up an octave as a variation!)

Had cookies and coffee and juice and conversation, then I played an original fingerstyle piece of mine on classical guitar, followed by Classical Gas. And finished with a lively, fancy fingerstyle arrangement of Freight Train (and some folks sang along on this).

It was fun. It was my first time doing anything like this. And it made me feel like all the time I have spent playing guitar has some value beyond just self-serving personal enjoyment.

My playing was not perfectly clean at all times (in part I was distracted by having an audience), but I don't think a non-musician really would have noticed. My wife and daughter played great. This was a good experience for me to get me used to playing in front of others - it was a very appreciative and non-judgmental audience.

If we do this again, we'll work some more singing into it.

An amusing thing that happened:
On my steel string, I used several different tunings, and the transitions went smoothly. But when I got home that night, picked up my guitar, and changed from standard into DADGAD tuning, my high E string immediately broke! I guess I should have put on new strings before our performance!

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. We will make good use of them if we do more of this in the future.