Au Natural

[min7b5]

It’s funny, I’ve been so wiggy with amplification lately... trying different amps, DI’s, EQ settings... the usual nuttiness. Then yesterday and today I played two weddings, in two different city parks, that happen to be the only places in town that have strict no amplification polices. So I put my chair in a good spot, got my fingerpicks on just so, and laid into it.

It’s funny, but I think it’s the best I’ve played in a while, and the most tone compliments I’ve had in a while too. I’m also a little fried from it... but it got me thinking, this is obviously just the way it was done for most of history, there was no option. There’s something kind of satisfying about looking at a hundred people and thinking, darn it, that guy in the back is going to hear this! I mean, I couldn’t wait till the cocktail hour so I could use my amp, but it was a little disappointing somehow too.

Anyone else gig au natural recently ?

[Chicago Sandy]

I wanted to, but I need to lose some weight first........

[cotten]

But he was wearing fingerpicks, wasn't he?

I've played without amplification a few times, Eric. The best results seemed to be on a lake shore or at the bottom of a hillside, a natural ampitheater.

Not long ago, I took a long, late night stroll along the shore of a retreat center lake in North Georgia. Had my guitar strapped on, and thoroughly enjoyed myself, walking slowly and carefully in the darkness. I was feeling thoughtfully reflective, and most of what I played was rather quiet and slow, using only my fingers.

At midnight I headed slowly up the hill back to my room. A group of college kids caught up with me, and thanked me for my playing. "That was the most beautiful thing I've ever heard," said one girl. I hadn't even known they were there. They'd been talking quietly around a dying campfire some 60 yards away, and the sound of my guitar was reflected by the water and surrounding hills. Evidently, it hid my playing deficiencies and made me sound better than I am.

That had happened a few years ago at a graveside service, as well. Lacking a decent bugler but knowing that I can play a little on most anything, the family wanted me to play "Taps" from a hillside across the way. I borrowed an old coronet and did as they asked. Again, the hills seemed to round off the rough edges of my sound, and they thought it was perfect. (I knew better, but attributed it to the quirks of outdoor acoustics.)

Playing outdoors unamplified definitely has its challenges, but it can work, and sometimes becomes something magical.

cotten

[ParleyDee]

I did yesterday.

I had a (rare for me) straightforward "classical trio" gig at an outdoor wedding with a civil celebrant. Most of it was on modern flute but I accompanied the violin and cello for a few popular songs and played continuo in a Vivaldi concerto middle movement. I wasn't sure how well it would carry but the Worthy makes at least as much noise as most classical guitars ... and the guitar in the Vivaldi was the thing the bride seemed most impressed with!

I guess if you're into early music and are familiar with lutes and guitars as continuo instruments in "orchestral" music, it's not a novel idea but if your only exposure to Vivaldi is with modern orchestras who think largo is a metronome setting rather than a "flavour indicator", maybe it is a bit different.

But in any case she must have *heard* it well enough, in order to be impressed!

[Timothy Lawler]

Great thread.

Tim

[TBman]

I'm not a performer, but my favorite place to play my guitar is on my front steps at dusk. A guitar always sounds "just right" outdoors. Mixed with the sunset, there's no better place to be musically.