A Modern Blog about Musicians, Singer Songwriters, OpenMic-ers and everything in between ——— by: Johnny Ozelius – Musician – SingerSongwriter – Writer – Untamed Dreamer
Just around the corner is a new feature focused on musicians who are performing music “under the radar”. I know many local and regional artists from New England to Texas and beyond who spend much of their waking (and sleeping) hours living their music. The goal is simple – to publish performer profiles directed to help them build their brand and raise their music “above the radar”.
As always, my sincere thank for stopping by the site. Rock on!
JohnnyO
Join us at the Knights of Columbus in Melrose this Thursday Sept 10th, 7:30 to 10:30 PM! “I am hosting this week!”. The theme this week is “Songs with a Person’s Name in the Title. (ie…Daniel’s Song). The rules are, There are No Rules! You do not have to play a song with a name in it but if you have one, bring it.
Come by and play some great music or just listen! 23 West Foster St. in Melrose on the “Second Floor”. Open to the public. Cash bar with a full lineup of drinks, beer, wine and good nonalcoholic beer and soda as well. See you there.
Tip One Preparation
If there is one thing that is most often missing among some open mic players that would be “Preparation”. Too many performers sign up for an open mic and then get up and perform a song poorly or only get part way through a song before they give up, laugh and move on to another song attempt.
Note that this advice does not apply to the one sixth of folks who are nervous already, wouldn’t leave their house without checking every detail in the mirror and spend six to eight hours preparing their songs to the finest detail. These folk are prepared. I’m talking about the one third of players who show up with any combination of the following.
They:
-Learned one of their songs in the car while driving home that day.
-Played a song whose chords they had not yet mastered.
-Thought about songs they might play as they sign up.
-Contemplated performing a song they wrote half of last night.
-Considered making up the second verse while singing the first verse on stage.
-Met a new musical friend, asked them to play with them, got up for their set, got
plugged in and then asked your new found musical
soul mate… “What do you want to play?”
Hopefully, you found these a bit humorous, but I have seen every one of these scenarios play out multiple times at open mics. Let me be straight, these rarely go over well. Yes, there are times when an unknown collaboration can go well but that usually only happens when at least one of the collaborators has a solid idea of what they are doing and why.
That said, I’ve seen good performers show up with a plan to play three songs by a favorite singer who was in the news that week. They think they remember the songs and they download the chords and lyrics from the internet in a rush and print them out or even worse they look them up on their phone five minutes before they go on. Yikes!
But, far be it for me to ruin the fun for the audience. If you want to be a train wreck be my guest. I’m just kidding actually. The truth is you will not impress anyone with that level of preparation. You will at best pull off the song in a less than stellar way and it is entirely likely you will crash and burn when you forget the words, can’t negotiate that tricky passage or continue to play the wrong chords, sing the wrong melody or just get stopped in your tracks by that mischievous Amaj7 chord followed by a D/F#.
I am of the firm belief that most of us who perform at open mic do it because they we enjoy playing and singing music and we want to share it. If your intention is to get up in front of people and get some sort of of personal satisfaction by appearing not to know what your attempting, that is fine, the signup is for anyone. But, if you want to get noticed and have people praise you “honestly” for your performance you need to come prepared. You are doing yourself a disservice by not preparing.
Years ago when my kids were small and I had a dream of being a good well known local performer I made a point to make time to practice my repertoire of songs and I planned out my presentation. I would set the kids up with a movie downstairs and practice upstairs. On Saturday mornings when the rest of the family was sleeping I would get up and practice for an hour or two on the sunroom deck. was a sunroom that was attached to the house but separated enough so that sound did not flow to the rest of the home. Those were the days when I memorized all my lyrics and could show up with a list of songs ready to go.
I realize that not all of you will have a soundproof sunroom to practice in and your life is probably pretty chaotic but if you want to improve and be the best performer you can be, I believe that you much make time to practice and prepare.
So here are a few pointers that will help:
– Practice your songs enough so that you can get through the whole song without having
to stop to regroup.
– Make sure you have a good lead sheet either printed or on a tablet.
– Take a video and analyze it before your show.
– Choose your songs ahead of time and do not change your selections unless you have good reason.
– Practice your songs one more time.
In closing, I will say without reservation that if you prepare for every open mic performance as if it were a paying gig loaded with fans, you will build that following and you will find yourself the recipient of many compliments from listeners.
As Les Brown the great business motivational speaker says, “Practice does not make perfect. Practice makes Improvement. But Practice combined with Preparation will also will make you a much better performer.
Last Thursday Aug 13th, a full house gathered in Melrose for another great night of music, friends and fun. Twelve performers signed up and each performed a three song set.
Among the highlights were the multiple songs on which one of our regular drummers Kevin, accompanied other performers. Kevin is one of three or four drummers who come and are willing to play if asked. What I love about Kevin is that he can play so many styles. He is patient, starts quietly while he picks up the song then lays down a solid groove. He provided drums for my songs Dancing Boy and The Downeaster Alexa as well as a solid freight train beat for Jason and I when we did Folsom Prison Blues. In addition, Kevin played with Huseyin and Max for their songs. Kevin is representative of the great open mic spirit. He is ready to play and collaborate at a moments notice.
Thursday at the Knights is a standard open mic format of three songs apiece, first come first serve from a signup sheet. Performers present in all ages and abilities. This open mic had performers who ranged from their 20s to their 70s. Now that’s diversity!
One note of interest is that each Thursday night of the month night has a different host. Tim, Tom and Mark join me to share weekly hosting duties. This means that each host brings their own spice and zip to the standard presentation. In addition, each host attracts a somewhat unique group of performers. Every week has a different blend of players who sign up. Collaboration is encouraged and often different players will combine forces on a song or two. This creates a lot of unique opportunities for creativity.
When I host on the second Thursday of each month I announce a theme ahead of the event. The purpose of the theme is to encourage players get out of their comfort zone and play something new. There are no rules about the theme, you absolutely do not have to play a “themed song”, but if you have a song that fits I always encourage a player to bring it. Why a theme? It is not uncommon to hear many of the same songs at a typical open mic. The same songs by Tom Petty or The Rolling Stones or Ed Sheeran. There is not a single thing wrong with any song except that after hearing one of these for the 3oth time you might think, “There has to be something else by Ed Sheeran that this person might be able to play”. Open mic attracts a number of players who are new to playing music in public and are only comfortable playing a few songs. The theme provides an opportunity to think about a new song to learn or a forgotten song from the past to brush up and present again. More about that in another post.
In future posts I will be introducing some of the regular players in more detail. One of the joys of the open mic is that we are all amateurs but there are moments when something of true greatness happens and there are diamonds in the rough who start at open mic and go on to have major careers as musical performers. Join us for the fun next time will you?
The Knights of Columbus Open Mic is every Thursday night 7:30pm to 10:30pm. Signup starts at 7pm. This event is open to the public. The location is 23 West Foster Street, Melrose Mass, 2nd floor. Cash Bar – soda and NA beer available.
Join the cool crowd for Openmic at the Knights of Columbus in Melrose this Thursday Aug 13th, 7:30 to 10:30 PM! And yes, yours truly JohnnyO is hosting this week!. The theme this week is Ocean/Sea/Water Songs. The rules are, There are No Rules! You do not have to play a song about the Ocean, Sea or Water but if you have one, bring it.
For those wondering about the theme, I began incorporating a theme into the KoC Open mic a couple of years ago in an effort to encourage new songs. So many of us fall into playing a small collection of songs over and over. A theme is just a way to encourage players to scroll through their repertoire for something new and fresh.
Honestly, it has worked wonders. During August of 2024 the theme was Woodstock for the 55th anniversary of the greatest music festival ever. (By the way, I was one of the babies born at Woodstock). We heard songs that night from Arlo Guthrie, the Who and even some Tim Hardin music (look that one up).
We’ve done themes like, break up songs, British pop songs, songs you love no one else has ever heard, train songs and many more.
Come on by and play some great music or just listen! 23 West Foster St. in Melrose on the “Second Floor”. Open to the public. Cash bar with a full lineup of drinks, beer, wine and good non-alcoholic beer and soda as well. See you there.
JohnnyOooooooo