posted by Mike Madison at 7:27 AM /
Link: Post-GazetteThe tall, blond woman gripped her guitar for dear life and leaned into the microphone.
"Hi everybody, my name is Elizabeth, and this is ME, getting over a huge fear."
The casual crowd on this Friday night at the Coffee Den in Mt. Lebanon clapped and cheered in approval as Elizabeth Hareza, 21, dug into "Wonderwall" by Oasis. About 20 seconds into the song, however, she stopped, announced a different song, and sailed into that.
Flushed by her success, Miss Hareza, a student at Bethany College who said she needed to practice for an upcoming show at school, tried to make a quick exit from the glass-windowed stage area of the coffee shop.
"One more!" someone yelled, and the chant was picked up by the rest of the crowd. Miss Hareza obliged, tried Wonderwall again, this time to her satisfaction.
Many in the crowd last weekend could empathize. They were mostly veterans of the open stage, or the so-called "open mic" scene in the South Hills, where anyone with a song or a poem or a funny joke can get up and perform.
Labels: entertainment
1 Comments:
I've been to Empire Music's open stage. It seems like a great place for new players to get experience playing in front of an audience. And I'd recommend to any guitar student (or other musician) to get experience playing in front of strangers as early as possible. If you're scared to do it alone, get a couple of friends and play as a band (that's more fun anyway).
It doesn't just help your playing, if you can get comfortable in front of an audience it will help in other aspects of life as well.
Personally, I miss the old songwriters' open stage that Scott Blaise ran at the Artery in Shadyside (now Soba) on Sunday nights in the early-mid 90's. Lots of people from the Pittsburgh rock scene could be found there, at least occasionally, and it was a great place to meet other musicians. You probably won't get that kind of scene on Friday or Saturday nights because people in working bands will be working then.
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