Oh No!!! Help

[Sailor]

I, foolishly, agreed to play a short set at the start of a friends wedding. She just wants 30 mins of light jazz guitar prior to the ceremony. I found out today it's two weeks away!

I've been studying so much jazz/blues, II-V-I's, swing rhythms, etc... I don't really have any chord melodies ready to go. I can read well.

What to do??? What songs would you pick if you had two weeks to prep for a 30 min set....

Help, Sailor

[billkath]

My advice would be to pick songs that everybody knows. Now-you need to remember that a lot of standards have been used in modern movies, so the youngsters will know them- things that are easy, like Beneath the Sea, King of the Swingers etc or songs that have been covered recently by the likes of Michael Buble, Westlife or Robbie Williams on their "jazz" albums. Oldies will recognize the originals-youngies recognize the new versions.

So-Do you sing? Or is that not wanted?

If not-have you anything that you can use to give you some backing?
Work on the 3-minute principal, in that peoples attention spans are geared for 3 minutes. That means you only need 10 songs. Really-a song is about 3.5 minutes, so that's 9 songs and an encore/standby.

I sing, so my list would be geared that way, and might not be useful.
I'd steer clear of what we, as jazz guitarists like, and try to think of something they'd know and like, being non-jazzers. Standards-but REALLY popular ones, like Fly me to the Moon, Paper Moon, Bill Bailey, Bye Bye Blackbird-that sort of stuff. Songs that have been assimilated into your soul since you've been born.

[GuyB]

Are you going to give a "show" (people quiet and listening to you) or will it be "backround" music while people will go around talking to each other ?

In the last case, I would not go into trying to learn 10 new songs in 2 weeks. Perhaps you can but I would not be able to do that. I would prepare between 6 and 10 backround tracks of very simple progressions and improvise on them, a modal approach. That, for me, would be the easiest way to prepare in such a short time since I do that regularly in my daily practice.

In the first case... well, I think I would have posted a "Help me" thread like you did !

[fep]

I've done that exact thing.

The thing I did was play some jazz standard chord melodies, some classical pieces, and some pop, and some orginal classical pieces. I also have a cool classical guitar rendition of Wagner's Bridal March.

I do it all on a mic'd classical guitar.

Since you play classical you should see if they'll let you mix it up.

Send me a message and I can send you a bunch of music.

Some songs I played:

Claptons Signe (this is a crowd fav)
Blackbird
All the things you are
A child is born
Stairway to Heaven (another crowd fav)
Lagrima
Adelita
Etude in B minor
Bouree in E minor
Fly me to the moon
The Bridal March

That's the kind of set I play

[Sailor]

Hey thanks guys....Yeah, I'm not really a singer and have always done classical sets at wedding. These guys wanted 30 mins of chord melodies, which I'm just not great at yet. I can play them fine, but I'm not happy with the quality yet.

This is just a total background thing so I don't think anyone will know or care what I'm playing!

And YES, FEP - I have always played an almost identical set as you listed with some Carcassi, and Bach, (Prelude no.1), and Vivaldi, etc, thrown in.

I'm actually thinking of trying a rehearsal in the next two days and if I don't have it I'll just bag out....already told them I don't really do this type of stuff at this time....would LOVE to be able to play Jazz CM's for a few hour set though!!

Much thanks, Sailor