Played a lot of guitar today and tackled a couple of songs I always wanted to learn.

[Quiet Em]

Sara Smile by Hall and Oates and Everything I Own by Bread.

Much fun.

[ProfessorGAC]

1. I Might Steal The Idea For The First One

Song like that is well-suited for solo guitar & voice.

[Quiet Em]

2. Yes. It's a beautiful song.

Not much too it but it's a lot of fun to play and sing with.

[ProfessorGAC]

3. When I Go To Open Night Mic Nights...

...I make sure I'm doing songs that I'm 99 9% sure nobody else was planning to do, or did already.
This song would fit that bill.
I go more for the camaraderie than the performing. I've done over 2,000 paid gigs in my life, so I don't have a burning need like I once did.
Last open mic night, I dud "Everybody Wants To Rule The World", "Don't Dream It's Over", and a 12 string solo instrumental piece. (Not titled)
If I go Wednesday afer next, I'm going to do jazz guitar version of "Am I Blue", "Time After Time", and a 6 string instrumental piece. Pretty sure I'm not stepping on any toes with those choices.
BTW: The way I'm playing that old jazz standard, there are 27 distinctly different chords. So, I'm busy on that one.

[Quiet Em]

4. Wow. I would love to hear you cover Am I Blue.

If I was at your open mic night I'd be cheering you on. Beautiful song.

27 chord changes, wow. That's a lot to retain.

Today I'm working on Back to Black by Amy Winehouse

I also want to say, as someone like yourself who is accomplished on piano and guitar I'll bet you could do an awesome cover of the slow version of Neil Sedaka's Breaking Up Is Hard To Do.

[ProfessorGAC]

5. Probably

I would jazz it up substantially. On piano, I almost never play chords with under 4 tones, often 5. Just my background.
Big on 13th & half-diminished chords.
BTW: my version of Am I Blue is done in bossa nova rhythm. Makes it more fun to sing.

[ProfessorGAC]

9. 2nd Reply

Just noticed this:
It's not 27 chord changes. It's 27 different chords!
The number of changes is over 90!
Like I said; I'm busy on that tune.

[Quiet Em]

11. Very impressive.

I think the song with the most different chords that I play is the slow version of Breaking Up Is Hard To Do. 21 different chords on that song.

[ProfessorGAC]

6. I Do Sara Smile

I have a nifty way of doing the intro with multiple strings.
Really fun to sing.
Another one I'll suggest is Undun by Guess Who.
Very cool chords on that one.

[Quiet Em]

7. Terrific suggestion.

I might try to tackle that one today. Love that song.

I would love to hear your version of Sara Smile if you ever record yourself playing it. It really is a great song to sing.

[ProfessorGAC]

8. Yeah, I Love Being Able...

...to drop in & out of falsetto.
At 68, my falsetto isn't what it used to be, but I can still do it.
I do a lot of 12 string stuff, but Sara... I do on 6 string.
I did it at an open mic afternoon about a month ago.
The other songs I did that day were Rundgren's "I Saw The Light" & a jazzy version (to a bossa nova rhythm) of the Billie Holiday song "Am I Blue".
A couple weeks back I did Undun, Have Ever Seen The Rain (with a chord solo before the 3rd verse), & Plush by Stone Temple Pilots. I took one of 12 strings that day.

[ProfessorGAC]

10. One More Suggestion

I just started messing with Al Stewart's "Year Of The Cat".
I can't do the big, lush solo section alone but, the rest of the song has cool chords, a couple of surprise changes, and the signature riff is awfully easy given it was written on a piano.
I'm headed to that open mic night on Thursday and I'll do this one. I know nobody else is going to.

[Quiet Em]

12. Thank you.

I will try it out.

Have fun Thursday.