{"id":9742,"date":"2013-03-11T21:36:22","date_gmt":"2013-03-12T01:36:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/?p=9742"},"modified":"2013-03-11T21:36:22","modified_gmt":"2013-03-12T01:36:22","slug":"in-which-i-strum-the-uke-in-front-of-an-audience-and-give-myself-permission-to-suck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/2013\/03\/11\/in-which-i-strum-the-uke-in-front-of-an-audience-and-give-myself-permission-to-suck\/","title":{"rendered":"In which I strum the uke in front of an audience and give myself permission to suck"},"content":{"rendered":"

Irene was going to New York to catch two performances at the Metropolitan Opera last weekend, so I decided to head north with her. Not because I also wanted to see Parsifal<\/em>, but because the NYC ukulele contingent gathers the second Friday of every month for an open mic and jam session, which meant I’d be able to join them. So I tagged along, not wanting to miss a chance to strum with others.<\/p>\n

We met for four hours Friday night at the Sage Theater on Seventh Avenue between 47th and 48th Streets, where each of us was to be given a shot at performing one song, and if time permitted after everyone had a turn, a second.<\/p>\n

\"NYCUkeMeetup030813\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I chose “Makin’ Whoopee” and “Happy Go Lucky Me,” because I’d committed both songs to memory and had played each several times a day for the past few weeks. (I already shared “Makin’ Whoopee” with you here<\/a>.) But I soon discovered that there’s a big difference between performing a song under your own roof with an audience consisting of your spouse and performing it in a theater on a stage under a spotlight in front of rows of strangers.<\/p>\n

When I got on stage, I suddenly found that my fingers were stiffer than they ever were at home, my voice betrayed my nervousness, and the chords and lyrics I thought I had memorized occasionally fled. Regardless of that, I’m going to share those performances with you.<\/p>\n

Since they’re not perfect, you might ask … why?<\/p>\n

It’s not just because I have no shame, or because I want to publicly track my progress since I can’t see if I’m getting anywhere if I can’t see where I’ve been. It’s because I want to give myself—and you, too—permission to suck. <\/p>\n

So often, people stop doing things that bring them joy because they can’t be perfect. They say you’re supposed to write a million words of crap before you get to the words that matter (or so goes the writing advice cliche). I don’t know how many strums something like that would translate to, but I’m sure it must be a lot. And there must also be some number of public performances one must survive before all those eyes on you have little effect. <\/p>\n

Not sure what that number is, but I plan on pushing through it. And whatever your thing is, I hope you push through the appropriate magic number, too.<\/p>\n

That being said, here I am on stage, performing “Makin’ Whoopee” in front of strangers for the first time.<\/p>\n