You MUST LEARN These 3 Songs -Most Requested For A Solo Acoustic Gig 

***correction A6 is the chord for “touching warm” I realized the mistake after upload on the Neil Diamond song!!! 😮

“Remember: You’re there to make people happy, not impress other musicians”. Hands down the best reminder ever lol. Well said my brother.

You are right about Sweet Caroline. I was at an open mic night, and another older guy played this, and the whole crowd came alive! They were singing those iconic parts and having a blast! There were some great guitar players that night who were mesmerizing, but everyone was talking about the old guy who did Sweet Caroline. Gotta give the people what they want!

“Don’t think you’re too cool to play anything” at 8:58. What a great comment that we should all take to heart!

this is exactly what i needed. where to dig to spice it up. wow suddenly I m doing what i want to be doing. 😮

You are a good man, Frank...good people. Thank you!

So much truth man .. great advice for the youth 🙂

Thanks for this Frank. Same philosophy I have.... there to make people happy and entertain them.

Thanks. Your a great help

Nice, thanks for making the vid.

Great advice. And a well taught lesson thank you Frank

Excellent video Frank! Love that you show us where to dig and we can grab our shovel and see what we can add to our guitar playing! Will be definitely adding several gold nuggets found in your lesson. Thanks again!

Good one! Many thanks!

Well done Frank!

Yeah. Totally agree. sometimes there are songs you don't want to play but usually, the reaction from the crowd is so positive that it doesn't matter. We're there to entertain them and surprisingly some songs can't be overplayed. Great tips for spicing them up, really love your videos!

Invaluable.

Hi frank really great vids really appreciated 😀🎸

Great stuff....I cover these and they're crowd favs for sure....thanks man

Thanks!

You hit the nail on the head, if u ou play these songs Everyone will love you !!!😊

Love everything about your channel. Thanks! I don't comment often so that's really saying something. ❤

Take Me Home Country Road - is cherished around the world. Everywhere I go, people love to sing it at karaoke. It’s a true phenomenon.

Been playing all three for 25 years myself. You are so right we forget/omit these in shows unless requested. These are Bangers should use them when the crowd doesn't seem involved.

The crowd LOVES cliche' ... especially after a few cocktails

Well presented seminar. “Who doesn’t like “ Brown Eyed Girl”!?!

Excellent recommendations (as usual) I remember being on a shuttle bus after a wedding going back to the hotel and people spontaneously broke into “Country Roads” there is nothing quite like that sing a longs are the best! Thank you for doing this 👍

My go-to tunes to grab the crowd: Moondance, House at Pooh Corner, Helplessly Hoping, and a mashup of Evil Ways-Woodstock-Solitary Man.

This is amazing! Homemade RU-vid at its roots! Thanks for the lesson!

"I believe you are there to make people happy" ... YES!!! I don't enjoy listening to every song that I play, but I can find a way to enjoy playing it, simply because the listeners are enjoying it. "Sweet Caroline" is in my setlist constantly. Always good for getting a crowd to sing along. The other 2 are in my songbook and rotated as needed. The songs I've had requested the most are "Midnight Rider" and "Turn the Page." Great video and tips!

Just now realized that D walkdown in Brown Eyed Girl is identical to Operator lol

Thanks Frank for sharing you gifts and insights, you do such a great job! A few gigs ago "Take me Home Country Roads" was requested by a table (Family?) when I played it many of them linked arms and Sang along with absolute Joy!

your channel just rolled into my algorithm today and you've got a another sub from it 👍 .. I enjoyed the humour at your intro and didn't mind discovering the 3 songs. Not a single frame was skipped.. I rather enjoyed your candor and very much appreciated the brevity where things are going to be repeated ..yadda yadda ..blah blah ..so to speak .. excellent work!

I'm a lazy bastard so thank God for the capo (or, more specifically, the person who actually invented the capo). I play 'Brown-Eyed Girl' with a capo on the fifth fret -- that way you can use suspended chords to move around all those licks that are on the record with going to too much effort. Likewise, with 'Take Me Home Country Roads', I could never hit that note in the line... "to the place, I be-LONG', so I've simply shifted the capo down to the 1st fret and I'm sweet. I do more sing-a-long stuff with older people than actual gigs in pubs etc., and they appreciate the slightly lower key too. I'm in Australia, and yep, 'Country Roads' and 'Sweet Caroline' are must-do songs every single time. Some of the people I play to are in their 90s and they still sing along with every word. Loving your content. Cheers mate!

Very good instruction! You do RU-vid lessons very well!

I do sweet Caroline and love van Morrison I like hear comes the night as well really helpful vid thanks frank

I was playing along without a capo handy so I tried playing Country Roads in A with open strings, A9, D9, hammer-ons on the E and F#m and I really like it. I'm going to play it in open A from now on.

The #1 song I always get requested is Free Bird

Here in Germany you need these four songs: Country Roads, Sweet Home Alabama, Wonderwall, Hallelujah. These are absolute must haves in a Germany based troubadour‘s repertoire......

Where I am in country NSW, Australia, I often get asked for the same old stuff... Brown Eyed Girl, Summer Of 69, Jessie's Girl, plus Aussie favorites like Khe Sanh by Cold Chisel, Eagle Rock by Daddy Cool, Flame Trees by Cold Chisel... in fact, they usually just yell out "play some Chisel!!!!" I have all those in my repertoire but usually only play them if I am asked, or if the floor is pumping and I want to keep them up.

New sub. Solid advice. Entertain, not impress. These are 3 of my goto songs. I have @150 songs in my active set list and move them around to fit current crowd.😊

Yes, good tunes to play. I did 2 of those 3 songs....Boston Celtics Championship Parade today...My "Little Martin" Guitar in hand and 2 Katana Boss mini amps (tied to my belt)--one amp for guitar other for singing. I went in by train and subway. Funny thing, On the train going in I couldn't get anyone to sing "Sweet Caroline" w/ me--that happens...different story once on the crowded Subway, I got the whole train singing. I also did "Country Roads"...good sing alongs...the women love those songs....also in the repertoire for today was "You are my Sunshine" for the young ladies/ children and women police officers--they like it. Also got a lot of mileage out of "Lean on Me"--everyone knows it. I play those songs well. I had a lot of women said to me today "I love you" --lol 5 STARS! --Van P.S. I get quite a few people taking pictures of me...I wear a black cowboy hat, sunglasses and guitar...sang "On the Road Again" on the way home...another winner!

If you add a 4th, I'd say in the last set "Friends In Low Places." Always elicits a sing-along.

Blisters in the sun, creep, I'm a beliver

First of all excellent video as always. I started learning Brown eyed Girl and it was a very fun song for me to play but I never finished learning it. Country roads might have been the first song I ever learned on the guitar at least first complete song. I actually went to college in West Virginia so a country friend of mine who's also a great musician taught me it. I'm a special ed teacher in New York City and the kids had a show where Sweet Caroline was one of the songs. The kids went nuts over it.

Favourite : Dream Suite Opus 4 ... Yngwie Malmsteen

Thx Frank. I really enjoy your videos and tips. A couple more good sing along songs, Have you ever seen the rain, by CCR. I capo up to fifth fret and play a C shape chord. And, Chicken Fried by Zac Brown.

Margaritaville, take me home, country roads, agree with brown eyed girl

❤SuperMaN❤

You’re right, I never play sweet Caroline because I think everyone is sick of it, but when I do play it, everyone gets happy. I’ll have to remind myself of that. The intro is better if you add the second and third notes as the riff progresses. You might’ve shown that as an alternative.

Number one earthbound by Rodney Crowell, number two Dead Skunk by Loudon Wainwright III, number three Hallelujah by Jeff Buckley.

Your song choices are right on... Regarding Sweet Caroline... the ladies like that one (maybe because of the Elvis cover)... Where I am (down south) Happy Together by the Turtles also works great. Lastly, anything by Sam Cooke seems to interest customers... Only Sixteen still connects with the older crowd...

lol, before you even got to the song I was thinking BEG, my friend owns a few bars in the US and I remember him telling me this is the most played song in all his bars on the jukebox

Sweet Caroline… I am learning guitar, our band project is figuring out a set list. This pops up, while on vacation in Mexico I was out on the street when from a bar I hear Sweet Caroline…the street became alive. I’m not sure if “alive” is the right description. Maybe “Return of the Living Dead” is what I am thinking… That tune has powers, powerful powers…

I just had a kid ask me to play some Neil Diamond last week and he looked at me like I was an alien because I said I didn't know any.... I should add Sweet Caroline

Thanks for sharing what songs work well with people. I’m just getting into playing solo in public so this is helpful knowledge. I’d like to see a video on how you organize your music- do you use an iPad, what apps, do you scroll while performing, etc? I appreciate what you’re doing!

Tenderness by Steppenwolf Thank You by Led Zeppelin Dairy Air by Tom Grocki

“Touching warm” is an A6- it’s literally the chord that brought the whole song together when Neil was writing. Come on at least get that one in there!

Hi Frank, hope you don't mind me hijacking your video comments, but yesterday I played my little four or five song interval set at my local bar here in Brazil. Anyway I started with, for one time only, Hotel California, the idea being my wife would film it and put it on instagram (or whatever she uses) to see if 'you know who' comes a fighting!! Well I started singing and something didn't feel right, halfway through the first verse I realised I was singing the Jethro Tull version of the song that you had pointed out in an earlier video. I thought I would be able to rescue it with the chorus, but no I carried on with the same slightly different tune for the whole song. So I wondered if you have ever accidently sang one song to the tune of another one???

So you ever use a beat buddy or other drum machine? If not. Why not? Thanks

Frank - can you do a video on what you do when a song has a guitar solo - but you’re playing alone? Do you just play the chords of the solo without singing?

I have an aversion to playing these songs. I want to go more off the beaten path. However I think I need to add them to my repertoire. I can suffer through some songs I don’t enjoy if it makes others have a better time. 😂

I don't know man... they play Sweet Caroline when the Red Sox win. It'd have to be a hell of a tip to see past that. 🤣

Wonderwall.... im shutting up now.

Frank, at 16:26, “touching warm” is B minor not D. 😮 But love your video!

People usually ask me to play "far far away' -- lol 8^)

Hi Frank, I know over 100 tunes, but not these 3. These are MEN´s songs. What would be the best 3 songs for women !??

I have avoided those intros. I found if you go into the intro with chords people react better 4:31

I played in China for a decade +… if your didn’t play Country Road and Hotel California somewhere during your gig, you wouldn’t get paid. If you skipped them a second time, you would get fired… 5 years later, just starting to play Country Road again… still can’t get myself to play Hotel California…

it s not about you.. play for the crowd ..

Do you play a lot of gigs at aged care homes?

I would add Wagon Wheel and Margaritaville to the list of songs in this same category.

You should play the three songs at the beginning for people to decide if they want to proceed. I had to wade through your video for 5 minutes past all the crap about super man to see whether I wanted to learn those songs. They are not even listed in the comments.

Sweet Caroline....I hate that song. I especially hate the crowd participation.

If you want to never get stumped again, take my advice and learn Never Gonna Give You Up by Rick Astley. Then next time you get a request for a song you don't know, you confidently say no problem, I can play that one -- then hit them with a live RickRoll. May not work equally well across all localities or audience demographics, but you'll be pleased at how many tips this silly prank brings in.

Spice up your life kills every time

Brown-eyed Girl costs at least $20 in the tip jar. I hate that song so much.

This would be a much better video if you would just eliminate all the talking before you actually get to what you really want to do in the video. You lost me in the first minute.

Yikes. 😁 I wouldn‘t want to invite you to my party. 😂 Apart from your bad singing, your resourcefulness isn‘t exactly on point either. While the three songs you suggest are standard material for any party or open mic player, you need to come up with alternative stuff that‘s equally crowd pleasing but not just as omnipresent as these three songs. While it‘s not the worst idea to just make up some riffs that sound like the original - as they‘re easier to remember - that‘s not what you should be preaching. For any player a little bit above beginner grade it‘s no thing to figure out and remember the signature riffs and embelishments in a song like Brown Eyed Girl. Not getting it right unnecessarily takes away a lot of fun and enjoyment both for the listener and the player. So. How about deleting this video and doing it again? This time with a little more of everything so we can actually use some of the information? 😅

I’ll give you Sweet Caroline and Country Roads but like hell I’m gonna do Brown Eye Girl that’s really taking it too far 😅 Went to check out a “country” band last year and they started playing brown eyed girl when I walked in. I almost immediately turned around and walked right out. I was like, “I’m not gonna take this bs.” 😂