My beautiful fiancee and I are gettied married Dec 10.
Here’s what I need;
A classical guitar version of “Here Comes The Sun,” No vocals.
That you can get on Google Play preferably - or iTunes (less so, but whatever.) Or acquirable some other legal way I can put on a computer or phone. No pirating.
Recommendations for classical guitar covers of other songs that would be nice to hear during a wedding, but “Here Comes The Sun” is a must have. It’s what she wants, and believe me I am lucky to be marrying this woman, so she deserves it.
Why not hire a live guitar player? Check around your local music stores and I bet you can find a teacher or other hungry classical guitar player who will play the gig for less than you think.
Because we can’t afford it, I am afraid. We have a guy on our street, actually, who is a maagnificent guitar player. We’d hire him if we could afford it.
Don’t. Unless he’s a friend and just a pure hobbiest (ie, doesn’t regularly play gigs for money), it’s a rude question. It’s not an honor to be asked to do for free something you’re used to getting paid for.
First of all, congratulations. Second, since this is the SDMB and people love to nitpick here, would playing a song from Google Play/iTunes/Amazon/etc be considered a “public performance”? Because at least for the DVDs I own and rent, the printed warning at the end says that they’re not licensed for public performance and then gives a long list of places that are considered public performance (including on oil rigs, for some reason).
In other words, do you need a special license to play the song at your wedding?
But it would not be insulting to ask how much he would charge – assuming he is a classical guitar player rather than a super-shredder … or if he knows someone who might do it for a small amount.
When I suggested a live performer, I wasn’t talking about a full blown well known pro doing a full wedding ceremony and reception for several hundred dollars. I had in mind offering a local guitar teacher or somewhat advanced student fifty bucks or so to play a song or two.
It’s a popular song for weddings and the sheet music is available. I can imagine a student with two or three years under his belt even being willing to devote his next several lessons to learning the piece and accepting a reasonable payment for the short gig.
Licensing, union venue, etc., well … dunno about that stuff … but I would check with a local classical guitar teacher or two to see if the idea is feasible. My last teacher had a degree in Music Education in Classical Guitar – he grabbed any playing job he could get and fixed cars on the side to make ends meet.
This legality never crossed by mind. However, I don’t think this technically applies because the performance is not one in which people are paying to attend.
I found this in a Google search of iTunes for guitar no vocals FWIW.
I think the first YouTube link in the thread is one of my favorite guys, but yeah, he doesn’t seem to be on iTunes. Here is another version I found (same issue)…it’s a more classical I suppose version.
He didn’t say he was a professional musician, he said he was “a guy on our street”. There are a lot of good amateur musicians who have never been paid in their life.
The fact that he says “we’d hire him if we could afford it” suggests he’s not purely a hobbyist. Even so, even if he’s a rank amateur, you offer some money to the artist. Asking some relative stranger to perform at your wedding for free just seems really gauche to me.
