#10. Open Mic Nights

Here's a little secret about Nipissing Students: we think we are very talented. Above average talented. So talented in fact, that we are ABOVE simply playing in our rooms and recording awkward webcam videos for all our friends to see. SO TALENTED that we are even above making our own MySpace page and recording our music there and then hoping we will randomly be found by a music agent and propelled into stardom overnight.

No, Nipissing Students are so good that we can only show our talents in one way: the open mic night. And we are so talented that one open mic night isn't enough ... we have to have at least 10. Per semester.

It is a well-cited statistic that 1 in every 5 people you meet at the school owns a guitar, and 1 out of 3 are self-proclaimed musicians. In fact, so long as you can play a Gmaj, Dmaj, Cmaj, and Em chord progression, and can creatively find ways to mix these chords up with lyrics about that one time your ex-girlfriend cheated on you for your ex-best friend and then you couldn't eat for days, but you got by with a little help from your friends ... then you are a legitimate, qualified musician and should BY ALL MEANS give yourself a creative name and sign up for every and all open mic nights!

But I warn you! All legitimate acoustic guitar open mic night musicians must be prepared to account for and explain their musical influences, as listed on their Facebook Music preferences, or MySpace page. For example, acceptable influences might include the names of indie and underground artists no one has ever heard of, as well as such slightly more popular names like Sufjan Stevens or Dave Matthews Band or Tegan and Sara. Unacceptable influences include: Kanye, Britney Spears, and anything heard in Top 40 radio.

And be careful! If you perform at one open mic night, and you perform well, prepare to be enlisted into performing at all open mic nights. Because although Nipissing is just bursting at the seams with talented musicians, we like to hear the same 10-15 people perform at every open mic night. (And I might add, they are great. Because as long as they perform, I will never have to.)