Originally Posted by: iihollyOkay well since there's no one fighting in the opposition of this discussion I will.

You all sound REALLY jaded. Not everyone plays guitar, so they'd rather hear a song like "Stairway to Heaven" then a real technical song that they aren't going to recognize. So what? I know it gets annoying, but just do it. The fact that a lot of people love the song Stairway to Heaven you've got to start thinking about why people love such an easy song. But thats really the beauty of it.
Personally I play for people every chance I get. Its part of the reason I started playing way back when, is because I love preforming. Not everyone is all for playing in front of people, and I understand that.
So yeah there are a lot of annoying things that come with people knowing that you play guitar. But I think sometimes if you deliver a song like "Stairway to Heaven", and it make them happy its worth it.

Finally, someone who shares my opinion. nothing worse then hearing people "whine" about playing guitar when thats what they dream of doing for a living. This reminds me of that stupid thread Azreal posted about a year ago when he was going on a camping trip and he was annoyed that someone was going to be bringing a guitar with them and they might askhim to play. If these situations bother you work out a piece of music that you can play in these type of situations, something your proud of, sounds good solo, and can easily impress everybody.