You can stop taking all of your sappiness out on the tear-stained pages of your journal because this week in Happy Valley there are two chances to get on stage and show off your songwriting skills.

Tonight at Waring Study Lounge in West Commons, SOMA will be holding their first open mic night of the year. Registration for time slots starts at 7pm with the show proceeding at 8pm. As it says on the Facebook event, they’ll provide the microphones and you supply the talent.

Don’t think you’re good enough to bust out the old dusty six-string in front of a crowd? Then just come out to enjoy home-brewed musical talent or make some new friends with kids that remember obsessing over Taking Back Sunday‘s first CD in high school.

If you can’t make it to West tonight, you can get your fix of acoustic jams on Wednesday night at Kildare’s Songwriter’s open mic. The night gets kicked off 8:30 with a weekly featured artist and continues on until 11pm with walk-in sign-ups taking the stage.

From the looks of the comments on the Facebook page, past events have seemed to be a great success with up to 14 singer/songwriters doing their thing throughout the night. This might be the CBGB of State College (and soft alternative) soon. Talented acts even have a chance to get their originals thrown into the in-house playlist.

Whether you’re a seasoned artist or just messing around with a few creative creations, these open mics are two great ways to get your musical talent noticed by other local artists and music lovers. Though it’s a long way to the top if you want to rock ‘n roll, getting a spot at one (or both) of these awesome events takes nothing more than an instrument, some talent and the confidence to make the stage your own.