... last week ...
Now I know what you all have been saying about how gratifying these gigs are ... I had a totally attentive audience, and they sang along, or kept time however they could ... Very appreciative applause after each tune ... had them singing "so good, so good, so good" in 'Sweet Caroline' along with a number of other tunes ... one woman sitting in front of me -looked like she might have been in her 90's - knew the lyrics to about 75% of the songs I played - from 'Chattanooga Choo Choo' to 'Brown Eyed Girl' ! ...
Got good comments from attendees and staff as they were leaving the room and I was packing up ...
Today I got a call from one of the activities staff booking me for 3 more gigs and asking me to put a hold on 3 other dates ... She said at least a 1/2 dozen attendees went to her office to tell her how much they enjoyed my music and asked when I was coming back ...
Looks like the 'career tree' is adding another branch ...

Quite a change from some of the stuffy country club gigs I play where some of the people don't even realize I'm there ...

Just fabulous Tony! I love happy endings. They must have really connected with you. Thanks for sharing your "First Time" with us!

Way to go Tony, congratulations on your successful first nursing home gig.

See! I told you that you would love doing them. Now you know first hand why I love the NH circuit.

Congratulations old friend,

Gary

Congrats buddy!!!

Very nice, Tony, and obviously a very rewarding experience for you.

It takes a special kind of talent and personality to work the NH circuit, and you appear to have the qualifications.

Good news, indeed.

Ian

Glad the first voyage went smoothly...give yourself a few months to refine your act, just wait till you see how more fun you can have.

You're just getting started...

Enjoy...

Bill,


Tony writes " Very appreciative applause after each tune " Why on earth should he refine his act over the next few months, his audience thought it was good, why re-invent the wheel or himself, hell was this an extension at the back of the WHITE HOUSE where he gigged!


Good on you Tony, knock em out!

You can't very well give them the same act every time. I recycle 4 or 5 and refine them, substituting previous requests and new material.


Bernie

Tony,

I'm not sure how things work in the UK with this type of venue, but in the U.S. it's a constant change of songs and updating your performances that keeps you coming back on a regular basis.

Gary

You either get it or you don't when it comes to working the Nursing Home circuit. I think Tony will do well. That said, he will add tunes, he will add different techniques to stimulate his audiences. Make no mistake, the NH jobs are not just about sitting there banging out tunes. As his client list grows, guys like Gary and me know what will happen, ok?

Did I say I think Tony will do well?

Yes, I did, didn't I?

To ask "...why on earth should he refine his act" is pretty telling. (I see a sort of chronic head banging developing with you Tony, which I'd prefer to avoid.)

Yep, nothing wrong with refining. I look at it as a course of constant improvement, and we should all be interested in that. I'd hope so, anyway.

Thanks for the replies, guys ... fact is, my first thought when I got the call for future dates was "What do I do for an encore"??? ... I had a number of tunes ready for the first gig that I didn't get to play, so they will start the playlist for the next one ... There may be one or two songs that they might want to hear all the time, but I agree - playing in the same place, for the same people, I need 4 - 5 'playlists' ... AND, since many of the audience will be the same, I will ask THEM if there are any songs they would like to hear the NEXT time ...

Good for you, tony.


R.

Hi Tony,
I have played Senior Venus for about 7 years now and what I find is just about any of the popular hits from about 1920 - 1960 works really well. Just think of all the famous singers, big bands, movie songs, broadway show songs from these eras and you have it made.

Another finding - if I play at a certain place say twice or three times a year you can just about play the same songs because they just don't remember. I have had people ask me if I had been there before at places I play monthly!

I currently have a book of about 2000 songs that I can play if I get requests - which is rare because many of the "Seniors" don't remember the titles of the songs. They often ask for a song by reciting a lyric from the song.

Another thought, I played with a dozen or so Big Bands through the years and each of them had a book of about 100 songs that we played over and over at every gig. For us it got really boring but the audiences loved it because we were playing familiar songs they came to hear.

Your choices for songs is almost endless and I think that is what makes the senior gigs a joy. I have always been surprised at how many of them remember the melody to songs I play and often say it has been years since they have heard that song.

The real challenge for arranger players like us is to get all the songs setup on the instrument. That takes a lot of time but once done is worth the effort.

Anyway, good luck with the adventure and let us know how it goes.

Deane

Hi all,

Hammer, might know this he has been to the UK. In homes for the elderly we don’t pay for musicians to come in and entertain the residents, the homes are run by the local authority and simply don’t have the money to pay, maybe at Christmas the will club up together to pay for entertainment. Most homes will have an old two manual that someone has donated and someone will come in a play it for free, so we don’t have KB players going around making a living off the homes, yours are perhaps mainly private and you are paid out of the cost people pay, I don’t know?
A friend of mine is a nurse in a home, a private one, he got a guy to come in a play guitar and sing one night last week, the guy worked his nuts off for about 2 hours in front of 50 residents, the audience applauded to every song and appeared to really enjoy themselves. After the entertainer had got and packed up this friend of mine was taking 3 residents in the lift to go to bed, he said to them all “ well , did you like the chap with the guitar ” they all replied “what chap, what guitar ”.

This is true, its not a joke.

Way to go, Tony Mads, I think you would excel at this job and become a favorite.