Interesting replies. Many of my listeners are in their 80's...some in their 90's.

At age 68, the music I listened to started in 1960...even some in late 1950's. Many of my listeners started listening in the late 1940's and WWII ballads still go over well.

I still throw in waltzes and polkas as folks will dance(if they can) to those.

I've yet to get a teenager(student or grandkid) interested in messing around with an arranger. Perhaps with time?

There is a lot of talk about what to play – I feel that’s going in backwards. Anyone remember when nine out of ten songs were instrumentals. Now we have nine out of ten vocals. Reason? They can relate to vocals.

Keep in mind that we are communicating an emotion; so it is not which song you play as much as it is which emotion they are reacting to that is important.

My system:
1-I have a list of 120 in 5 categories. They are my laptop on one page. Each song is set up in my keyboard.
2-Start - Play the songs I normally play.
3-Now the important part of the job – see what type of music they respond to.
4-Now go home and research that type of music.

At one NH the caretakers loved anything that was upbeat; mostly disco and 50”s and 60’s. The caretakers started dancing all over the place – the seniors saw them and became excited. It takes sensitivity – who would have thought I needed that type of music in a NH. We started with 20 people in a small room and after six weeks we had to move into the main auditorium with 125 seniors present.

Your first job is to have THEM TEACH YOU what they want. I have given out a questionnaire before a job asking what they would like to hear both songs and types of music. I also ask the caretakers what kind of music the seniors respond to.

Why I read all Donny’s post. He is a character and adds flavor to our forum. AND the man knows what he is talking about. (Most of the time, smile)

It is the musician/performer that is number ONE. If you are just a musician and play good music you will get only part of the room. If you are just a performer they will get tired of you after a while. If you are both you have them where you want them. I am both musician and performer and I am always open to learn. After watching Eddie at a NH job I went home and added more fun stuff to my song list.

Ex. Song: If you’re happy clap your hands. They have a part in the music you are playing. They clap their hands, stomp their feet, they wiggle their nose – they are right in the center of what you are doing.

I play the same song for the effected children in my church.

IT IS THE MUSICIAN THEN EVRYTHING ELSE FOLLOWS.
John C.

Again I don't understand what is being posted in this thread. I currently have 103 Independent and Assisted Living venues I book every year. Some I have played at for nearly 10 years. My song list includes 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s , and 1950s most popular songs. My audiences absolutely love the really old songs and often make requests for them. Most of these audiences are 70 years old and up with the average age being about 78 but they not only remember these really old songs but often have stories about how their parents or family listened to or sang these songs.

All I can say is these songs sure work for me. I get at least 1 phone call daily for future bookings from these places. And guess what, I don't sing - just play the songs.

Deane

I thought that needed to be repeated. Never heard it put that way.

I noticed when I play, I can play beautiful music, but very syrupy. Still, some want "syrupy" music and that's the emotion I'm transmitting at the moment.

Other times when I play, at the point I'm boring myself to sleep faster than a Tylenol PM, I wake up and put pizz-azz (rhythm) into my songs. I'm lucky I was blessed with it.

So, at any given time I'm transmitting an "emotion." Beautiful music for people who want to feel calm and serene, and upbeat, for people who want to feel the emotion that makes them want to dance.

Never thought about "transmitting emotions" rather than "transmitting music." That's a really powerful thought....I need to spend some time thinking about that.

Mark

A musicians job, the way I see it is a storyteller. Whether you use words or instruments, it's still a story - tell it with feeling, and someone will connect with it.

Hi,
my 2 cents worth.
It's a bit of a pity korg didn't add a few more styles for us oldies, a few more older type ballads , and country ( can't believe I'm requesting country, never played them before ,till I picked up an old Nashville songbook, love the tunes in it).

Anyway, had no idea what KAOSS was till I tried it. Really freaked hubby out when I started playing round with the dance styles and the kaoss function. Haha. Thought at long last she,'s moved into the current century.

Be interesting to see if the midifile to style convertor has improved.

And one good thing for me, I think they have finally fixed one of my major bug bears, my psr converted user styles may finally be using the correct program changes instead of defaulting to Gm. Fingers crossed. No more wrong drum sounds.
Only downloaded upgrade yesterday, so busy day ahead. Haha

Interesting that you said that Dave. An AD at one of the places I play is a genuine AD.....cares about each resident personally and only hires musicians who can connect with them like she does.

She said to me one day:

"Whether you're introducing a song or telling a story, use "visualization" techniques to paint a picture for your audience....i.e. make it so that what you're saying conjures up an image in their mind. In this way you're presenting a whole package to them, not just the music."

Mark

Hi - interesting topic ... lots of interesting discussion and good points. I have played at "Retirement communities" (and similar senior-oriented venues for ~20+ years. (before that, I played mostly to younger to middle-age type audiences). I also still play at non-senior venues. These days, about 60% of my gigs are at senior-oriented venues.

Lots of people have good points in this discussion. What I do is (1) get a sense of their response to what I choose to play, and (2) always ask for requests - and when I ask for requests, I suggest they can request specific songs, or request kinds of music they like. Based on all of this, and the years doing this, and thinking about their ages (i.e. if they are in their 80s or 90s now, or are in their 70s, what music might they have heard a lot of in their youth and young-adult years), I play a mix. Requests often include 1930s and 1940s songs, and things like "play some classical", "play some slow ballads", "play some Glenn Miller/TommyDorsey", "play a jitterbug", all the way to "play some beach music", "play some rock'n'roll", "play something with a good beat" and things like that.

20 years ago, for senior groups, I played mostly 1920s thru early 1950s music. Now 20 years later, it has 'shifted' so that I play some 1930s and 1940s, but a lot more 1950s and 1960s, and some 1970s music, for senior audiences. I also take note if there are family members in the audience that are younger (children of the residents) and play a few for them too.

One thing I figure too ... let's say (as an example) it's 1954 and an 18 year old is at the prom. The band in 1954 would play some early 1950s popular tunes, but they'd also play the best of the music from the 1940s too, and maybe some 1930s music. This would be in 1954 (as an example). So if someone "grew up" in the early to mid 1950s, when they were growing up they probably heard a lot of 1940s music too, plus the newest music from the 1950s. (just another example).

anyway, interesting stuff!

-Jim

A "good" song is timeless. I play all types for my audiences, regardless of the age of the group. If I can "sell it" ... I can sing it.