Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Piano for Dinner

A friend offered me to play piano at her restaurant, but most of the pieces I know are show/performance pieces (aka loud and exciting). I know a few Chopin preludes, but do any of you have recommendations (just from knowledge or from experience) for pieces that would be work in such a situation - preferably piece that aren't too difficult to learn in a week or so?

Satie comes to mind immediately! A few well known works of Bach might also do the trick (the C major prelude comes to mind). The usual 'fur elise' and perhaps a few other works...

Then perhaps some transcription of jazz pieces? Or some tangos to go along?

Perhaps it would be worth posting in the non classical forum, since while you have in mind classical music, a restaurant is not always fit for 'heavy classical music'.

I think you should play your usual pieces but softer.
I've been in situations like that, and it's sort of what I did. I mainly played softer/lighter repertoire, but did do some "loud/exciting" pieces, only quieter and mellower.

Unless you're very comfortable with learning new stuff to play in public in just a week, which wouldn't seem like a great idea for most people.

P.S. Look for some people to have fun with the linguistics of "piano for dinner."

Mark_C: yeah, I'm considering it, but Rachmaninov's Prelude No. 2 just won't sound so great with the 4-stave part played at p. I'll keep looking through older stuff I've played - I'm jumping on this mainly since it's such a great opportunity to practice in front of people, even if they're not really paying attention all the time.

Schubert impromptus or moments musicaux would be nice for dinner. Softly.

I play for a Sunday brunch every once in awhile, and the hotel management pretty much said 'play whatever you want', which was nice. I tend to play a mix of big band favorites, movie themes, classic stuff like the Beatles, Billy Joel, Simon and Garfunkel, etc, plus some well-known or 'easy listening' classical music.

Some examples of classical music I've used are Moonlight sonata, the slow movement from the Pathétique, Mendelssohn songs without words, Chopin preludes and nocturnes, Field nocturnes, Schubert moments musicaux, Schumann's Kinderzenen and some Bach preludes (I decided the fugues might cause indigestion lol).

As long as you think "background music" and not "concert performance", you should be fine.

Enjoy! I love restaurant gigs, because it's like getting paid for fooling around on the piano .

Sure it will!!
IMO that's a fine piece to play for this, and a very OK way to do it.


Right -- be ready for them to be seeming to pay almost no attention. And it's no reflection on you.

For me that was the hardest part about such things: the idea that it seemed to hardly matter.
It does, but not in the way we usually would like.

For that reason, I both loved and hated such gigs.

Thanks LadyChen. I love "fooling around on the piano."
Getting a good amount of sheet music from your suggestions and IMSLP. Should suffice for a Sunday afternoon sight-reading session.
Edit - thanks for the heads up, Mark. Just a speculation, but wouldn't it make the playing easier if you feel nobody is watching/caring about it?

Piano for dinner? Nah, too much fiber, and the strings get caught in my teeth...











(sorry)

Sort of, yes.
Spiritually, maybe not.

I think it takes some getting used to.

The genre is music to be ignored by.

I look at as practice time.

Perfect (although I'd throw in a fugue or two just for the sheer fun of it......)

There is a ton of classical easy-listening music by some of the less well-known Romantics like Kirchner, Heller, and probably Rhineberger. And some early Scriabin might be nice, as well as much of Liadov. Chaminade has some useable stuff, like the old drawing-room classic, Scarf Dance.

Forlane from Le Tombeau de Couperin (Ravel).

Be prepared, also, to play some popular standards, and don't be surprised if a customer asks : "Play 'Misty' for me!" "Do you know 'Memory' from Cats?" or "Can't you play some jazz?"

Regards,

.....and also be prepared to say (if necessary), "Sorry, that's not the kind of stuff I play" -- with a smile of course.

When I did my few gigs of that sort, I had to say this a fair amount. Sometimes I was able to say, "No, but how about if I play [so-and-so]" if I could play some other thing, even something classical, that was sort of along the same lines of what the person asked for -- and that's better than just saying no. (Somewhat.)
But the main thing is to say it pleasantly and with interest in what the person asked (even if feigned).
If you can do that, it's all good.

Yes -- this is a great response -- it's what all my jazz mentors told me to do in this situation.

Add "Moon River" to the frequently-requested-songs-that-you-hate-playing list.

A friend offered me to play piano at her restaurant, but most of the pieces I know are show/performance pieces (aka loud and exciting).

What exactly does this mean? You're being paid to perform or because your friend has a piano at her restaurant, it would be great if you would play ... for free?

For in-fill “munchies” music (what a ghastly expression) while the honoured guests are slopping their soup ... I’d enjoy myself at the jolly Olde Piano playing George Gershwin, Jerome Kern and Cole Porter ... any classical stuff would get stuck in the craw.

I can only hope that one of those moneyed slurp-ers finds a fly in his soup.

My son occasionally plays at a local restaurant that has one seating per night, and a half hour of wine/music beforehand. Grieg's Lyric Pieces offers a set of easily learned stuff that is perfectly appropriate for cocktail time before the seating. Most of them can be learned in a day or less. Heck, if you're good, they're sight reading material.