Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner having trouble please help!

I think it's a problem because you work there and they work there too.

They work there - they can't leave, they have to listen to your playing. No choice.

You work there - it's an on-going thing. It's not like you're passing through and only play one time.

Actually it's because I love classical piano that I choose what I listen to. I can sit through an amateur recital once in a while, but I wouldn't want to be forced to listen daily to even some professional musicians (no names!)

I'm just glad I don't have to work somewhere with music playing in the background all day. I run through my own music pieces in my head and I want to have a choice.

A solution for you could be to have a fixed piano playing hour. Say, Fridays at noon. More often if they agree to it. Not whenever you want to. This way people can plan accordingly. It's like being on a long road trip, not everyone in the car wants the radio on.

On average, here in the DC area, I play two retirement homes a week. I find the material the residents respond best to are the old singalong standards such as "Let Me Call You Sweetheart" and "When You Were Sweet Sixteen." Pop songs from the 30's and 40's also are well received. Right now, early rock and roll songs from the 50's, such as "Only You," "The Great Pretender" and "To Know You is to Love You," are going over great. People sing along and occasionally get up and shag dance.
It's been my observation people like rhythm.

Could it be the person complaining is thinking you are not doing your job and they might have to cover for you and it is not the quality of your playing? Maybe talk to you manger and make playing official part of your job.

ok ok, thanks for the help guys,

i have talked to managnent and the piano is in the quietest area of the home, where there are only 7 rooms i only play once a week for half an hour usually on a friday, the activities lady brings paitents from other floors who like it too.

the carer who runs the floor where the piano is situated is asian, she admits she 'doesnt like that sort of stuff', she even closes the lounge door so she doesnt have to hear it, ok fine.

i dont play just 'anytime' just for fun because i am working the rest of the time.

even the big bosses who came in a while ago, thought it was a great idea, one of them when i started playing attracted there attention and got her phone out and taped me and thought i played 'beautifully'.

i think a large part of it is obviously 'regular people' just dont know enough about piano playing in general, its just not part of their lives. i understand that

i know people are working too but, being a bit of a musician though i find it very hard to grasp that how anyone can just ignore beautiful sound, it should attract your attention because of what your hearing is very beautiful and draw you in.

here a question, what are 'non music' folk actually hearing when somebody quite good plays?
, ok ive been trained and my ears pick up on little details and subtle changes in the music in order to shape it etc

My daughter, whose tastes range around contemporary (pop, not classical) has made various derogatory comparisons of classical performance. For her, an opera aria (even by a world famous soprano) is 'screeching' and a classical piano sonata is percussive noise and 'makes her head hurt'.

So there's that. BTW, she's finishing her degree in healthcare and some day could be that lady who closes the door...

I think other responders, such as Justoneguy above, are right. In your environment, you need to stick with pop from prior eras. 30's-60's mostly. The nostalgic pop of the residents when they were first coming of age. Classical is not something to do except for scheduled recitals/performances people know about and come to (or not). Why don't you try scheduling some short recitals of classical and post a notice a week in advance? Then those who are interested can come and those who aren't can hide in their rooms?

Daoc
You continue to repeat the thought of ‘classical music being beautiful’. It is beautiful to those of us that love it; it is not beautiful to everyone, no matter how well it is played. This should not be hard to grasp; think of a type of music you dislike. Does it matter how well it is played? No. you will still not like it. Think of a genre of book you dislike. For me, I would never like a romance novel, no matter how poorly or well it is written.

It has been suggested here that you play some other type of music——- if you are playing for your audience’s enjoyment, why don’t you try playing something else rather than trying to change the audience? Change your performance.

That may be so for the US, but not necessarily so for the UK, for the particular age group.

Many of those currently in residential homes were children in WW2, when the Myra Hess classical concerts in the National Gallery became a solace for many Londoners, especially during the Blitz, and known throughout Britain. This was her most famous piece, now widely taken up by concert pianists:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6BPTCveWH8

BTW, in the UK, we have a significant Muslim ethnic minority whose origin is in Pakistan and Bangladesh, and (depending on how strictly they interpret a certain book) music - of any sort other than a specific religious chant - is totally anathema to them. But even if they put up with it, classical is not the kind of music that they would ever have experienced growing up, even if they were born in the UK:


To avoid confusion among American PW members, in the UK, "Asian" refers to those of South Asian background (Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka), not East Asian (Chinese, Japanese, Koreans) as Americans would normally use that designation. Here in the UK, anyone who looks East Asian are just called 'Chinese' - and indeed the majority are from Hong Kong. And yes, just as in the US, in the UK, the 'Chinese' make up the majority of those who learn classical piano, even though they are a tiny percentage of the UK population........

It sounds like the OP's situation is mostly positive, but for the door closer who runs the floor. Accentuate the positive!

Three observations:

Some people have a hard time with any instrumental music because they do not have a singer and words to focus on. They just don't hear motives and themes and how composers build larger forms out of those elements.

Other people have a hard time with piano music with lots of detached notes and chords. It's all a bunch of hammer noise to them (their mind is not latching onto detached pitches, retaining them, and hearing them in any context of melodic contour or harmony).

Musicians are used to intensely listening to tiny details in their own playing while ignoring the trumpet player in the practice room next door. Other people do not have such superpowers of selective listening.

@TyroneSlothrop I'm not sure why someone would call operatic sopranos screetchy when Jimi Hendrix's electric guitar playing and the Bee Gees were also screetchy, but pointing out such musical hypocrisy with old pop-culture references is rarely well received.

Daoc
I don’t remember seeing the size of your audience anywhere. Do you fill up the performance space? How many residents ask to come over to listen to classical? What is the percentage of those that could come?

You mention caregivers and management. What interest do the residents show has not been specified that I can find; my apologies if I have missed it.

I'm pretty sure my daughter has no idea who Jimi Hendrix or The Bee Gees were. Better to ask her about Justin Bieber or Ariana Grande. She could probably tell us what they had for breakfast.

Maybe she would like LoLa and Hauser? But she would have no idea about Freddie Mercury either, I guess.



(When I post these vids on FB people unfriend me, for some reason. But that could have something to do with also mentioning Pandora Selfridge and her shoes. )

Some people just say they don't like classical music because they are full of prejudicies. Sometimes you even get a political lecture from them, saying that "that kind of music" is for snobs, rich people etcetera etcetera. I saw a debate article in the newspaper not long ago where the writer was mad because the Royal Opera House in Stockholm, Sweden was getting a makeover which it definitely needs. It was not necessary, it was just for rich snobs with Nazi sympathies ... no, the money was better invested in SPORTS. Like, uh-uh. And Nazis, wtf?

Others say they cannot stand classical music because of the violins and so on. But that is a lie, because when the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra made a concert evening with film music, the tickets sold out in no time. Most people love the music by John Williams, Mancini and Morricone, they don't reflect on what instruments that are used. So music from movies is a good start.

When it comes to old people in senior homes and hospitals, my experience is that they are truly happy to hear just about ANYTHING, as long as it is live music. The fact that someone comes to them, meets them and does her/his best to give them some entertainment is nearly always highly appreciated. They are not spoiled brats who frown at anything that is not EXACTLY their own taste, they know from lifelong experience what matters and what does not.

Wow, that's a great one! The Platters - The Great Pretender
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEzfhclKO8Q

They will also like one I bet ... The Platters- "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsAhCvLbNrs

I don't know about my daughter, because the cello is a bit 'screetchy," 😂 but I'm a big Lola fan myself. What impresses me is how she can press fully both damper and una corda pedals with stilettos without turning her legs outwards/inwards. She obviously has well-trained calves!

Yes - with this collaboration I believe Ms. A has found her true calling.

I was just wondering about that. Jimi Hendrix is probably nursing home music nowadays, or at least in the near future. He's been dead nearly 50 years.

The average age of the audience at Woodstock was 22... fifty years ago.

I'm not in a retirement home, not of the age quite yet LOL, but I ADORE the Platters! I have never heard any of those as a piano solo though? Would that work? Gonna go searching....