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.