Playing to an audience that isn't listening

[Pvee]

We tend to play background instrumentals for banquets, car club meetings etc and it works out well.
They are socializing and we are playing and usually a few people will come by asking for business cards and thanking us for playing.

One car club ask us to play at their annual picnic and said they were tired of rock and roll DJ's loud music and they just wanted to be able to set around and talk during and after the meal time.

This year will be our third year of playing for them. Very nice people and they pay well.

[ricks]

I always tell people my instrumentals are the perfect music for the coffee shop I got to. They don't interfere with all the talking and and noise.

Just play and enjoy what you are doing. In a situation like the one you had you are never gonna reach all the people. Many probably didn't come to hear you and once they get into their drinking and whatever they are there for it's not gonna be about the music.

Then sometimes you will have a crowd that actually came to listen. It goes up and down and from good to bad. Part of playing.

[3 chord]

Your job at a bar gig is to sell beer. Thats it, that is why bar owners hire you. You will be judged by how much money the bar brings in, not how good you might have performed.

Sad but true. And I don't think folks are being rude if they are not watching, they are just doing other bar things and unless they play guitar that usually means not watching the guy on stage.

[Tafmutt]

We go to a restaurant that has an acoustic guitar player who is very good. And, yes, people are talking while he is playing. Nonetheless, it is a very enjoyable part of the whole experience. While you may not have people's undivided attention, you are certainly enhancing their time in the establishment and that's what you are being paid to do.

I'm betting that your audience was very satisfied with your music.

Best of luck.

TM

[topographic]

Well, here's some thoughts:

1. If they were engaging in light-hearted and "normal" conversation, they were probably enjoying your stuff. It must have been a place where people come to talk and not necessarily listen to music. If you were playing badly or they simply didn't like what you were playing, believe me, you would have sensed that REALLY QUICKLY. Conversation levels, etc. would have changed, and you would have sensed an irritation in the crowd. My guess is they enjoyed how you sounded.

2. Yes, play more popular songs. Our band's original songs are pretty good, even if I do say so myself, and we sell a fair # of cds...but once we play "I Feel Fine" by the Beatles or "Creep" by Radiohead, the crowd begins to pay a whole lot more attention. Personally, I really do not like doing cover songs, and I never go see a local band here in Columbus unless they do all original songs...I think true musicians want to "move on" and create something new, but unfortunately, the VAST majority of the public aren't musicians...they want to hear stuff they've heard 1000 times. It can be maddening, especially when you and the band spend most of your waking hours practicing and perfecting your own songs or working on songs that are very cool but not necessarily a former TOP 40 song.

3. DON'T PLAY AT THE SAME VOLUME/TEMPO ALL THE TIME.........employ dynamic shifts in those two things.....if the crowd is overly noisey, start playing VERY VERY QUIETLY.....you might be surprised at their reaction.

4. Change back and forth from standing to sitting as you play the set.

5. Have an electric and acoustic guitar there with you, and interchange them on certain songs.

[SimplyLuo]

Pull an Emmanuel!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64qIBRHOFvo

the location would have a lot to do with it. I used to play piano at my friend's cafe, and nobody (except for a few little kids) seemed to ever look my way. I got pretty discouraged and stopped after a few days. A few days later, my friend's dad came up to me and told me he's been getting requests to bring back the 'peaceful pianist', the mood wasn't the same without the background music
So if it's at a restaurant, they aren't there to listen to you, but I'm sure they're enjoying your music

Other places, though... I dunno

[TRW1]

I play mainly at restaurants and much of the time the customers don't seem to be paying attention, it just goes with the territory. But, as has been posted here already, they didn't come just hear me. They came to enjoy the food and drink and the atmosphere of the restaurant. Hopefully, I add a little something to that experience or the Manager wouldn't be paying for live music.

There are always times during the night where you do get some positive reaction or applause and that is a great feeling. Then there are those nights where I thought I was just 'musical wallpaper' but ended up with an overflowing tip jar. If you're playing to put food on your table, I guess the full tip jar is the better end result. Maybe not quite as satisfying during the performance, though. Bottom line, if they didn't have to pay to get in the door to see you, don't take it badly if they're only listening casually. You're still adding something to their enjoyment or they wouldn't show up on live music nights.

[Laird_Williams]

Originally Posted by raregroove

I remember attending a show in the 70s with a young Paco de Lucia playing an amazing set of solo flamenco and people drunk booing, hooting and throwing beer. And that was at a outdoor "guitar" superstar night.

At a bar gig, well, I would just try and keep Drunkulis from falling on your equipment and get paid in cash...

I would try brunch or coffee bar gigs, calmer more attentive patrons.

Instrumentals are background music to most people unless its a "high culture" or "folkloric" booking. In those situations you should have a good body of killer original material and a CD released, to go along with the covers.

I would second the thought that instrumental acoustic guitar is pretty sedate material for most bars. Leo Kottke and Laurence Juber would still get beer thrown at them at many places ;-)

I also think that one is generally an ornament at a restaurant unless it is very small - but personally, I find this utterly inoffensive. I love playing, and if all my music accomplishes that evening is setting a "mood" for good food and conversation, and if I am happy with what I played, so what? All the rest is just ego anyway (which I have tons of - so I do like "performing" occasionally too - it just does not have to be every time I play out.) Just because people are not giving you their undivided attention does not mean that they fail to notice or appreciate it. And then there's that one couple at the restaurant gig who comes over and thanks you, or pays you a compliment before they leave....

I too have found coffee bars and wine bars to be an entirely different breed from normal "shot-o-booze and beer" bars as far as instrumental playing goes. Many of the patrons as such a location will happily sit and actually listen. The ones who want to talk will generally do so quietly in the back. There have been exceptions, of course, but in general terms...

[randysitz]

Book some weddings. They have to listen, at least during the ceremony. When the attention isn't there, there are usually a few who are listening intently. I play to them and ignore the rest of the audience. Give em a dose of their own medicine.

[Stackabones]

People are listening, but they are applauding. Most bar/restaurant and other service gigs are not concerts. If you need applause, don't play service gigs.

[Perfessor]

Music is everywhere today. That doesn't help, as we're all used to having a soundtrack around us 24/7. So people coming into where you're playing quickly put your music in the same background slot as all the rest of the music which inundates us daily.

Acoustic guitar instrumentals are at the bottom of the feeding pile-- just above cowbells and triangles. As has been said, very few people can command attention for very long with just an acoustic guitar. If you want some applause and sustained interest from anyone in the lounge, you're going to have to learn how to deliver a song, IMO.

[Kurt]

All good advice, all experiences to which I can relate -- and I think it boils down to expectations and standards. What's the expectation of the hosting venue? What's your expectation for an audience? And ultimately, what's your standard (and there's, as you won't be invited back if you don't match what they seek)? Are you willing to play for people who are there to drink and socialize, where any music played is incidental music, at best?

I chose long ago to not play out often, to not play many (if any) covers, and certainly to not play bars. That's a standard...my standard. I'd encourage you to establish your own -- and then go into gigs (or not) knowing what to expect and what the establishment expects. It saves a lot of frustration and resentment.

[Stackabones]

Originally Posted by Kurt

I chose long ago to not play out often, to not play many (if any) covers, and certainly to not play bars. That's a standard...my standard. I'd encourage you to establish your own -- and then go into gigs (or not) knowing what to expect and what the establishment expects. It saves a lot of frustration and resentment.

That's solid advice.

[raptordigits]

I don't like Chet Atkins anywhere. I doubt if many in the audience knew who Tony Emmanuel is...

You have to play what the folks want to hear. It's THEIR dime. It is a bar with you as an addition...not a concert also selling beer. Try strumming standards that they can hum along with and intersperse them with a few fingerstyle pieces. But fingerpick songs they know...Hotel California, American Pie, etc....if they start to sing along then switch to strumming.

As the evening goes on, and the beer and wine flow, you can't beat the Beach Boys, Abba or whatever 'corniness' fits the demographics of the audience.

Remember, there can be a few folks in the audience who may want to hire you to play more 'artistic' music at another venue. Everyone in the barroom has another life. I now only play light classical and Latin at charity events, wine tastings, etc.

[tdrake]

A few decades ago I worked in kitchen of a nice Greek/Italian restaurant, owned by a man who also owns Seattle's pre-eminent four-five star jazz and dining establishment. Two or three nights a week our lil place featured a local jazz legend on a big Steinway, smack dab in the middle of the place, quietly working thru standards.

No one ever listened to him, either.

I knew, and still know, little to nothing about jazz, so I just assumed he was some old noob, and it was months before I realized that *some* people were driving in hours just to hear him, while most everybody else, like me, simply ignored him.

When I first started playing out I was pretty taken aback by how people only stopped and listened to me *between* songs, but once I got it, I started working up set lists that focus on entertainment, not art -- I still write the arty stuff and always will, and there's a spot or two or three at each gig where they fit well, and there are gigs where that's what everyone wants -- but I'll tell you what, playing the fun stuff is just as fun...no, it's more fun, I guess.

Teaching is the same way; it's a rare class wherein slow, mellow droning holds anyone's attention for long, and making people laugh and smile is a mighty fine thing. ...heck, can you imagine Hank Williams only playing stuff like I'm So Lonesome I Could Die all night long?

For all these reasons, we just yesterday brought a drummer into our lil group.

Finally, fwiw, I've only seen Leo Kottke once, on tour with Michael Hedges, but I used to see Michael Hedges all the time, before he became well known, and he was either in a crowded coffee shop being utterly ignored or up in a small room at a local cafe/movie theater, often playing to nothing but empty chairs.
td