3d • General discussion
Reading the room
I had a great gig at one of my regular monthly senior communities on Wed. It's an assisted living facility, but they also often bring in some of their memory care residents from the other wing. But it's generally a younger, more engaged crowd that enjoys music into the 70's and even 80's. And on this particular day they were responding to the more upbeat stuff early on, so I stepped it up and played some more rocking numbers and we all had a great time!
Fast forward to my gig in another assisted living facility on Thursday that usually has a lot of youngish folks that are into any good music from all the eras. So I was planning on doing the same kind of thing here since I had such a good time with it on Wed.
But as I was setting up a woman came in and sat down at one of the tables. I overheard the activities director speaking to her telling her it was going to be loud. (I'm NOT a loud performer at all, but I do have a small PA system. I'm not totally acoustic.) The resident acknowledged that information and decided to stay. At one point as I was still setting up she said to me that she may block her ears. Okay, noted. I wasn't quite sure how to respond to that.
But it did change my plan. I definitely dialed it back and went with more of the lighter, oldies and singer-songwriter parts of my repertoire. She did block her ears a few times, and scolded one of the other residents for clapping during a few songs. But the AD spoke with her and told her that wasn't appropriate. Other people were allowed to enjoy the music in their own way.
So overall it went well. Just a few awkward moments. But she stayed for the whole show. And everyone else enjoyed the lighter musical fare.
I spoke with the AD afterwards about it and she said that's an issue that she is working on with this resident. She likes to attend activities, but gets agitated when people are talking. But other than movies, that's what people are gathering for. So she said she was going to have a discussion with the family and the resident to address how to handle things going forward.
But from the musician's perspective, it was definitely advantageous to be able to "read the room" and have enough of a repertoire to be able to adapt to a program that would be enjoyable for everyone.
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Reading the room
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