I have been practicing the tunes I am going to play on St. Patricks Day for the residents at the old folks home.
Most of the tunes are part A repeat A, then Part B repeat B. One of them is a 3 part tune AA BB CC. and a couple of them are Waltz’s AA BB. How many times should I run through them? Do I just repeat the tunes again. They don’t seem long enough if I just play them through once. I don’t want to bore the people or put them to sleep by playing too long. I have 12 tunes picked out to play. Seven of them will be played on the Hammered Dulcimer and 5 on the whistle. I am suppose to play for about a half hour.
What would be the proper way to play these tunes?
I typically play standalone tunes three times. If the tunes are in a set of two or three, I usually play them each twice through before moving to the next tune in the set.
What she said. This is your chance to try some ornaments so each time through is a little different.
On the whistle you won’t have to worry much about which keys follow which ones well, but you have more options on the hammered dulcimer. The contra dance musicians like to move to sharper keys rather than flatter ones–they claim it builds expectation and excitement.
Intersperse HD tunes with whistle tunes, Kathy, and make sure to explain the instruments. They are unique. Keep the music and the humor flowing.
Best.
Byll
If playing dance tunes (jigs, waltzes, reels, slides, hornpipes, mazurkas etc) you can play them in sets. AABBx3, then the next tune etc. If it’s AABBCC, just do it twice.
e.g. I’m currently learning a set of reels Dispute at the Crossroads/Devils of Dublin/Black Pat’s. Black Pat’s has 3 parts. Ideally when I’ve got them all goodandlearned it’ll go:
(AABB)x3/(AABB)x3/(AABBCC)x2
For slower tunes like waltzes, you might only have 2 tunes in the set, or do fewer repeats. If you can practise against a clock, no set should be longer than about 5 minutes or people can get bored (or if dancing, tired).
Really slow tunes like Airs, a couple of repeats should do, but of course nobody’s dancing (except the old drunk in the corner maybe).
There aren’t any hard and fast rules. Ceili bands in Ireland typically play a tune 3 times through unless a particular dance requires a specific number of iterations, but outside of the ceili band environment tunes can be played through several more iterations. The old guys here in Chicago will do that frequently while playing in a session, and it’s often instructive when they do because you can learn a tune off by ear in a relatively short time. It also gives you the opportunity to listen and adjust to other players more than you would using the ceili bands’ 3x and out method.
I’m betting this is your first old-age home. It’s not a concert and they don’t care how many times you repeat a tune. They are more interested in your human communication. Don’t look for sings of boredom - look for signs of interest and play to that.
And don’t lecture them. Share your enthusiams with them.
I agree with what Elliot just wrote. I have done many nursing home/old folks home gigs and I can say I was intimidated the first time, even though I am a registered nurse. I’ll tell you, you will never get a more receptive audience (the ones who can receive). At one Christmas time gig we discovered that one of the residents had been a professional jazz singer in her younger days so we let her do all the singing. Good because her voice was better than ours. My only advice is to talk to them like they are adults who deserve your respect as human beings.
Mike
You guys are great! I am gonna need all the advice I can get.
Some of you have mentioned sets of tunes. I don’t really have any sets yet. I have only been playing the whistle since last June and the Dulcimer for not quite 2 years. Pretty much what I know are just some individual tunes and I haven’t figured out what to play with what. I guess I should check out the websites that have sets listed and start learning how to play them.
If this goes well, I will be calling the homes around here and ask if they need entertainment.
It’s really funny that this opportunity even came up. I mentioned to a friend that if by chance I would ever in my life perform, it would only ever be for old folks homes or church and then I still never really thought I would ever attempt to do this. Then I got a call from another friend that I never see but send Christmas cards to, and she asked me to do this.
Because alot of them are hard of hearing should I be using a mic or something? I don’t have one and I don’t know if the home does either. If I need one I am sure I could get one from somewhere.
More advice and ideas will be welcome. I am sure that there is a lot of things I haven’t even thought of.