She just happened to be visiting Eugene and at the mall with some friends and then heard me playing that same song at the piano. What made this meeting special was that she had just flown in from the U.K. In another cool meeting, I met a teenage girl who had just purchased the sheet music for my song "While the Trees Sleep" from my web site. The mother had just read my blog tribute that morning about Dax, went down to the mall and I happened to be there. I also ran into the mother of a girl who used to sing and share the stage with my friend, the late Dax Johnson. They were so jazzed to meet me in person - and I played the song for them ( Wonderland from my Postcards from Germany CD) and they heard it "live" for the first time. Quite often, people who have purchased your music before will come back and tell you stories about how the music has impacted their lives.ĭuring this last week, I met a couple who had used one of my songs as their Wedding march. If people love it, they tell you, and it gives you a little boost. As an artist, there's nothing like getting that INSTANT feedback to your music. The greatest thing about playing the malls is all the people you get to meet and talk to. But, at Thanksgiving, Christmas time, Valentine's Day weekend and Mother's Day weekend - those have been our most successful weekends. During normal weekends, it's just not quite busy enough - harder to get that crowd going. These days, I limit myself to just the holidays. I used to play the mall a lot more than I do now. I very much prefer when the latter happens! On the other hand, if it's BUSY, you have a constant flow of people at the CD table and you walk away on an emotional high because not only do you sell a lot of CDs, you feel noticed and appreciated. If you have a slow night, you walk away feeling a bit down because you just put all of yourself out there and few people noticed - you feel a bit like pretty wallpaper. Playing at the mall is a two-way street, emotionally. There are less people, so it's harder to get the crowd going, which makes it harder to get people's attention as they walk by. This happens on slower nights at the mall, especially. The most frustrating thing is when you give everything you have and people don't even notice. It can wear you down emotionally and physically. On Christmas Eve, I put in about six hours of playing with very few breaks. Just imagine taking every bit of emotion you have and putting it into your performance - sometimes for several hours straight. If I LOSE the crowd, then I have to work very hard to get them back. The crowd itself draws attention because people want to see what's going on.
If you can gather a crowd around the piano, MORE people notice and join the crowd. To do this, I play with as much movement and emotion as I can to draw the attention of passers by. The trick to being successful playing piano in the mall is do everything you can to gather a crowd.
#WHISPERINGS PIANO MEETUP PLUS#
It saves them money, plus helps support my family! And, as far as I'm concerned, the more of my music that gets "out there" the better. We do our best to encourage people to buy as many CDs as possible.
The idea is that people hear the music, read the information, browse the CDs and hopefully buy.
Around the piano I have three easels set up with information for people to read about the music. All nine 0f the CDs are set out, and along with them are my business cards and fact sheets that people can read and take with them. Right beside me at a table, my wife sits, dressed very nicely and selling my CDs. I've got a Yamaha 5'6" baby grand to play (this one belongs to the mall and is one of the nicest pianos in town). I just spent about two weeks straight playing here in Eugene, Oregon at Valley River Center. I thought it might be fun to tell you a thing or two about playing at the mall. The holidays are a REALLY busy time for us piano players! December is my busiest month of the year, bar none. It's been a little while since I've posted anything.
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