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Piano bar guys...what are your biggest tip generating songs?


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I've been doing the piano bar thing since around 2002, and in that time I've found that for me, 2 songs stand out head and shoulders above the others when it comes to $$$ hitting the tip jar: Piano Man (no brainer there, I always joke that it's the piano bar national anthem and, since the place I play is at a casino, I say that it's a state gaming regulation that I play it at least once a night). the other one is Linus and Lucy, which I get more requests for now that it's holiday time, but really it's a year round thing as well....anyone else?
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It could be anything. Read the audience, visually. Their age, their style, their manner of speaking. Are they a Grateful Dead, Sinatra, Joel/John crowd? And talk to them! I always fish for requests, and if I can't play the exact request, I'll come close to it. I enjoy talking to people, so I find that part easy and fun.

 

A pretty consistent crowd pleaser has been Africa by Toto. Not one of my favorites, but I play lots of other stuff I like.

Gigging: Crumar Mojo 61, Hammond SKPro

Home: Vintage Vibe 64

 

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It could be anything. Read the audience, visually. Their age, their style, their manner of speaking. Are they a Grateful Dead, Sinatra, Joel/John crowd? And talk to them! I always fish for requests, and if I can't play the exact request, I'll come close to it. I enjoy talking to people, so I find that part easy and fun.

 

A pretty consistent crowd pleaser has been Africa by Toto. Not one of my favorites, but I play lots of other stuff I like.

 

I think you misunderstood the question. I absolutely do all of that, but I find that those 2 songs seem to be cash cows, and that's across pretty much ALL ages of and genres of audience. I was curious if anyone else doing the gig saw a similar trend.....Probably #3 on my list would be Tiny Dancer, by the way.......

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I understood the question, I just think "learn to read the room" is the best advice I can give.

 

Here's some of my instrumental solo tunes that get consistently good reactions/tips:

 

Those Were the Days (All in the Family theme)

Southern Nights

Fooled Around and Fell in Love

Summer Breeze

Rocket Man

Tiny Dancer

Bennie+Jets

Peg

Drove Old Dixie Down

The Weight

Layla

Changes (Bowie)

Space Oddity

Light My Fire

Lonely People (America)

Things We Do for Love (10cc)

Africa

Rosanna

Our House

Take on Me

Rich Girl (H&O)

Lithium

Africa

Rosanna

Any Billy Joel hit

Anything Beatles

Gigging: Crumar Mojo 61, Hammond SKPro

Home: Vintage Vibe 64

 

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Here's some of my instrumental solo tunes that get consistently good reactions/tips:

 

Those Were the Days (All in the Family theme)

Southern Nights

Fooled Around and Fell in Love

Summer Breeze

Rocket Man

Tiny Dancer

Bennie+Jets

Peg

Drove Old Dixie Down

The Weight

Layla

Changes (Bowie)

Space Oddity

Light My Fire

Lonely People (America)

Things We Do for Love (10cc)

Africa

Rosanna

Our House

Take on Me

Rich Girl (H&O)

Lithium

Africa

Rosanna

Any Billy Joel hit

Anything Beatles

 

Just curious, are you using backing tracks when play some/all from your list or just vocal and piano?

Wm. David McMahan

I Play, Therefore I Am

 

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Just curious, are you using backing tracks when play some/all from your list or just vocal and piano?

 

No singing for me. It's the piano, the whole piano, and nothing but the piano.

Gigging: Crumar Mojo 61, Hammond SKPro

Home: Vintage Vibe 64

 

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I understood the question, I just think "learn to read the room" is the best advice I can give.

 

Here's some of my instrumental solo tunes that get consistently good reactions/tips:

 

Those Were the Days (All in the Family theme)

Southern Nights

Fooled Around and Fell in Love

Summer Breeze

Rocket Man

Tiny Dancer

Bennie+Jets

Peg

Drove Old Dixie Down

The Weight

Layla

Changes (Bowie)

Space Oddity

Light My Fire

Lonely People (America)

Things We Do for Love (10cc)

Africa

Rosanna

Our House

Take on Me

Rich Girl (H&O)

Lithium

Africa

Rosanna

Any Billy Joel hit

Anything Beatles

 

Cool. Not trying to be a d*ck, but I've been doing this as my bread and butter gig for 20 years, so "Learn to read the room" is a done deal. I wasn't looking for advice, I was just curious.......

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Most total $$$ generated, Sweet Home Alabama, sad but true.

 

Biggest tips, a tie.

 

Lucky Star by Madonna (a request, did not know it but played it anyway) = $100 bill.

Carmelita by Warren Zevon - patron dropped a $100 bill in the tip jar and said "more Zevon" so I played Lawyers, Guns & Money.

It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is.
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Cool. Not trying to be a d*ck, but I've been doing this as my bread and butter gig for 20 years, so "Learn to read the room" is a done deal. I wasn't looking for advice, I was just curious.......

 

I don't know you, so of course I'm not going to make assumptions.

 

I think a key point is to have different subsets in your repertoire that you can aim at different generations or cultures. Depending where you're at, a room can change character over the course of a night. It might shift from country to jazz to urban. If you can morph your song choices to match the shifting demographic, you're playing the game at an advanced level. For the past 20 years or so, the hard part has been what to play for people under 30, because as a general rule the stuff they listen to doesn't make for good solo piano adaptations. Also, I'm getting too old to keep up with it all . . .

 

A tune like Lithium used to work for the younger crowd. Now even those people are over 40.

Gigging: Crumar Mojo 61, Hammond SKPro

Home: Vintage Vibe 64

 

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Slightly OT, but I'm amazed how many BLs and artists don't ask for tips. It's a valuable talent, which almost always pays off immediately, and those who are good at it haul in a lot more $ than those who are not.

Now out! "Mind the Gap," a 24-song album of new material.
www.joshweinstein.com

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Most I've ever gotten tipped at a gig was a $100 bill for "Spider Fingers."

Hardware

Yamaha MODX7, DX7, PSR-530, SY77/Korg TR-Rack, 01/W Pro X, Trinity Pro X, Karma/Ensoniq ESQ-1, VFX-SD

Behringer DeepMind12, Model D, Odyssey, 2600/Roland RD-1000/Arturia Keylab MKII 61

 

Software

Studio One/V Collection 9/Korg Collection 4/Cherry Audio/UVI SonicPass/EW Composer Cloud/Omnisphere, Stylus RMX, Trilian/IK Total Studio 3.5 MAX/Roland Cloud

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One of my most-requested songs not yet mentioned is "As Time Goes By."

 

Most memorable big-money tip: when someone tipped me $5 to play "Piano Man," and then before the first chorus someone else tipped me $100 to stop.

 

You win the interwebz, best post this month, so far. :laugh:

It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is.
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Most memorable big-money tip: when someone tipped me $5 to play "Piano Man," and then before the first chorus someone else tipped me $100 to stop.
I was at a nice bar in La Jolla years ago, the pianist did a beautiful rendition of "New York State of Mind". I tipped him $20 with his promise that he wouldn't then play "New York, New York"
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Off the top of my head probably Unchained Melody, What A Wonderful World, stuff like that. Every place I worked had a small dance area off the side of the piano, and slow songs with the wife or GF generated the best tips. My last piano bar gig was in the early 2000s - ages ago. I'm sure things have changed. Did it for almost 20 years though.

 

I hated playing Piano Man and all the regulars knew it. If someone asked for it, it usually got a laugh as soon as I started it :laugh:

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It goes without saying that you have to be conversant with the American Songbook: As Time Goes By, etc. . . That's never been my forte but I can pull out about 50 tunes from it, good enough to say "Sorry, I don't know that, but how about this one."

 

To me, the most fun and challenging part of solo gigs is surprising people with something they'd never expect to hear in that context. Lithium is one of my good examples. I've also got about 20 Zepplin songs that work pretty well. I wish I had a dollar for every time someone said "I never expected to hear Good Times, Bad Times on solo piano." I probably did make a few bucks each time. 500 more performances and my SKPro is paid for.

Gigging: Crumar Mojo 61, Hammond SKPro

Home: Vintage Vibe 64

 

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looks like based on the show we did this past Sunday our band needs some help in this area....

 

It also looks like your tip jar is opaque. Wrong!!!

 

Get a clear plastic tip jar at a thrift store, should be $3 or so.

Put 3 ones and a five in it at the start of the gig and put it out on a stool in front.

 

Money follows money...

It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is.
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In the middle of a jazz standards set (Stella, Dolphin Dance, Sail Away), throwing in After The Love Has Gone often heats up the tip jar. Occasionally, in the same context, How Deep Is Your Love has done it too.

 

Freak Like Me, or This Is How We Do It....not so much for the tip jar. An indecent proposal perhaps, but not the tip jar.

..
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