Christmas comes but once a year...

[iansinclair]

thank goodness!

This ever happen to you, or am I the only one?  You come to dread going to a Christmas party at someone's house where you happen to know there will be a piano.

Which will be out of tune.

And you are promptly plopped down in front of the piano (sometimes with a glass of cheer, usually not) with a gleeful "Oh please play us some Christmas carols".

Humbug.

I always take a stack of carols with me in the car on those occasions, though, just in case, because it does seem to make people happy, and that's wonderful, even if they don't know the words and couldn't carry a tune in a basket.

Merry Christmas!

[j_menz]

My views on the subject are sufficiently known that no one would dare ask me to actually play a carol.

[zezhyrule]

All my family that came over for thanksgiving just wanted me to sight-read some boring christmas carols, they were completely uninterested in the classical stuff I wanted to show them 

Now I am sick of christmas music, I'm never playing any again

[49410enrique]

My views on the subject are sufficiently known that no one would dare ask me to actually play a carol.

well at least you put up christmas lights this year. a little morbid, but hey it's a start

[costicina]

well at least you put up christmas lights this year. a little morbid, but hey it's a start

The best christmas lights I've ever seen in my life 

[indianajo]

I tuned the **** piano. Took a couple of days, a tuning fork, a 1/4 socket, a 5/16" allen wrench, two rolls of nickels.  I got free meals for those days, Hong Kong authentic Chinese food, but it didn't kill me.  
And yeah, people with no pitch nor musical education still respond to those carols Grandma ( or the English tutor, in the case of my Hong Kong in law) used to play. They are responding more to the people they remember, than the music per se, IMHO.  Whatever.  

[quantum]

If they are a musical crowd, I may bring a carol book along.  Of course you get people singing whatever verse they want, all at the same time.  Then there is the ubiquitous tenor that belts at the top of his lungs to a totally different tempo than everyone else.  The bongo player that attempts to play along.  It's kind of refreshing, when most of the time you're used to dealing with professional musicians.  There's a certain freedom of expression in all that chaos, unsuppressed by the tomes of art music. 

I also like to improvise in such social gathering scenarios.  Like twisting a carol into weird and wonderful shapes.  Joy to the world, in a minor key, in the style of a funeral march.  God rest ye..., in lydian mode.  Playing select tunes in retrograde.  Stating multiple tunes in polytonal juxtaposition.  Improvised fugues.  All fun 

[rachmaninoff_forever]

Rachmaninoff and Scriabin goes well with everything. 

Funerals, reunions, weddings, parties, EVERYTHING.

[patrickd]

Rachmaninoff and Scriabin goes well with everything. 

Funerals, reunions, weddings, parties, EVERYTHING.

     Don't forget Prokofiev.

[iansinclair]

I also like to improvise in such social gathering scenarios.  Like twisting a carol into weird and wonderful shapes.  Joy to the world, in a minor key, in the style of a funeral march.  God rest ye..., in lydian mode.  Playing select tunes in retrograde.  Stating multiple tunes in polytonal juxtaposition.  Improvised fugues.  All fun 

Oh dear me... reminds me of the Sunday I played a series of variations on "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" for an offertory... no one noticed.

[dcstudio]

Oh dear me... reminds me of the Sunday I played a series of variations on "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" for an offertory... no one noticed.

c'mon you know nobody pays attention on Sunday mornings   I improvised a setting of Bon Jovi's Dead or Alive (don't ask why) on Sunday for the offertory--only the guitar player caught it. hee hee one of the older ladies at church went on about how beautiful the song was--I didn't have the heart to tell her. lol