Might play in hotel lounges/bars

[pover]

Something cool just happened to me. My uncle, who used to work as a hotel administration manager or something like that, told me that I should play in hotels and lounges. I've been getting this a lot from my relatives, but I always brushed it off as a compliment, so today I kind of "retaliated" and asked him how in the world will an 18 year old do that.

We kept talking and discussing it and finally came to the conclusion that I would play 5-6 nights a week for 1-2 hours, but I have to play appropriate music, and not miss a day. So I asked him what was the pay (which I honestly wasn't even concerned about, since I was gonna play on a grand  wink ) and he told me something like (the equivalent of) $2500-3000 a month!  laugh

So try to imagine that. An amateur which only plays for pleasure might get $2500-3000 for PLAYING PIANO (the thing I love most in this world), on a GRAND, for a couple of hours a night! Isn't this like a dream come true? I always joked about how happy I would be if something like this would actually ever happen, but I didn't even think about this price (which might seem like nothing to you, but imagine the great teacher I'll be taking lessons with after I get that much money ).

I thought that this couldn't be possible, since I didn't know how to improvise, and then I asked my uncle "how can I play for 1-2 hours a night and not repeat the same pieces the next day?", and he told me that I don't even have to worry about that, because I will be playing the same program every night. So basically, I will only have to learn 1-2 hours of appropriate music and it will be maintained simply by the act of playing it daily.

So now that I've bored you with my excitement, time for the actual question (if anyone is still here  ha ). I have to be able to play at least 90 minutes of appropriate lounge/restaurant/bar music. I don't know what kinds of things I can use, but here's a list of things I'm learning or have already played (I can bring them back pretty quickly), or things I'm considering learning:

Chopin: Waltzes Op. 69 (both), op. 64/2, A minor posth. and maybe I'll learn another one.

Nocturnes op.9/1 (might learn no.2 aswell), C#m posth. Learning op.32/1, considering doing another one of the slightly easier ones after that.

Mazurkas Might learn op.67/4 and op.17/4 (both A minor), but not sure if I should?

Debussy: I don't know anything, but I'm in the process of learning the first arabesque. I'm also considering claire de lune and reverie, what do you think?

I also play a transcription of the blue danube waltz, so there's 10 minutes there.

I play some popular Arabic songs which I learned just yesterday, they turned out to be pretty easy. Too easy in fact. A couple of popular tunes like love story, might do the theme from godfather and titanic just because people know these things and might enjoy the familiarity.

But other than that, I'm sure I can use some suggestions from you guys. A big portion will probably be Chopin nocturnes and waltzes, but I want to vary it slightly. If I do get the job, perhaps I could do some Christmas music around that time aswell. I don't know, tell me what you think!

Eventually when I have the 90 minutes of pieces, my cousin (a photographer) will shoot a video of me playing all this and my uncle will get someone to send it to different hotels to see if anyone will hire me. I know this has been a huge post, but I really appreciate any suggestions. I just can't believe that for a little more work, I can actually make money by playing piano on a proper instrument in a 5-star hotel...

However, something is starting to worry me. Is it ok if I do this thing with classical (Romantic era) music such as chopin and the likes? or am I expected to improvise and play jazzy/cocktail piano music? Because if it's the latter I'm probably out of business before I start I really have no clue how to improvise, and frankly, I'm not too interested  eek

[liszt1022]

https://www.amazon.com/Quiet-Classics-Piano-Keith-Snell/dp/084976291X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1409254975&sr=8-1&keywords=quiet+classics

A lot of nice selections from real (non-simplified) classical repertiore that work really well for this sort of thing. It's spiral bound so the pages always stay open.

[amytsuda]

That's awesome!! Congratulations!! Grab the opportunity, and go for it!

Does he mind you playing from scores? Or do you have to play from the memory? I believe you can use scores, right? If so, I recommend you simply just download all possible repertoires you could think of (they are free online!) and try them all out to see which one you have a possibility to get going quickly. Do you have access to printer, or iPad?

My teacher highly discourages me doing this, but I simply constantly sight-read a bunch of pieces to pick out the next one I'd like to learn. I sometimes intentionally pick the one I was very uncomfortable with, as it indicates I can learn a lot from it. In you case, you want to pin-point as many pieces as possible you feel you can get up to speed quickly. You can spend one weekend, just tinkering around many things?

Just quickly I can come up would be some of Chopin Preludes incl Raindrop and Op28 No4, many 2nd movement of Mozart sonatas (e.g. K330, K332), also when I was a kid, I did some Nocturnes by John Field - don't remember them anymore, but I remember they were accessible. Also take a look on Chopin Sonata No 3 (OP 58) 3rd Movement. (Other people on this forum may kill me by suggesting this, but I know you can "play" it!)

[theholygideons]

Chopin sonata no.3 largo would be a good choice. You want something that's atmospheric, try Scriabin op.32, op.11 no.1, 11, etc. Or something easily sightreadable would be Erik satie and his gymnopedies and gnossienes.

[lostinidlewonder]

In most hotels and cocktail bars around the world I've been to they don't really play classical music, here are some pieces in a style I think is more common:
https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php/topic,19860.0.html

[amytsuda]

I traveled and visited many many hotels in Asia and Europe, and I have seen pianists playing classical music - even Mozart..... but maybe not everywhere... Erik Satie is a great idea!! I used to tinker on it when I was a kid, definitely easy to pick up.

[Bob]

...and he told me something like (the equivalent of) $2500-3000 a month!  laugh

That sounds like a blue collar performance/career job to me at that rate.  I would seriously question being able to pull in $12,000/year for about 12 hours of a work a week.  Practicing needed, yes, but that sounds like a really nice job for what it is.  Combine that with teaching and some part-time office work job for more stability and that's a career of some sort.



I was just posting about a piece that could work for a job like that.  

[Bob]

Screw it...  Here' my edit.


Lost my edit... again.... Better to ask and make a better first impressions... regarding the style they're expecting.  They're paying.

[pianoplunker]

Something cool just happened to me. My uncle, who used to work as a hotel administration manager or something like that, told me that I should play in hotels and lounges. I've been getting this a lot from my relatives, but I always brushed it off as a compliment, so today I kind of "retaliated" and asked him how in the world will an 18 year old do that.

We kept talking and discussing it and finally came to the conclusion that I would play 5-6 nights a week for 1-2 hours, but I have to play appropriate music, and not miss a day. So I asked him what was the pay (which I honestly wasn't even concerned about, since I was gonna play on a grand  wink ) and he told me something like (the equivalent of) $2500-3000 a month!  laugh

So try to imagine that. An amateur which only plays for pleasure might get $2500-3000 for PLAYING PIANO (the thing I love most in this world), on a GRAND, for a couple of hours a night! Isn't this like a dream come true? I always joked about how happy I would be if something like this would actually ever happen, but I didn't even think about this price (which might seem like nothing to you, but imagine the great teacher I'll be taking lessons with after I get that much money ).

I thought that this couldn't be possible, since I didn't know how to improvise, and then I asked my uncle "how can I play for 1-2 hours a night and not repeat the same pieces the next day?", and he told me that I don't even have to worry about that, because I will be playing the same program every night. So basically, I will only have to learn 1-2 hours of appropriate music and it will be maintained simply by the act of playing it daily.

So now that I've bored you with my excitement, time for the actual question (if anyone is still here  ha ). I have to be able to play at least 90 minutes of appropriate lounge/restaurant/bar music. I don't know what kinds of things I can use, but here's a list of things I'm learning or have already played (I can bring them back pretty quickly), or things I'm considering learning:

Chopin: Waltzes Op. 69 (both), op. 64/2, A minor posth. and maybe I'll learn another one.

Nocturnes op.9/1 (might learn no.2 aswell), C#m posth. Learning op.32/1, considering doing another one of the slightly easier ones after that.

Mazurkas Might learn op.67/4 and op.17/4 (both A minor), but not sure if I should?

Debussy: I don't know anything, but I'm in the process of learning the first arabesque. I'm also considering claire de lune and reverie, what do you think?

I also play a transcription of the blue danube waltz, so there's 10 minutes there.

I play some popular Arabic songs which I learned just yesterday, they turned out to be pretty easy. Too easy in fact. A couple of popular tunes like love story, might do the theme from godfather and titanic just because people know these things and might enjoy the familiarity.

But other than that, I'm sure I can use some suggestions from you guys. A big portion will probably be Chopin nocturnes and waltzes, but I want to vary it slightly. If I do get the job, perhaps I could do some Christmas music around that time aswell. I don't know, tell me what you think!

Eventually when I have the 90 minutes of pieces, my cousin (a photographer) will shoot a video of me playing all this and my uncle will get someone to send it to different hotels to see if anyone will hire me. I know this has been a huge post, but I really appreciate any suggestions. I just can't believe that for a little more work, I can actually make money by playing piano on a proper instrument in a 5-star hotel...

However, something is starting to worry me. Is it ok if I do this thing with classical (Romantic era) music such as chopin and the likes? or am I expected to improvise and play jazzy/cocktail piano music? Because if it's the latter I'm probably out of business before I start I really have no clue how to improvise, and frankly, I'm not too interested  eek

nothing wrong with Chopin, but you need to be able to play Happy Birthday in any key. G is the best key for that in my opinion. Also 90 minutes is short.  three to four hours can be expected.
But that is not to try to say you couldnt do this gig you are talking about. You start somewhere and learn from it. Good luck to you.
PS: Nightly pay is better (under the table)

[pover]

I'm starting to get some sort of second thoughts on this... In most cases where such things are done, I think the pianist is improvising 90% of the time. But the problem is I don't know the first thing about improvising, and I'm not really interested in it. I know some people use some books which have the basic chords and then you improvise around then and make good music, but I don't really like that sort of thing.

So maybe the first thing I need to do is to go to those venues and ask them whether my style of playing is acceptable for those "gigs". What do you guys think? Do you think it's inappropriate to play subdued romantic period pieces in those occasions, rather than improvise? This is a very important point that I haven't given much thought to before.

Liszt that sounds like a great book, I might purchase it after I settle on the type of music that's acceptable there.

Amy, thanks a lot for those suggestions! You never cease to impress. Don't worry about the score thing, my memory is very good (too good for my own sake sometimes. If I read something, I have to wait a couple of months before I can "sight-read" it again).

lostinidlewonder: I would appreciate it if you could point me toward pieces of similar nature, that's what I desperately need but can't find at the moment. If possible, something where everything is written out as I'm a terrible improviser. (terrible= zero)

theholygideons: I'll check out those suggestions! You are correct, something atmospheric but not too overpowering is what's needed. Hopefully I can find appropriate music and from different styles to add variety.

Bob: Yeah, imagine my surprise when my uncle told me the number. I mean, I never thought about it, and I would probably do this thing for free just to get an opportunity to play on a grand, but imagine giving an 18 yo amateur who enjoys playing that much just for doing what he loves only in a 5-star hotel and a better piano... feels too good to be true, so I must work hard to make sure this doesn't slip by me. At any rate, the money is going for a good cause (I'll finally get a PROPER teacher ), and I agree with your comment about asking the venues for their preferences. I should probably plan everything before I get (overly) enthusiastic.

Pianoplunker: Yeah my mom told me when she heard me practice that I should learn happy birthday so that whenever the opportunity presents itself, I can perform I've also had the comment of increasing it to AT LEAST 2 hours. I'll probably do that, striving to use pieces of different styles just to add variety.

So if anyone has jazzy/blues-y or cocktail bar type of music with sheet music (as I can't improvise) I would appreciate it loads! Thanks for your time, honestly!

[awesom_o]

Best of luck with earning three grand per month in a hotel lounge with absolutely zero improvisation ability!

Sounds to me a bit like a kid wanting to fly to the moon using only a skateboard! It's not gonna be easy to break out of Earth's orbit without several tons of rocket fuel hidden in your backpack! Mind you, I really have no idea how things tend to work over in Jordan

Why are you not interested in improvisation?

Improvisation is a VERY interesting way of making music!

[pianoplunker]

So if anyone has jazzy/blues-y or cocktail bar type of music with sheet music (as I can't improvise) I would appreciate it loads! Thanks for your time, honestly!

Jazz is founded on improvising. What are you going to do when you come across a blank section that just says "ad lib" ?  or "riff" ?   Jazz is something that must be studied just like classical, but Jazz is more about different ways to voice the chords and melody to be creative. Maybe something to try would be a classical fake book. You only see the basic theme and fill in the rest to actually create something. You "can" improvise but it takes work and practice and listening listening listening.  On a side note, you need to play songs that people will sing along with/ modern songs where the sheet music is actually incorrect. the Beatles songs always work well but not necessarily the way they are written in sheet music

[amytsuda]

I agree, it's good to learn how to improvise!  I had no training on any music theory or code in the past, and I even didn't know when my teacher said "that's a dominant code" 6 months ago, even though I've been playing from scores years (also I didn't learn music in English). Finally, one month ago, I read a dummy book on music theory, and I finally learned all the terminologies. So now, I can tinker a bit with codes, and put some stupid melody on top to improvise. Now when I see scores, I am starting to read it better. I wish I learned all these much earlier. All great musicians (classic or jazz) know codes and how to improvise or compose. It's not a waste of time to try it till you get bored. 

[pianoplunker]

I agree, it's good to learn how to improvise!  I had no training on any music theory or code in the past, and I even didn't know when my teacher said "that's a dominant code" 6 months ago, even though I've been playing from scores years (also I didn't learn music in English). Finally, one month ago, I read a dummy book on music theory, and I finally learned all the terminologies. So now, I can tinker a bit with codes, and put some stupid melody on top to improvise. Now when I see scores, I am starting to read it better. I wish I learned all these much earlier. All great musicians (classic or jazz) know codes and how to improvise or compose. It's not a waste of time to try it till you get bored. 

I think you meant to say "chords" rather than "codes" but I agree with you.

[Bob]

Do it.  You have nothing to lose.  You get paid.  You might even get paid to learn, to sight read, to improvise or learn to improvise.  Just do it.  Dive in.  Figure something out. 

If it's a hotel, people will come and go.  If you're playing the same thing day after day, few people will notice.  Just say... $2,000/month.  Four weeks... $500/week.  Six nights for just two hours.... 12 hours/week for $500?  You'd be getting paid $41.67/hour.  You'd have to pay taxes on that... You'd see about $27/28 per hour then. 

That much... For playing and practicing.  Plus any tips, but that's probably trivial compared to the amount they mentioned. I would actually question that amount.... They're probably just trying to get you in.

Dang.  If you don't take that, someone else will.  A place with a grand piano and willing to pay that much?  They must get some business.  (Unless this is a hoax thread.)

You'd struggle a bit at first, but figure something out.  I'm sure the money would convince you it was worth it. 

[amytsuda]

Pianoplunker, yes I meant chords!! English is difficult :-)

[pover]

awesome_o, I understand your suspicion, and it's probably built on good foundations, however, is it really impossible to do this sort of thing with like 2 hours worth or suitable repertoire and just cycling through them? As far as the pay is concerned, that's just a rough figure my uncle speculated, as he had seen this sort of thing before. However, I'd still be pretty ecstatic if this could be done for a 3rd of the price.

As for the improvising, I'm not really good at it and really have no idea what to do. It seems like I'm just randomly hitting keys, even if it's within the key signature.

pianoplunker, I know what you're talking about, and I appreciate the time you spent to try to explain. Fortunately, I called my uncle and he said classical (romantic) would be pretty suitable throughout the whole night, so I guess that's my ticket. Still, I'm gonna need a lot more time to prepare, as I have to get at least 2 hours worth of rep to performance level.

Amy, I know what you mean! I know a lot about my theory, but unfortunately cannot put much of it into practice. Maybe someday I'll start working on improvisation a bit more seriously.

Bob, I'm willing to do t, and I'm working on it, but I guess I'll need at least a couple of months before I have things ready to perform.

I'm not sure about the exact pay, that figure was something my uncle told me about. I'd be glad to do it even for a 3rd of that pay. I mean, I'm just playing piano, in a fancy hotel, on a good grand. I could probably even do that for free, lol. I still haven't been given the job as I haven't "applied" yet as I need to work on repertoire first so I have enough material to cover the night. It's reassuring that people will probably not notice the repetition from day to day.

And really, there is no reason for this to be a hoax thread lol. It would be silly for me to go through all this trouble just to trip you guys up. After all, I actually need the advice.

[pianoplunker]

awesome_o, I understand your suspicion, and it's probably built on good foundations, however, is it really impossible to do this sort of thing with like 2 hours worth or suitable repertoire and just cycling through them? As far as the pay is concerned, that's just a rough figure my uncle speculated, as he had seen this sort of thing before. However, I'd still be pretty ecstatic if this could be done for a 3rd of the price.

As for the improvising, I'm not really good at it and really have no idea what to do. It seems like I'm just randomly hitting keys, even if it's within the key signature.

pianoplunker, I know what you're talking about, and I appreciate the time you spent to try to explain. Fortunately, I called my uncle and he said classical (romantic) would be pretty suitable throughout the whole night, so I guess that's my ticket. Still, I'm gonna need a lot more time to prepare, as I have to get at least 2 hours worth of rep to performance level.

It is ok if you have no idea what to do when you try to improvise, and random note playing without a clue happens in a natural way as you get to know what you are doing more and more over time. For me if you replace the word improvising with sight reading I am just like you. I dont know why I just cant do it well enough. And when I sight read it may as well be random notes most of the time, but I still practice doing it, especially when I dont know what to play. You used the word "performance" for the hotel gig. Most of the time, they dont really want a performance. They want pretty little piano notes in the background for the guests to feel the atmosphere. Classical works fine for that but just realize alot of the passages get lost under the roar of people quietly chatting

[quantum]

Came across a lounge style pianist today and thought of this thread.  Good pianist, good piano, badly miced with dynamic mics inside the piano and piped so 1000 or so people could "listen" while they waited for the main event.  All you could really hear through the speakers was the few middle octaves of the piano, no bass at all.  I went near the piano to listen to what the pianist was really doing - he was using the whole keyboard but a lot of that was just not projecting. 

The rep was a mix of classical and pop/jazz standards.  There were a lot of fragments of pieces, 1st page of Moonlight Sonata segue into a show tune, another verse of this, a chorus of that, etc.  Lots of arpeggios to sound "pianisty" and also used for transitions.  Short breaks, followed by a repetition of the previously played rep.  On the whole it sounded like lounge music, its there but just enough to be noticed, not enough that the average person is encouraged to engage in active listening. 

[awesom_o]

awesom_o, I understand your suspicion, and it's probably built on good foundations, however, is it really impossible to do this sort of thing with like 2 hours worth or suitable repertoire and just cycling through them?

Nothing is impossible, my friend!

I recommend you give it your best shot. I'd be a bit surprised if you managed to win a permanent position of employment, but you may very be able earn some good money for a month or two!

Take the good advice that many here have offered. Learning to improvise takes time and energy... but you certainly don't have to be a Liszt or Tatum to make decent money in a hotel lounge! Whatever you are able to learn in a month or two will benefit you greatly in the long run!

Add an hours worth of popular music to your repertoire, and be able to segue from one song to another so that you don't always play the same pieces in the same order, 'recital style', and you should be good to go!

Best of luck, and let us know how it works out!

[brogers70]

Congratulations. You definitely have nothing to lose. I had a job like that playing classical guitar in a restaurant long ago. There are a couple of things to think about.

First, don't interfere with turnover in the bar. Classical pieces are long and structured and even people hardly paying attention may be drawn into waiting for the end of a piece (thus hanging around and occupying tables when they are not buying anything). Jazz improvisation can just be so loose that it creates atmosphere without compelling you to wait around for some conclusion.

Second, obviously, pick laid back pieces that don't do sudden, extreme dynamic changes; customers could find that distracting.

Third, use it as a great, low stress venue for practicing your repertoire (as long as you keep 1 and 2 in mind).

Fourth, just get used to most people paying you no attention - sounds like you're already cool with that.

Have fun. there's nothing better than getting paid to play music.

[pover]

pianoplunker: I can relate to your trouble with sight-reading as well, since I share that same problem. Honestly, this thread has kind of motivated me to start learning how to improvise, but problem is I haven't a clue where to start. And I know what you mean about creating an atmosphere, and I have use suitable pieces to provide that.

quantum: That must've been unfortunate for the pianist!
I really appreciate your description of what kind of music he played there, that gives a much better idea as to what to incorporate into the playing. I suppose a lot of familiar pieces would do no harm, as well as having back-up popular tunes in case someone requests anything. Your post was very helpful, thank you!

awesome_o: I honestly don't expect it to be a permanent position. I was expecting something like a month or two in a hotel, and then go to the next hotel and see what they think. If I can manage something like that I'll be able to keep it up for a year maybe.

I agree with the idea of starting to learn how to improvise, but I have to idea where to start looking or how to do it! Whenever I try to improvise, I choose a key and usually a constant LH figuration and try to improvise on that, modulating to the sub-dominant and dominant, and then back to the tonic. And trust me when I say it sounds HORRIBLE! I'd much rather learn how to improv jazz/blues but everyone who teaches these things online assumes that the student already has a pretty good background of improvising.

brogers: That's a great list, thanks. I seem to have it covered with regards to points 2-4, but I'm having trouble understanding what you mean by 1. "Don't interfere with the turnover in the bar", what do you mean by that.

Also when you say that some people might be inclined to wait, is that considered a bad thing? I'm not being sarcastic, I'm just trying to understand what to expect/do in those situations

[brogers70]

pover, the point about turnover is that the owners will not want people sitting around listening to you without buying anything. The problem is more pronounced in a restaurant. Once people finish the meal, the restaurant wants them to get up and go, to free up a table, so if they are sitting around waiting for you to finish a sonata, they'll be taking up space without generating revenue. In a hotel bar, if they sit around longer they may just order another drink, so it depends on exactly what tends to go on at the bar whether you could interfere with turnover. If it becomes a problem, one thing you can do is take more frequent short breaks, and that will sometimes get people who are really finished to get up and leave.

[Bob]

There's more than one way to improvise.  If you play a simple piece over and over and over... Guess what pops into your mind eventually?  "What else can I do with this to relieve the boredom?"  Change the rhythm, change the octave, add ornaments, tempo, accompaniment pattern, etc., etc., etc.  That's about the most I've done. 


For getting people to leave, play short pieces.  I'd take it as a compliment if people stayed to listen, but that sounds rare, at least for me.  I've done much background playing, but most people don't pay attention.  It's just atmosphere.  The ones who do might do that themselves or know someone in music. That's why they're sticking around, and they would probably listen or give you a compliment regardless of what you're playing. 

[pianoplunker]

There's more than one way to improvise.  If you play a simple piece over and over and over... Guess what pops into your mind eventually?  "What else can I do with this to relieve the boredom?"  Change the rhythm, change the octave, add ornaments, tempo, accompaniment pattern, etc., etc., etc.  That's about the most I've done. 

That is a great way to improvise. Take an easy piece and change it around. Play it much slower in a different key, do a well placed graceful chromatic run somewhere in the piece and there you have it. An improvisation.

[quantum]

Regarding improvisation, you may be placing too many restrictions on yourself at this point.  As improvisation is something that is still new to you, it may be more beneficial to approach it from the point of complete freedom and gradually work towards incorporating structured elements.  There are several experienced improvisers on Pianostreet that recommend this approach for new improvisers.

The problem is likely not that you don't understand I-IV-V-I, but rather that you have not developed your flow of ideas.  Without a flow of ideas, imposing standardized theoretical progressions comes out sounding like a theoretical exercise - that is because it contains all theory and little creativity. 

At this point, I would recommend improvising with the goal of being creative and opening that pipeline of ideas.  Don't worry about breaking any rules or whatever, just work on creating. 

[pover]

brogers, thanks for the clarification. For the most part, I'll probably be playing shorter pieces from the romantic era, usually nothing more than 5 minutes long. Having said that, I doubt I'll have people sitting for the sole purpose of listening to my music. As bob said, I would consider that a huge compliment.

In any case, this whole thing will probably be at least 3 months (or 4-5) because I need some time to learn the rep I'll need as well as getting it to a decent level.

Bob, that's a great idea for improvisation, I'll try to do that with the arabic songs I've learned as I'm pretty sure they're open to improvisation.

quantum, the idea puzzles me! When I think of improvisation, I can't just sit at the piano and play random notes expecting them to sound anything in the realm of tolerable. If I try to just play randomly whatever notes I feel like playing, it sounds like a complete mess and nothing at all.

The very least I need to do is kind of pick a scale (key sig) and try to work with that. Today I did a bit of fooling around with C major and made up a nice little flourish to go from a C to the next C one octave below. It's basically playing B-C then A-B, then G-A all the way down to C. I need some of these tools like this one to incorporate into improvisation so that I can have more freedom and relaxation while doing it.

I totally agree with your 2nd paragraph, I have no flow of ideas! And I don't know how to start that. If I try to just be free, I end up creating a mess with no rhythm or structure or anything and usually get caught up with trying to end on a suitable note which feels stable, and mess things up because I lack the ability to improvise until I reach the beat I'm looking for to end the melody/run on.

[Bob]

So I was posting here....
https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php?topic=56018.msg605253#msg605253

And then I realized I was describing the environment in this thread.


Haha... Ask if you can have breaks.  Or what the patron friendliness policy is.

I bet you could even drink while doing a gig like that.