The hater waiter at my solo piano gig

[dcstudio]

So I have this gig at this little restaurant on the weekends...nice place, baby grand---easy 3 hours.   Most of the employees really enjoy my playing and tell me so all the time...   All but one waiter...a lifetime employee of this establishment...  If he has a table within ten feet of the piano he tells me to stop playing so he can "do his job."   At first I was like...well ok--I will go take a break...  then I got flack from the owner who is a very excitable Lebanese man who told me not to listen to the waiter and just keep playing.   

Needless to say this solution did not go over well with the lifer-hater-waiter who then just started outwardly showing his dissatisfaction by standing there and staring at me -- or coughing loudly---or hissing at me as he passed by--or making rude comments to his table about me... 

I kind of took it as a challenge to see what I could do that would really piss him off...lol   I joked and said things like---"here's my number one fan, folks.."  and played Linus and Lucy at least once an hour followed by He's a Pirate---the two tunes he claims to hate the most.., and ironically are among the most requested songs I play.
 So this has been going on for the last several months between me and my hater.   Well Saturday night the restaurant had a wedding rehearsal dinner which broke up about half an hour before the end of my set.   Since I had no audience I started playing the 3rd movement of the Moonlight Sonata--it's my showpiece, but I rarely perform it.    Anyway, as I pound out the last c# minor chord--I look up and who is standing there looking  completely shocked but my lifer-hater-waiter. 

He began talking about how he had always wanted to play the piano...that is was his passion but he never learned to play.   He also said he didn't know I could play that kind of music.

Sunday morning when I came in to play brunch he came up to the piano and asked me to play "Riders on the Storm" by the doors... it was the first time that he approached me and didn't tell me to play quieter or stop altogether.

So Beethoven turned him around it seems-- pretty cool.

[falala]

So Beethoven turned him around it seems-- pretty cool.

Beethoven and you. 

[michael_sayers]

Hi Dcstudio,

Thanks for sharing the inspiring story!

It shows the transformative power of great music, especially when played by a capable pianist such as yourself.


Mvh,
Michael

[briansaddleback]

I don't believe in it, but it is entertaining to think, maybe it was the soul of Beethoven inside that waiter.. always hoping to have  someone play his music and he hated anything else, till you played the sonata.

[michael_sayers]

I don't believe in it, but it is entertaining to think, maybe it was the soul of Beethoven inside that waiter.. always hoping to have  someone play his music and he hated anything else, till you played the sonata.

Or maybe it is Franz Joseph Haydn, who learned on the other side that Beethoven's "dissonances" are okay.


Mvh,
Michael

[dcstudio]

I don't believe in it, but it is entertaining to think, maybe it was the soul of Beethoven inside that waiter.. always hoping to have  someone play his music and he hated anything else, till you played the sonata.

very entertaining to think things like that...lol... in fact it is exactly those kind of irrational fantasies that inspire me to keep playing.   Maybe it was Beethoven trying to reach that miserable little man... how amazing that he would use me and my humble abilities to accomplish that..  Maybe the great composers left a tangible "spirit" in their music that allows us to communicate with them...   I often wonder if they listen to us and if they understand how hard we try. 

 to think....I might be actually communicating with the "soul" of the great master himself...

or, then again... I might just be a crazy lady who spends too much time at the piano.. 

does it matter?

[ianzilla]

No offense but your moonlight 3rd movements needs a lot of work.. so you should play it more or actually practice it if you want to perform it!

for others to see

[dcstudio]

lol...yeah that is pretty bad...    Don't know that I really play it any better now...and that was two years ago...

amazing that even my sloppy version seemed to have such an effect on this guy.

I am no concert pianist...not even a classical pianist anymore--I even quit teaching. Now I am just a lady that sits and plays for 3 hours at a time with no sheet music.  I rely on requests most of the time and I don't bother making a set list.  I like what I do...and people seem to like it, too.  

but... you are right.. something about playing the moonlight like that seems somehow...  

disrespectful...

 

that's why I waited until no one was there to play it.

@Ianzilla...7 posts and you remember a vid I posted  2 years ago?  

[coolpianoman]

Now maybe you should try your musical magic on the owner too and quieten everyone down in that place.  I hope the food is as good as your playing!

[compline]

lol...yeah that is pretty bad...    Don't know that I really play it any better now...and that was two years ago...

amazing that even my sloppy version seemed to have such an effect on this guy.

I am no concert pianist...not even a classical pianist anymore--I even quit teaching. Now I am just a lady that sits and plays for 3 hours at a time with no sheet music.  I rely on requests most of the time and I don't bother making a set list.  I like what I do...and people seem to like it, too.  

but... you are right.. something about playing the moonlight like that seems somehow...  




disrespectful...

 

that's why I waited until no one was there to play it.

@Ianzilla...7 posts and you remember a vid I posted  2 years ago?  

I enjoyed your story and playing dcstudio, you show great confidence that I need.
Keep converting folks out there. 

[dcstudio]

Now maybe you should try your musical magic on the owner too and quieten everyone down in that place.  I hope the food is as good as your playing!

thank you 

Sadly...Despite repeated efforts the owner is impervious to my attempts to charm him... don't think the guy likes music at all.  Very excitable guy...hairpin-trigger-middle- Eastern guy with a checkered past...but he makes great food.  Gourmet Mediterranean stuff that is amazing and he's the number 1 restaurant in town.   

He also tries to get me to play extra time without forking over any more cash.
I have to say...

"Sam,  pay me or I am leaving..."   with my sweetest girliest smile before he will agree...

He always says--"but you are making tips! look at your jar!"
(...baht choo are makeeeng teeeps!  Loowk at chore chaar!)

"yeah, whatever...  pay me or I am leaving."

  

[pianoplunker]

So I have this gig at this little restaurant on the weekends...nice place, baby grand---easy 3 hours.   Most of the employees really enjoy my playing and tell me so all the time...   All but one waiter...a lifetime employee of this establishment...  If he has a table within ten feet of the piano he tells me to stop playing so he can "do his job."   At first I was like...well ok--I will go take a break...  then I got flack from the owner who is a very excitable Lebanese man who told me not to listen to the waiter and just keep playing.   

Needless to say this solution did not go over well with the lifer-hater-waiter who then just started outwardly showing his dissatisfaction by standing there and staring at me -- or coughing loudly---or hissing at me as he passed by--or making rude comments to his table about me... 

I kind of took it as a challenge to see what I could do that would really piss him off...lol   I joked and said things like---"here's my number one fan, folks.."  and played Linus and Lucy at least once an hour followed by He's a Pirate---the two tunes he claims to hate the most.., and ironically are among the most requested songs I play.
 So this has been going on for the last several months between me and my hater.   Well Saturday night the restaurant had a wedding rehearsal dinner which broke up about half an hour before the end of my set.   Since I had no audience I started playing the 3rd movement of the Moonlight Sonata--it's my showpiece, but I rarely perform it.    Anyway, as I pound out the last c# minor chord--I look up and who is standing there looking  completely shocked but my lifer-hater-waiter. 

He began talking about how he had always wanted to play the piano...that is was his passion but he never learned to play.   He also said he didn't know I could play that kind of music.

Sunday morning when I came in to play brunch he came up to the piano and asked me to play "Riders on the Storm" by the doors... it was the first time that he approached me and didn't tell me to play quieter or stop altogether.

So Beethoven turned him around it seems-- pretty cool.

12 bar blues song alert :

While the waiter,..... was waitin' on you
He was a hater,......  was hatin' on me
and then I told the owner.....
I dont play for free

[dcstudio]

12 bar blues song alert :

While the waiter,..... was waitin' on you
He was a hater,......  was hatin' on me
and then I told the owner.....
I dont play for free

I'm gonna walk out if you don't pay my fee

'cause I'm the only one who can play this gig
if you don't wanna pay me then hire a pig.