How to Play Piano Music in Public
I thought it might be useful to tell you a thing or two about how to play piano music in public.
The trick to being successful playing piano music in public
The trick to being successful playing piano music in public is do everything you can to gather a crowd. To do this, I play with as much movement and emotion as I can to draw the attention of passers by. If you can gather a crowd around the piano, more people notice and join the crowd. The crowd itself draws attention because people want to see what's going on. So, if I have a crowd, I sell more CDs. If I lose the crowd, then I have to work very hard to get them back.
How to Play Piano Music in Public at the Mall
Playing piano music in public at the mall is a two-way street, emotionally. 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. 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. I very much prefer when the latter happens!
The greatest thing about playing piano music the malls is all the people you get to meet and talk to. As an artist, there's nothing like getting that instant feedback to your solo piano music. If people love it, they tell you, and it gives you a little boost. Quite often, people who have purchased your piano music before will come back and tell you stories about how the piano music has impacted their lives.
I met a teenage girl who had just listened my solo piano piece "Tomorrow" on Spotify. What made this meeting special was that she had just flown in from the U.K.. She just happened to be visiting at the mall with some friends and then heard me playing that same song at the piano. She couldn't believe it. What were the odds of this girl from the U.K running into the composer of the piano song she had just listened from Spotify a few days previous? It was one of those weird coincidence things.
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