I have been thinking about playing the piano at a local restaurant -could anyone suggest any good pieces please.I was unsure about what kind of music is suitable,i think the flight of the bumble bee would be a bit off putting!

Probably most of the music played at the Piano Restaurants I've been to is 'light music' :
Clayderman , Paul de Senville , maybe some jazz pieces too.

I don't think that flight of the bumblebee would really fit...

Pam Wedgwood's After Hours is nice "wallpaper" music. I took one of the books along to a wedding reception a while ago and played my way through the pieces while the wedding guests had their food and chatted among themselves.

I had a job in a small cafe to provide some "light background music", and I just played some Chopin (Nocturne in Eb) and some nice pieces, like Traumeri. Again, I reccomend the book "Quiet Classics", edited by Keith Snell, as the music in this book is perfect for this sort of occasion

xx

I used Pam Wedgwood's After Hours too at a wedding reception! They're not too difficult, but really effective. I'd also took my laptop with me to play some cd music through my clavinova whilst I ate my own food, but I go so carried away with the music, when I finally did stop my food had gone cold

What's the atmosphere of the restaurant? Lively or sedate? Appeals to younger or older people? Sophisticated or casual? Cutting-edge contemporary or traditional?

There are some useful books called The Cocktail Bar piano available from Music Sales that contain lots of easy listening stuff. All quite easy to play and offering plenty of choice. I used one a few years ago when the local RAF camp ran a themed night of entertainment and set up a thirties style bar complete with white grand piano.

Oh how wonderful - I love the 30s era!

The music in these albums isn't all from the thirties, but it worked on the night. I think that most people there were too happy to notice.

Yes I thought of the Pam Wedgwood too. You might try some Einaudi if you like him, maybe some Scott Joplin for something a bit more upbeat.

Play this when you want them to eat quickly and leave!

I wonder how you eat in syncopation ?? now there's a thought ...

I love listening to restauarant pianists. The type of music I like is the "cocktail pianist" lite stuff mixed in with gentle classics. Something to provide ambience not intrude on the food. Medleys from show normally go down well too.

Some of the gentler Scriabin Op. 11 Préludes would be ideal. I've put no. 9 on the recordings site, but quite a few out of the 24 would be great .

I must admit I tend to prefer "cocktail piano" rather than light classical for these situations though of course it depends on the ambience of the restaurant...
But all the smoochy jazz standards are lovely to just fiddle around with and improvise a bit - it's a good time to play around with improvising 'cos no-one's really listening too closely!

I think you've hit the nail on the head. You've got to go with the ambience of the restaurant and situation.

I knew a guy at uni who did this as a part time job (got paid a small fortune, he was very good and very in demand) - he used to improvise a lot, incorporating tunes into the mix, but generally just a flow of light jazz improv. He played at at least one of the college balls and it was very effective as background music - more than good enough to sit and listen to if you were of a mind, but easy enough to just let wash over you as background music, too.

I personally would play some quieter classical pieces. Chopin Nocturnes, Fur Elise, To a Wild Rose, Quieter of Scriabin Preludes Op11 (already mentioned), Slow movement of Pathetique, Farewell to Stromness (Maxwell Davies), Slow movements for Mozart/Haydn/Schubert Sonatas, perhaps even first movment of Moonlight.

That music is gorgeous, but ask yourself does it suit that restaurant?

*takes in info*

I have to play for a bit at an OAP lunch that my school do every December. Me and another girl are splitting 3 hours between us I think Do you think Einaudi would be ok?

Yes - Einaudi would be fine for that!

I have just started doing this too and I went to my music shop where the manager does similar at a very up market resturant.

He recommended a fantastic book ' 150 of the most beautiful songs ever' pub by Hal Leonard
ISBN # 0- 88188-307-7

It has a huge variety of suitable songs from musical theatre to light classics to movies to 40's, 50's 60' 70's , 80's numbers

I'm grade 8 and can pretty well sight read them all ( but sight reading is my strength, memorisation my downfall )
but the arrangements are all attractive and not too simplified.

Have a look at your music store cos there are books compiled for just this purpose

Too much twiddly improvising with extended cadences and wandering arpeggios would tend to get on my nerves in a restaurant! I got a free CD with the latest classicfm magazine this month, and put it on while we were having our dinner, by chance, just after reading this thread! I hate to feel hurried when I'm eating, and what really struck me as very relaxing and atmospheric was the Aria from Bach's Goldberg Variations (BMV988). It sounded particularly good alongside the glug-glug-glug of warm-coloured wine going into a glass.

Debussy's Clair de Lune was also great (if it's in your repertoire!). What about some of the other slower Debussy pieces too?

And I'd love to eat to some of fsharpminor's suggestions!

Bach wrote the Goldberg Variations for an aristocratic insomniac - to be played by his personal harpsichordist when he was trying to get to sleep .

You obviously missed that bit in "Shine"

Personally I'd find some nice 1930's, 1940's and 1950's music. OAPs love nostalgia.

Flight of the bumblebee is absolutely gorgeous , but it's a movie , come on!