Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner How to Start an Amateur Pianist Group or Piano Party Group

I am looking for ideas about how to approach creating a group for amateur adult piano enthusiasts in my town. My piano teacher has queried the other piano teachers about the number of adult students they have. The number is quite high. We are looking for ideas about how to go about soliciting these adults for their interest in the possibility of meeting socially and getting together to play the piano. Along the lines of either the piano party approach or the formation of a group of amateurs who are looking for more opportunities to play for others outside of lessons and studio recitals in a relaxed setting.

I am especially interested in the ideas from people who have successfully created piano parties or piano groups that meet on a somewhat regular basis. But any ideas that may be helpful would be appreciated.

Perhaps you can get email addresses or phone numbers for those piano students. Then I'd set a date, buy some good things to eat and drink, and have a party/meeting. Goals would be to set things such as type of music welcome, whether or not guests are welcome, size of the group, how often you meet, who arranges contacting people for meetings etc.

The piano party approach may work as well as allow guests because that would increase the exposure of the group and act as free advertising. Once the group is established, you can than set plans for recitals, concert attendance, museum trips, etc. This seems to be how the the PW piano parties work up in my area.

John

I have been the "animateur" for three years for an adult performance group here in Victoria. We meet once a month in each others' homes to perform for each other.

The purpose of our group - which may differ from that of the group you hope to form - is to give adult students with limited performance experience the opportunities to perform in a friendly, supportive environment, opportunities that they otherwise rarely have or don't take advantage of because of their fear of performing.

It has always been our policy that outsiders - i.e. non-performers, even spouses and best friends - are not permitted to attend recitals, as many of the more timourous in the group feel intimidated even by friendly faces of non-musicians who can't fully appreciate the stress that an inexperienced performer goes through when performing for a group. As our group has grown, seating for "extras" becomes somewhat problematic, too, given that our recitals are held in members' homes, and when we have more than a dozen people performing it becomes a bit of a squeeze for some hosts to accommodate more than that. We don't all have concert-sized living rooms!

That said, we have recently initiated a year-end recital in which spouses and friends are invited and warmly welcomed to attend. A couple of us have large enough homes that, with a little gentle "encouraged togetherness" we can accommodate up to 20 people.

In my experience, it is a good idea from the outset to establish certain guidelines - they need not be rigid rules - that help set the tone and define the purpose of the group.
Our group has evolved since its original formation about six years ago and now includes members who have some (non-professional) performance experience along with those seeking for more such opportunities. The primary purpose, however, remains the same : to provide regular performance opportunities to those needing them.

The growth of the group has been stable in the time I have belonged to it which, I think, attests to its usefulness; it continues to thrive. New members join, usually having heard about us from other members, and some members - both short-term and long-term members - do sometimes disappear without a trace. That is the nature, I think, of social groups.

A rebours : Given that your area seems to have a goodly number of adult students, starting through their teachers might be a good place to start. If the group gets off the ground then, almost certainly, word of mouth will help it to grow and - it is to be hoped - the dedication of a core membership will keep it alive and thriving.

The Victoria Conservatory of Music has recently established a similar group for adult students at the conservatory. The VCM based its guidelines on those that I have established for our group. If anyone wishes a copy of the guidelines for our private group, please feel free to send me a PM with your email address and I will send you a copy.

Best of luck in establishing a group; it's a great idea that does work!

Regards,

The local Steinway dealer here hosts an "Evening around the piano" once a month. It targets adults and is very low key. We are encouraged to play anything we are working on (provided one stays within a reasonable time frame) or just listen if you prefer. We get to play a beautiful Steinway D.

You might discuss this possibility with a local piano dealer to see if they'd be agreeable to hosting it and doing some publicizing as well.

Where are you located?

We have many members from everywhere here on PW. And I bet that many would like to get together, if someone just organized it!

Good suggestions from above. In the Boston area we have quite a nice group that gets together once in a while to play for each other. See the other section on PW for parties etc. None are formal but many are planned ahead party parties. Some of us have gotten together with just twosies and threesies.

Added to the above - Nice to experience other pianos both new and old too. Even nicer when they are prepped for visiting players!

Let us know how you make out and make sure you tell the teachers/students/participants about Piano World!

BTW note the posts from TT and John Citron in this thread -
https://www.pianoworld.com/forum/ubb...NO%20WORLD-%20the%20first%20years...html

Meetup.com seems to be an upcoming popular website to help organizing group get togethers of common interests in various locales. You may want to check it out to see if there's already any piano group in your area. Or create a new group through Meetup.

I miss Boston. I used to live there. What a great city!

Hi, gooddog,



This is what I/we am/we are going to do. We will be writing up a short invitation that will be distributed to the piano teachers at their next music teachers' association meeting. It is include "if interested, contact _____________ or email @ _____________.

My teacher polled the other teachers to find out how many adults they were teaching and there were 35 of them.

Thanks for your suggestions.

Hi, Bruce D -




The purpose of the group that I would like to get started is exactly as you have stated above.

As far as I know there aren't that many informal performing opportunities for adult piano students unless they are related to whatever a teacher does within their own studios. My intention is to have other adults get to have more opportunities as well as for the adults to find other adults with the same interest in the piano.

I also would need to limit the size of the group to no more than 10 to begin with. Like you say, our living rooms aren't concert halls. LOL. I can comfortably fit 7 people, but could squeeze in no more than 10.

If a groups forms and we find we have other piano interests besides the opportunity to play, then I envision that the activities could evolve over time.

I appreciate your detailed reply to my OP, it was very helpful.

Thanks for the suggestion.



However, we do not have ANY piano dealers in my area! I am located between Spokane and Seattle; 2 3/4 hrs and 2 1/2 hrs. drive respectively. The Seattle area has the most dealers and Spokane less.

The local purveyors of musical instruments sell band and orchestra instruments for beginners and kids in school programs; guitars, acoustic and electric; drum sets; electronic keyboards, mainly entry level and the most affordable ones; sheet music.

So no there is no public location with an acoustic piano to host a group.

We are very limited where I live. That is the reason I am looking to form a group.

Hi, lilylady,




I'm in Wenatchee, WA.

After reading on Piano World about all of the different piano groups in the various towns and cities, I thought that if our town didn't have such a group already, I'd try to get one started thinking that maybe there are others hiding in the woodwork who might be interested. By circulating an invitation through the teachers I may also end up finding out that a group already exists and all I would have to do is contact them to see if I could join it.

Twosies and threesies would be fine with me. Just having more than myself would be fantastic.

Having the opportunity to play other pianos would be a nice bonus. In addition, having the ability to listen to my own piano as an audience member would be nice for a change. I loved listening to my piano teacher play it when we did a lesson at my home. Sitting away from the piano allows me to get a different perspective of the sound and nuance.

I'll keep you posted as I progress in getting a group off of the ground. And of, course, I'll mention Piano World to anyone who is unaware of the forum.

Hi,



I did check Meetup. Nothing for my area. I didn't feel like starting a group through Meetup, though. I prefer to do things face to face.

But good suggestion.

here on chicago's north shore, one of the board members of the music institute of chicago hosts a piano soiree once a quarter, sundays at 3 pm. word of mouth mainly, from the adult students. hors d'oeuvres afterwards. it's a lot of fun. 10, maybe 15 show up -- mistakes are welcome :-)

maybe start small and it will grow, or craig's list to find others.

A Rebours :

It sounds as though you have a good potential source (35 adult students) from which to start a group.

A couple of possible reasons that there are fewer opportunities for adults to perform : (these observations may belabour the obvious!)

1) Many piano teachers have few adult students. When those teachers have recitals, often some of the adults with commitments many not be able to attend and the remaining one or two don't necessarily want to perform in a recital of 10 or 12 pre-teenagers.
2) Many piano teachers schedule only one or two recitals per year; that doesn't provide a lot of performance opportunities.

The big advantages of the adults-only performance group - particularly if you are able to establish one on a regular basis - is that
1) more opportunities arise for performing over a given period of time, even if an adult has to miss one or two during a year, and
2) Even if only a few are available for any given recital, there is the added comfort and encouragement of performing among other adults.

To try to add to the "comfort level" of our group, each of our recitals is divided into two sessions, separated by a refreshment break. The first session is intended for those more elementary players or for anyone wishing to try out a "work in progress"; the second session is (usually) for those more advanced or with more polish to their works. This has at times been particularly helpful to the adult student who is prepared to play his/her first Grade 2 piece ("The Swing," or "Falling Waters," or "My Dolly's Lament") but who would feel considerably intimidated if s/he is scheduled to follow someone playing a Rachmaninoff Prelude or a Chopin Etude.

Those not intimidated by others more advanced have the choice of performing in whichever session more conveniently fits the individual's schedule. Most of our members, in whatever session the play, are always pleased to attend the entire recital of both sessions - and two refreshment periods, one in between the two sessions and one after the last session.

Our particular group, by the way, as it has evolved, is not limited to adult piano students; we have the odd voice student (odd as in number, not as in personal character!) a couple of violinists, a violist, a classical guitarist, a cellist, a clarinetist, two flautists and two recorder players along with our pianists. This has led to some accompaniment opportunities within the group.

Our group's mailing list numbers slightly over 30 now; at any given monthly recital we have from as few as eight to as many as 16 in attendance. So, a large resource pool doesn't necessarily mean that you will have a houseful every time, given that adults often have more serious commitments that may limit their attendance at recital programs.

I apologize for the long post about "our group" but some of these thoughts may help give you some ideas as you organize yours.

Regards,

You might also check this out. This is a well established group in the DC area. You may get some ideas from their site and publications.
http://www.amsfperform.org/about.html

Hi, Bruce D



Thank you for the specifics on how you organized the performances and all of the other information you provided. Your "long post" is very helpful. Actually, I like the thoroughness of your posts! Excellent things to consider.

Thank you for the link. I have seen this site before (many months ago) and it is one of the reasons I was feeling sorry for myself for not living in a area with an active group of adult piano students! Ha Ha!

But I forgot about it and re-reading the information about how and why the group got started and the precision in their stated goals is a good model to guide me.

They are a wonderful group indeed.

I recently set up an amateur piano group in London, you can have a look around our web site here:

http://londonpianosalon.wordpress.com

We have around 20 performers plus 10 observers at the event. We hold it at Steinway Hall.

I am in Bend, Oregon, a good 3 hours South of Portland. I started a group 4 years ago after moving from the Seattle area. We meet about 3-4 times a year in homes with good pianos. There are presently about 5 people that play and sometimes 15 or so listening. There is no Piano Store here and I do not know of a public venue that we would not have to pay to use. We call it a Soiree' and have nice munchies and wine, the Christmas Soiree' is especially great!