dueling pianos about dueling pianos dueling pianos description dueling pianos about dueling pianos dueling pianos information dueling pianos info
 
dueling pianos HOME dueling pianos SHOWS dueling pianos SONGLIST dueling pianos DEMO PHOTOS BOOKING
 

 

About dueling piano Players...
by Adam Blue

Today there are less than 200 noteworthy dueling piano players in the United States.  That number is rapidly growing, however, as the popularity of the dueling piano concept rises.

Why are dueling piano players so rare?  Because a dueling piano player has to have some serious qualifications:

First, you must have NATURAL musical ability.  Natural musical ability is something that you have to be born with.  You cannot learn it, you either have it or you don't.  There are two types of musicians out there, those who have natural ability and usually learn by "playing by ear" and then there's the more geeky musicians who have little or no natural ability but insist on being musicians.  The latter type of musicians usually go to "music school" and get their degrees and so forth and rely mostly on music theory to compensate for their lack of natural talent.  Dueling piano players are ALL natural born musicians.  There is no sheet music in the world of dueling pianos.  So, first and foremost a dueling piano player must be a natural.

Second, and this is where most piano players fall off, you must be FUNNY.  Humor is essential in the dueling piano world as most of the show is based around shtick and spur of the moment jokes.  So, as you can see, finding someone who is both musically talented AND humorous is a far fetch.

Third, a dueling piano player must know EVERY song ever written.  Well, maybe not all of them - but you'd better know most of them.  Dueling pianos is based upon random requests from the audience and you have no script to get you through your performance.  This is where the "playing by ear" concept comes in handy BIG TIME.  Sometimes a dueling pianist will play a song that he has never even played before - but if he has HEARD it before - he can usually pick it out quickly and at least make an attempt at playing it for you.  You cannot learn this ability, you have to be born with it.  This is also why you will sometimes see dueling piano players using big songbooks - these songbooks do not have sheet music in them - but lyrics.  Even though a dueling piano player may have the talent to pick out the melody to a strange song, he may not know the correct lyrics - thus the lyrics book comes in handy.

Fourth, a dueling piano player must be able to READ an audience.  It's true what they say, no dueling piano show is alike, you never know what you're going to get.  A good dueling piano player can look out at his audience and decide what genre and era of songs to play, as well as what comedy rating they will use.  Dueling piano players usually rate their comedy just like movies, G, PG, PG13, R, and unfortunately sometimes rated X.  Personally I don't like the rated X pianists as I think it's tacky and I think that you should find ways of "suggesting" something dirty creatively without being just plain gross - but that's just me.

Fifth and finally, a dueling piano player must be able to generate tips.  For more tricks of the tip trade see "Tipping" in my article "How to set up a Dueling Pianos Environment".

So, as you can see - a dueling piano player is almost super human, and this is why there are so few of them.

Dueling Piano Bar Pianists - Poor Saps...
There are a few dueling piano bar corporate chains out there - you know who they are - that actually send their dueling piano players to a dueling pianos school.  What a joke.  This sucks because it is just too corporate - and to be honest most of the dueling piano bar chain pianists are shabby at best - geeky little guys who work for "the man" and don't have the business sense to start their own company.  Poor schmucks - be sure and tip them a little extra - they have to give 80% of their tips to the bar anyway...yikes.  Needless to say, these guys are getting screwed by the man.

 

ABOUT DUELING PIANOS
A little history on how we discovered dueling pianos and the dueling piano bar.  Check out an article called "About Dueling Pianos".
HOW TO SET UP A DUELING PIANOS ENVIRONMENT
Kansas City, notorious for being slow to catch on, is just now beginning to discover dueling pianos and the dueling piano bar.  Over 20 years behind, but at least they finally got dueling pianos!  Many local Kansas City nightclub owners have had delusions of grandeur and have tried to install a dueling pianos act in their venue but have failed miserably for several key reasons, which are explained in an article called "How to Set Up a Dueling Pianos Environment".
THE REAL STORY OF THE DUELING PIANO BAR
Most of the dueling piano bars that are out there are chains.  Like most chains they are flavorless and odorless and are run by a handful of owners who are probably sitting on a beach somewhere and never even visit their own venues.  They pay the absolute minimum to their local employees and absorb all of the profits.  Chain dueling piano bars are no exception in that they take away from the small local business owner who doesn't stand a chance of overcoming the large bankroll that a chain dueling piano bar owner walks in with.   Basically, any large chain type business is successful before they even open the doors of a new location.  This has an adverse effect on it's local employees in that it takes away any incentive for local management to please the customer as they are on a fixed income and are easily replaced.  How does this affect us as customers?  The up and downside of a chain dueling piano bar is explained in an article called "What is a Dueling Piano Bar?".
MEET "THE PLAYERS" - ABOUT DUELING PIANO PLAYERS
Dueling Piano players come in all shapes and sizes, from sexy to dorky from highest paid to chain piano bar slaves - learn about the men and women behind the keys in this article about dueling piano players called "About Dueling Piano Players".


About Dueling Pianos | How to Set Up a Dueling Piano Environment | What is a Dueling Piano Bar? | About Dueling Piano Players

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
copyright 2005 Adam Blue Productions

More on Dueling Pianos from Wikipedia:

Dueling Piano Bar

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A piano bar (also known as a piano lounge) consists of a piano or electronic keyboard played by a professional musician, located in a cocktail lounge, bar, hotel lobby, or office building lobby. Usually the pianist receives tips in a jar or basket on or near the piano, especially from patrons requesting a song. Some piano bars feature a baby grand or grand piano surrounded by stools for patrons (or, somewhat humorously, an upright piano covered by a counter that makes it appear to be a grand piano). Others have a bar surrounding the piano or keyboard.

There are several different types of piano bars:

  • "instrumental only": the professional piano/keyboard player plays strictly instrumental music, which is usually classical, semi-classical, or "easy listening"; this type of piano bar is often found in hotel lobby lounges or "fine dining" restaurants.

  • "only the musician sings": the professional piano/keyboard player sings to his/her accompaniment, usually on microphone, but no other singers are generally allowed.

  • "the musician and waitpersons sing": the professional musician sings and also invites waitpersons to sing solos.

  • "sing-along": patrons surrounding the piano/keyboard sing as a group, usually without any microphones, often preferring "standards" and "show tunes", or very old songs like "Down By The Old Mill Stream", "Bicycle Built For Two", etc., but in some cases pop or rock.

  • "dueling pianos": usually on stage with two grand pianos, each played by a professional player who sings and entertains; humor and audience participation are prevalent; usually these types of piano bars have substantial sound systems, and most of the songs performed are rock and roll, "classic rock", Top 40, R&B, or country, sometimes played by request. Popular clubs like Pete's dueling pianos, Shout House dueling pianos, Ernie Biggs Rock & Roll Dueling Piano Bar, Rum Runners, Jellyrolls and Sing Sing perform high-energy interactive sing-along shows, while Howl at the Moon Piano Bar features full performance shows by the pianists. Popular dueling pianists include Roll Over Beethovenfrom Kansas City.

  • "open mic": individual patrons sing (on microphone) to the accompaniment of the professional musician; in some ways, this type of piano bar is like karaoke, except that the music is live and dynamic, and there are usually no lyrics available (although some piano bar players do supply some lyrics); like karaoke, the songs performed may cover a wide, eclectic range ("show tunes", "standards" from the 1920's forward, jazz, country, R&B, rock'n'roll, blues, folk, soul, disco, hip-hop, etc.); the patron singers are usually called to the microphone in a rotating order; often, each singer is allowed 2 or 3 songs each time he/she is called to perform.

  • "combination": some piano bars include the characteristics of two or more of the above, either on different nights or combined on the same night. For instance, at a "sing along" piano bar, a patron or wait person might sing a solo from time to time.

Before becoming famous, Billy Joel sometimes worked as a piano bar performer. His classic hit "Piano Man" is based on his experiences as a piano bar player.

[edit] References

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piano_bar"

dueling pianos kansas city dueling piano bar kansas city dueling pianos in kansas city roll over beethoven dueling pianos act