A ukulele concert at an assisted-living facility

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Tom

Tom

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Yesterday 30 Delta Strummers showed up to perform for the residents of an assisted-living facility in Antioch, CA. We've performed there 4 times in the past and, as usual, we had a very receptive audience, a number of whom joined in signing several of the songs. The only pictures I've received so far were rather poor.

We've performed multiple times at a number of assisted-living facilities in nearby towns, and continue to get asked to return. These performances and associated rehearsals, are a lot of fun, and help put an edge on our playing and singing.

One challenge we always face with these informal performances is that, although only 40-60% of the band show up, we max out the available space in several facilities. Yesterday we played in "a corner" of their dining room and were 'live' immediately after lunch. Made it a little tough to bring in 30 chairs and set up music stands, instruments, solo mic's/mixer and monitors without encroaching on their lunch.
 
[quote author=Tom]The only pictures I've received so far were rather poor.[/quote]

Here's a picture of the same configuration during a prior performance at this facility.
 
I'll bet that sounds cool.  Is that a double bass I see in the back?  I play an acoustic and electric bass, but those stand-ups scare the crap out of me. Haha.
 
[quote author=FenderP]Is that a double bass I see in the back?[/quote]
It's a gut bucket, although the guy no longer plays with us (it's an old photo). As I'm sure you know, a DB or GB helps set the beat for the ukes. Meanwhile, one of our guitar players does a decent job of playing the low end. When we play a major (paid) concert, we have a pro play bass guitar, which really keeps us on the beat.
 
FWIW these performances at assisted-living facilities and schools are one way we give back to the community. We take no fee or donation for these performances, although the band used to accept nominal donations in its early years.
 
Tom said:
FWIW these performances at assisted-living facilities and schools are one way we give back to the community. We take no fee or donation for these performances, although the band used to accept nominal donations in its early years.
Click to expand...

Nice.  Kudos to y'all.
 
Thanks, but we get at least as much enjoyment out of these performances as the audience.
 
Aye Tom, it's fun just seeing the audience enjoying themselves, especially when they join in singing.
 
It is always a blast to watch the audience, especially when you play in a bar. The challenge then becomes just getting people to look at you, stop talking and listen. When you give a performance like you do it is advertised as a concert and people come to hear the concert. People go to bars to get laid and/or drunk and the music is secondary to them. I do love playing to a crowd though, the more the better. I would have killed to play Woodstock but for some reason they didn't ask me. :-[
 
We have learned not to play/sing while people are eating, drinking, or otherwise socializing. The times we've played for folks who weren't paying attention, we couldn't hear each other, and I wished I was next to the door so I could leave. We've also learned not to play/sing outdoors. Unlike some of the rock bands that pump out gigawatts of noise, we only amplify the soloists.
 
I think that’s great that people organize some entertainment for seniors, such as concerts. Unfortunately, not all assisting living centers organize such events for their residents. My grandpa used to live in an assisting living facility without any additional facilities. We asked him to live with us in California, but he doesn’t want to move out from Texas. Well, I understand him because it is hard to leave the place you love, and you consider that as home. Instead of convincing my grandpa to move in with us, we found another assisted living facility on serenityoaksassistedliving.com. Now, he enjoys his golden days there and even made some new friends.
 
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