Piano Bar question for "Barry From Boston"

[elycelynne]

Hi, Barry. First of all, I really loved your comprehensive guide to the HAL piano bar! I have one more question that you, as "the guy behind the piano", can hopefully answer.

 

What's HAL's "official stance" on passengers taking the mic and singing? One piano guy once told me that HAL didn't want that because they had instances in the past of people saying or singing offensive material once they had the mic. This was on my second HAL cruise, after I was allowed to do so on my first one (different piano player). It didn't come up on my last cruise -- Mainly due to the fact that I was having upper respiratory issues for most of it and wasn't really in any shape to be singing into a mic.

 

So IS there an official policy, or does it just depend on the individual piano bar entertainer?

[Oceanwench]

just thought I would comment that in all the piano bars I've spent time in, in more than a dozen HAL cruises, I have only seen one passenger take the microphone and sing. Her song of choice was Danny Boy, and boy did she ruin it. Ugh.

She never got to sing again that week, as far as I know.

 

I go to hear the piano bar player, not passengers -- good, bad or Broadway stars. I think if the piano bar player lets one person sing, he or she has to open it to all ... And we know that not everyone is gifted. That turns it into karaoke, and a piano bar into amateur night. There is a venue for karaoke aboard the ships.

 

I am not saying this to be mean. It's the same with the classical music, HAL Cats, etc. Just because a passenger might play the violin or the guitar, it doesn't mean he or she can just join in with the professionals.

[Hlitner]

Just had to jump-in when we saw the "Barry from Boston" reference. We first encountered Barry many years ago when he was working on a RCI ship. Barry turned out to be an amazing entertainer (one of the best Piano bar players we have ever encountered) who quickly had a packed house every evening. We envy anyone who gets Barry on a cruise.

 

Hank

[elycelynne]

just thought I would comment that in all the piano bars I've spent time in, in more than a dozen HAL cruises, I have only seen one passenger take the microphone and sing. Her song of choice was Danny Boy, and boy did she ruin it. Ugh.

She never got to sing again that week, as far as I know.

 

I go to hear the piano bar player, not passengers -- good, bad or Broadway stars. I think if the piano bar player lets one person sing, he or she has to open it to all ... And we know that not everyone is gifted. That turns it into karaoke, and a piano bar into amateur night. There is a venue for karaoke aboard the ships.

 

I am not saying this to be mean. It's the same with the classical music, HAL Cats, etc. Just because a passenger might play the violin or the guitar, it doesn't mean he or she can just join in with the professionals.

 

I would counter that a piano bar is totally different. I'm not questioning your preference regarding not wanting to hear anyone else other than the entertainer, but a piano bar is already a participatory experience where the audience is more or less involved. Somebody singing one song wouldn't be as much of a stretch as someone wanting to sit in with the HAL Cats or Adagio.

Edited July 11, 2013 by elycelynne

[RuthC]

Once in a while, there's an open mic hour, or so, one or two nights during a cruise. I have seen that on my longer cruises. I have also seen hours when the main stage singers come in and perform.

Personally, I don't care for either of those practices.

[Oceanwench]

I would counter that a piano bar is totally different. I'm not questioning your preference regarding not wanting to hear anyone else other than the entertainer, but a piano bar is already a participatory experience where the audience is more or less involved. Somebody singing one song wouldn't be as much of a stretch as someone wanting to sit in with the HAL Cats or Adagio.

 

Professional is professional. Amateur hour is over in the karaoke contest.

Yes, of course a piano bar, in the best of scenarios, is participatory. (Although some prefer when the piano player merely entertains and does not encourage involvement.)

 

But it's a group effort, no solos needed.

People go to hear the piano bar player, not Daisy Dolittle from from Dorksville, who sings with her church choir.

The piano bar player can't be passing the microphone to just anyone, yet to be fair, he/she would have to once the floodgates are opened.

 

Better people check their egos at the door and realize the piano bar involves one star and a big chorus.:rolleyes:

[Desdemona01]

I'm with Ruth and Oceanwench on this. I go to hear the paid entertainer, and participate in a GROUP sing along. On one cruise a self-important alleged lounge lizard got up in the face of the gal performing in the piano bar because she told him HAL did not want passengers taking over the mic. He and his *entourage* made several offensive comments and stormed out when she refused to be impressed with his so-called credentials. The patrons in the bar applauded as he left.

 

If one has a desire to perform in a piano bar on a cruise ship I'm sure there are ways to apply and be hired. Otherwise, I prefer that it be group participation. There will always be someone who thinks they should riff or do a solo but, in my experience, the rest of the group manages to drown them out. If they try to take over too much I've also seen it clear out the place. As OW pointed out, there is a venue for karaoke if one desires their time in the spotlight :)

[elycelynne]

Okay then -- I guess you all told me!

[kazu]

I don't know - don't worry - the Canadian Contingent brought the Crow's Nest alive and there certainly was some singing along with the piano man on a couple of nights (not solos) and no one seemed to mind - in fact people seemed to be drawn in:D

 

there were a couple of VERY talented singers and they were totally in tune. I don't think our piano man minded at all as they sang along:)

 

and everyone seemed to be having fun:)

[RuthC]

I don't know - don't worry - the Canadian Contingent brought the Crow's Nest alive and there certainly was some singing along with the piano man on a couple of nights (not solos) and no one seemed to mind - in fact people seemed to be drawn in:D

 

there were a couple of VERY talented singers and they were totally in tune. I don't think our piano man minded at all as they sang along:)

 

and everyone seemed to be having fun:)

That's really not a fair comparison, Jacqui, as the Prinsendam doesn't have a Piano Bar (the ship's only failing, imo). The Crow's Nest is an entirely different atmosphere than a piano bar is. Even the Piano Lounges on the three ships that still have them is a different atmosphere than a true piano bar.

[PathfinderEss]

I''m with Ruth C., Oceanwench, and Desdemona. I'm in the piano bar to hear the piano player. If there are passengers who want to sing, let them do karaoke .

[Oceanwench]

I don't know - don't worry - the Canadian Contingent brought the Crow's Nest alive and there certainly was some singing along with the piano man on a couple of nights (not solos) and no one seemed to mind - in fact people seemed to be drawn in:D

 

there were a couple of VERY talented singers and they were totally in tune. I don't think our piano man minded at all as they sang along:)

 

and everyone seemed to be having fun:)

 

And the operative words here: not solos.

Piano bars are an equal opportunity venue. Everyone gets to sing along, the good and the bad and the totally-out-of-tune.

Good piano bars do draw people in, and strangers often become friends. On our last cruise, the "regulars" exchanged email addresses and planned to hold a reunion cruise in 2014.

 

One mic, one professional ... And the rest of us are the background singers. :D

[Wakepatrol]

Okay then -- I guess you all told me!

 

 

Yes...That was quite the pummeling you took.:eek:

[dr.dawg]

oceanwench, maybe you should back off of 'daisy dolittle from dorkville.' ever heard of susan boyle? and btw, some of the hal-cat groups i've been tortured by could perhaps use a few stand-ins from the pax. as a ph.d in music and a past professional musician, there are times when listening to those 'cats' is like hearing someone run fingernails across a blackboard -- and some of us remember those, too. :D

[sail7seas]

If the piano man/woman gives the mic to one guest, how does (s)he refuse all others? The venue becomes amateur vs the professional entertainment that is paid to perform.

 

[dr.dawg]

well, sail, of course you are right. but if someone wants to sing a particular song, how about a very short little audition prior to piano bar hours, with the piano man/woman? that would surely discourage a lot of wannabe's, and weed out others. allow participation on a solo basis, and keep out those who might lessen the experience for those who just want to group-sing and be entertained by the piano man. nothing monumental, mind you; a good musician can tell in four measures whether or not it might work out. and the decision is up to him/her. period. doesn't even need to be advertised -- the 'audition,' that is -- just word of mouth. no one shows to audition, no solo singers. i remember lots of friends who loved to sing solo at piano bars, and most were quite decent and entertaining. i'm sure this desire to solo doesn't happen very often, anyway. btw, i dislike piano bars intensely!!!!:D

[blacksand]

Okay then -- I guess you all told me!

The karaoke nights on the ship are fun, and on my last cruise they had live karaoke with the HAL Cats. We had a great time singing at both of those events. It was a little funny to see the people who were so serious about it, they were camped out and sang several songs each, they took over a bit, but still plenty of room for everyone to have a good time.

[elycelynne]

The karaoke nights on the ship are fun, and on my last cruise they had live karaoke with the HAL Cats. We had a great time singing at both of those events. It was a little funny to see the people who were so serious about it, they were camped out and sang several songs each, they took over a bit, but still plenty of room for everyone to have a good time.

 

On my last cruise, which was an 11-day Southern Caribbean itinerary, they only had two nights of karaoke, no "Superstar" contest, and didn't even have the live karaoke with the HAL Cats. I thought that to be kind of odd, because those are almost always featured on the 7-day cruises.

[Oceanwench]

oceanwench, maybe you should back off of 'daisy dolittle from dorkville.' ever heard of susan boyle? and btw, some of the hal-cat groups i've been tortured by could perhaps use a few stand-ins from the pax. as a ph.d in music and a past professional musician, there are times when listening to those 'cats' is like hearing someone run fingernails across a blackboard -- and some of us remember those, too. :D

 

Apples and oranges.

I don't think anyone should be handed the mic in the piano bar.

The songbirds can strut their stuff in the karaoke competition, the proper place for amateurs.

 

As for auditions for soloists in the piano bar, that is completely ridiculous.

It's not the venue for passengers who feel they can sing, period.

Don't try turning it into something it isn't.

 

I have to think HAL has gotten more than a few complaints about mic-grabbing passengers and has passed the word along to its professionals.

 

As far as Susan Boyle ... Who was participating in a contest with a bunch of other amateurs ... Well, seems maybe her 15 minutes are up. :rolleyes:

[durangoscots]

The sing alongs are such fun. I have only heard someone (other than the piano person) sing solo when they were helping out with lyrics or an unknown song and that was briefly - quietly and not handed the mic. But a good piano sing along - now that is fun even if you really can't sing well.

 

Susan

[innlady1]

And the operative words here: not solos.

Piano bars are an equal opportunity venue. Everyone gets to sing along, the good and the bad and the totally-out-of-tune.

Good piano bars do draw people in, and strangers often become friends. On our last cruise, the "regulars" exchanged email addresses and planned to hold a reunion cruise in 2014.

 

One mic, one professional ... And the rest of us are the background singers. :D

 

We had this same experience on our recent Ryndam cruise. Out of the blue five or six couples who were with us two years prior on the Maasdam were on this cruise...we all hung out at the piano bar on the Maasdam so the Ryndam was an unplanned reunion.

On the Maasdam, we were blessed to have Mark Farris as the pianist...and he encouraged sing alongs. However, on the Ryndam, the pianist was somewhat taken aback that we all enjoyed sing alongs...

I love the sing along part...but I don't enjoy when someone gets up and does a solo. For some reason, in the piano bar, that seems rather out of place.

[startwin]

We had this same experience on our recent Ryndam cruise. Out of the blue five or six couples who were with us two years prior on the Maasdam were on this cruise...we all hung out at the piano bar on the Maasdam so the Ryndam was an unplanned reunion.

 

On the Maasdam, we were blessed to have Mark Farris as the pianist...and he encouraged sing alongs. However, on the Ryndam, the pianist was somewhat taken aback that we all enjoyed sing alongs...

 

I love the sing along part...but I don't enjoy when someone gets up and does a solo. For some reason, in the piano bar, that seems rather out of place.

 

I entirely agree. Audience Sing-alongs in the Piano Bar are part of the entertainment. Listening to a solo fellow passenger who fancies himself/herself as a singer, is not. Seems to me to be the quickest way to empty the place:rolleyes: We are there to enjoy the pianist. There is karaoke onboard for those who wish to participate.

[elycelynne]

For the record, I found Barry from Boston's email on his website, and asked him directly about HAL's policy. He was kind enough to reply rather quickly, and here is what he wrote:

 

"Here's the answer, which will, as you are surmising, cover both "yes" and "no". The official policy has been stated as no guests on the mic. But, when I do cruises that are more than a week, I schedule as a theme one evening "Guest Microphone" night. I personally hook up a separate mic for guest singers, so that they are not "behind the piano", and will typically invite singers that are not sloppy (drunk, unsavory) to sing one song in the course of a night, if they are a "guest favorite", after 11pm. But, that's me personally. I can't speak to what works for others. I like my guests to become my friends, and have the time of their life, and to reward genuine piano bar fans, by giving them attention they will enjoy."

 

So there you have it.

 

Let me just say -- I'm now really, really sympathetic to those on here who ask what they think is a harmless question that simply requires a "yes" or "no" answer, only to be figuratively chased by a mob of angry villagers carrying torches and pitchforks. I can still feel the burns and the hole pokes!

 

And also for the record -- I have never "emptied the place" with my singing. :rolleyes:

Edited July 13, 2013 by elycelynne

[BarryFromBoston]

Hi, Barry. First of all, I really loved your comprehensive guide to the HAL piano bar! I have one more question that you, as "the guy behind the piano", can hopefully answer.

 

What's HAL's "official stance" on passengers taking the mic and singing? One piano guy once told me that HAL didn't want that because they had instances in the past of people saying or singing offensive material once they had the mic. This was on my second HAL cruise, after I was allowed to do so on my first one (different piano player). It didn't come up on my last cruise -- Mainly due to the fact that I was having upper respiratory issues for most of it and wasn't really in any shape to be singing into a mic.

 

So IS there an official policy, or does it just depend on the individual piano bar entertainer?

 

Wow, that was quite a lot of people jumping in with opinions, wasn't it! HAL does its best to hire piano entertainers that will appeal to as many guests as possible. One of the best things about working for HAL is that so many of the different piano entertainers I've eventually met are outstanding. I'd like people to think "Book with HAL, get a great piano bar experience." Of course, they continue to weed the garden, and of course, new players have to have their first cruise somewhere. But they have their eyes open, and do their best to provide consistently great piano entertainment.

 

Personally, on longer cruises, I do a weekly Guest Talent Hour. There have been some occasions when I have invited a guest to come up and sing (when I know from their credits and the roles they've mentioned what the likelihood is that they will be excellent, or heard them singing along and already know that they are excellent), and no, I did not then feel the need to offer the mic to every other guest in the room, just because one person sang.

 

Guests are often comfortable being completely contradictory about this point. The same person will say "Everyone should have an equal chance to sing", and also, "The other night I walked by and heard this person shrieking, so of course, we didn't go in." Aye, there's the rub.

 

As to official policy, the solo guitarist and the solo piano entertainer are the gray area in a matter that is otherwise crystal-clear. You see, official policy is clear that guests do not touch the pianos or musical instruments. This is because if a guest sits down at a piano and plays horribly, someone else can walk by, find them displeasing, then complain that the pianist was horrible, when they didn't hear the actual piano player at all. It's also because the instruments are used 7 nights a week, and there may be any amount of time, based on itinerary, before a piano is tuned, such that they don't want to tax the instrument beyond the already-high demands placed on them. With guitars, an entertainer may tune his guitar in any way that suits his voice.

 

For me personally, it may also be a matter of whether or not bringing up a guest singer makes it more likely or not that I can lose control of the room. What may work in the closed piano bars of the Vista Class may not work on a S-class ship, where people are not seeing the piano, and are sitting on "the pub" side of the MIX lounge, presuming that what they hear through the speakers is one of our entertainers.

 

There was a time when every cruise line was so beholden to every complaint, whether realistic or ridiculous, that everyone walked around in fear of the off comment. But, I think people now truly understand that we entertainers are doing our level-best to entertain and please as many people as we can, and the days of "Let's make up something to complain about so they'll send us something free" are long gone too. Our very competent hotel managers know well how many guests were in each lounge each night, what the general response was, and, week to week, how a performer is trending. All this is a GOOD thing.

 

I could do sing-along after sing-along and then have someone complain, "THAT wasn't a sing-along... he didn't pass out books!". I could do a piano solo to display the best artistry that gets me hired worldwide, and someone will say, "That guy was horrible. He's doing all this fancy piano when I wanted to sing along."

 

My favorite attacker repeated the same comment (word for word) here and on two other websites and on her satisfaction survey, saying, "I don't come to hear him "interpret" songs. (I loved how she puts "interpret" in quotes to indicate that what she really thinks is I was doing the song all wrong.) "He zigs when he should zag. If I can't sing along the whole time, he's a failure, because that's what I'm there for". Others think exactly the opposite. We love that he jokes with us and gets to know us (then) We hate the he talks too much. We love that he knows so many songs (then) We hate that he isn't playing the 5 songs we like best, every time we come in. You get the point.

 

As it turns out, apposing opinions continue to appear throughout every aspect of our lives and always will. But, what I can say is that I will feature a great singer, when it is possible to do so, when it's appropriate for the audience present. I will talk more when people are responding to the personal interaction. I will do more sing-alongs when people are responding best to sing-alongs, as apposed to requests. I will change theme nights cruise to cruise and ship to ship, in response to the median age, and how well it's filling the room. I will do more game shows when that's what is most fun for guests. We're out there doing our best for ya. See you soon on another cruise!

[solocanadian]

That's really not a fair comparison, Jacqui, as the Prinsendam doesn't have a Piano Bar (the ship's only failing, imo). The Crow's Nest is an entirely different atmosphere than a piano bar is. Even the Piano Lounges on the three ships that still have them is a different atmosphere than a true piano bar.

I agree completely with Ruth:).