Reflection on our first event back at Hope Lodge.

Keith – Hope Lodge

What went well? The guest seemed to open up very quickly to us. I’m thinking it has as much to do with the different group of guests as much as our own confidence in what we are doing now. They seemed really receptive to the chalktalk part of our program and we got tons of song requests. We were all able to have genuine conversations with the guests and we met many interesting people including musicians, who we can hopefully provide performance opportunities to in the future. Also, we all played incredibly well. GO TEAM!

What could have gone better? I think the only generally troublesome thing at this point is the kitchen space. Strange lighting and the way it’s set up makes moving around awkward, and I felt like we were inhibiting some of the in and out traffic at times. Also the noise levels are unpredictable. Everybody could be quietly eating and listening to us or they could be cooking and banging around pots and pans, washing dishes, etc. Maybe we should start keeping track of the times when people are generally cooking or generally doing something more on the quiet side, and also be prepared to be flexible with our program order (play the quiet pieces when its quiet and play the larger or louder pieces when it’s loud). The only place we deviated from our original plan (besides Ryan’s awesome impromptu background music) was deciding not to move the second bit of our program into the family room which would have made listening easier.

What was the reaction of the guests? Did they enjoy it? Were they engaged? Why? First off I don’t think any of the guests DIDN’T want us to be there. While that doesn’t mean every single one was 100% invested, I don’t think anyone complained our tried to get us kicked out. I think I only noticed a few guests that didn’t participate in any part of our program. What really surprised me is all the “latecomers” who walked in after we had started jumped right into the middle of writing or singing with us. Seeing that really made me happy and proud of how flexible and open-ended we constructed this program and I think we should keep that in mind when making future events.