Your last minute party can happen any time. When should you expect the next one? Every day. What do you do whenever something occurs that calls for a celebration? You gather some friends to mark the occasion — usually with food, drinks, and music.
This is especially true with the holiday season now approaching. You find a little extra money in the current budget? What a surprise — how nice! Why, throw a party and invite your friends!
Every day I’m helping people plan their parties, especially the events’ music. I recently blogged about how to plan music for a wedding, and planning music for an office holiday party.
In my experience, I’ve found the basics of planning music for a last minute party to be essentially the same as for every party. Naturally some time-related aspects become more crucial, but every well-planned event begins with asking what’s the purpose of the party?
This leads directly to asking who the guests will be and what they’ll need to get into the proper mood. From this answer come all the details you and a few friends will proceed to assemble.
Everything counts: who’s participating, the location, food and drinks, decor, flowers, lighting, and music — everything helps create the atmosphere you want.
Of course, some events — like weddings, birthdays, and anniversaries — come as no surprise, and are often planned long in advance. However others — like casual cocktail parties, picnics, and dinners — are just as likely to be spur-of-the-moment affairs, prompted by a surprise visit, an unexpected award, or even the death of a loved one.
For example, here I am playing cornet in a friend’s New Orleans style brass band last Friday afternoon. Our music helped create a “celebration of life” for a memorial ceremony in Menlo Park. Bruce Deal took some wonderful photos.
Ask me for more last minute party planning suggestions. If we can ever help you, please call us at 408-245-9120.
Please visit MagnoliaJazz.com for testimonials, music samples, videos, photos, and our public schedule, and catch us at an event soon. Our next PUBLIC appearance is on Thursday, November 25, at the annual “Thanksgiving Feast”, at The Mountain Winery, in Saratoga. See details for this event on our website.
In the meantime, please join our Facebook “fans”, and you’ll get a reminder for each of our public events. Thanks for reading my blog. Please take a moment to SHARE this post with a friend, SUBSCRIBE to my blog for more, and send me a nice COMMENT.
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As always, great tips Robbie! Asking who the guests will be and what they’ll need is key. I think a lot of people often overlook the question: Do they want their guests to be able to converse while background music is playing? The answer is often yes, but then they bring in music far too loud to allow conversations to flow. One of my few pet peeves is having to shout to talk to the person standing right beside me. That’s one of the reasons I love the Magnolia Jazz Band so much. Your music is always festive, appropriate and allows guests to converse. Hope your holidays are happy and busy!
stacie tamaki recently posted..Delfina Pizzeria in the Mission- San Francisco
Thanks, Stacie, always good to receive your positive words. Like you say, I find at any party, like in any decent conversation, there’s a give-and-take between the musicians and the guests. Everyone “getting in the swing of things” is pretty difficult when your head vibrates enough to make your teeth rattle. True, some music is MEANT to be ear-splitting, but it’s for stoners at a concert, not for diners at a cocktail party or a wedding reception. I wish more musicians would strive for playing “lovely”, and leave the “Hey, everybody, look at me!” attitude for their next debauch.
Robbie Schlosser recently posted..Last Minute Party San Francisco Bay Area