Karaoke Forums

Hey All,

I was just contracted to do Karaoke for a bunch of Seniors in their 70's & 80's. I was thinking of making up some smaller books with large type containing only standards, etc. I think the big book might be overkill for this crowd.

And what songs to include? Obviously the Sinatra, Como, Clooney, Show Tunes, but who else should I include?

Ever done Karaoke for this type of crowd? Pros/Cons?

I did an hour a week nursing home show on a volunteer basis for a few months. It was intended to be karaoke, but no one really sang. About 40-50 showed up for my show, but no one wanted to sing no matter how much I tried.

After the first couple of shows, I found that they much preferred for me to sing for them. I did Sinatra, Buble, Elvis, Dean Martin, a little light 50s rockabilly, and pop oldies. I only had to fill an hour, which was pretty easy.

Anyway, point being BE PREPARED that no one is going to sing.

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C Mc
KJ, FL

Yup. I did the equivalent of this last weekend. It rained and the campground emptied out, so my regular state park show was not the usual crowd of kids. But I did get an audience of about 20 seniors, and they stayed for an hour-and-a-half listening to me (and occasionally another guy) sing. I tried to give a line of patter, talking about songwriters and artists a bit, and they stayed the whole time and applauded everything. Actually quite a bit of fun for me. A few came up to me afterwards and said how much they enjoyed it.

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[color=#ffff55]Mickey J.[/color]
Alas for those who never sing, but die with all their music in them.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

Same here, I did a show at senior housing complex. Thought they would enjoy singing karaoke. They do enjoy it, but it's more of a sing-along than karaoke. NOBODY gets up to sing. My advice is have a large monitor, or several monitors, and just ask for requests from the audience. Be prepared to sing all of the songs. If you have the monitors where they can see them, they will sing along, but will NOT take a mic, or come up to sing. Just pretend that there's a campfire, and enjoy a Kum-Ba-Yah session. They WILL appreciate it, but (karaoke) it's not.

Rosario

I have done several shows at a senior home. Everyone else is correct here, usually NO ONE sings, but at a few shows there were a couple of older gentlemen "show offs" that enjoyed singing to gain popularity with the older women.

In my experience, Frank Sinatra and standards were the favorite. If you can learn a few of them it would be best because you will have to sing a few to get them involved.

I found several of them complaining that they were supposed to be "entertained", yet they were the entertainment themselves (didn't understand the karaoke concept), but they keep asking me back anyway.

I only had to do 1 hour at a time, but if you have to do longer shows, it may be hard to hold their attention.

Marty Robbins
Eddie Arnold
Patsy Cline
Hank Williams Sr.
Connie Francis
Hank Snow
Elvis Presley (given)
Nat "King" Cole
Tammy Wynette
Connie Smith
Lynn Anderson
Brenda Lee
Tennessee Ernie Ford
Gene Autry
Ray Charles
Etta James

you get the idea,, GOOD LUCK!

Actually this will be VERY interesting. It's a summer camp for Jewish seniors. Really. Think big lake with dock, crafts, etc, singing around the campfire, everything you have in your mind about summer camp...but for seniors.

I did a farewell gig at this camp a few weeks back for the counselors of the kid-side. All twenty somethings and they had a blast. NOW they want me back for the "adult side". I didn't even know there WERE summer camps for adults!

The place looks exactly like the summer camp in every teen slasher movie, right down to the swimming dock and mess hall.

This sounds like the type of group where you might well have some singers. I had a karaoke party for my parents, all 70+ seniors, but some very intelligent and active ones. I had lots of singers. My dad's best friend pulled me aside and said, "I just came here to support your father. I was going to leave in 30 minutes. But this is great! Some of these people haven't had so much fun in ten years!"

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[color=#ffff55]Mickey J.[/color]
Alas for those who never sing, but die with all their music in them.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

mrscott, great list.

The nursing home where my father resides has karaoke once every other week for 2 hours. I caught the show once and sang 3 or 4 songs. There were at least 6 other singers. The people enjoy it, they may not say it, they may not look it, but they do. It's something different in their structured life.

I want to host karaoke there as well but haven't found the time. If you can do this, it is a great thing to do for people and you should be proud. You obviously need no bells or whistles for this. A stripped down set up will work fine for them.

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KingBing Entertainment C'mon Up! I have a song for you!!! [font=MS Sans Serif][/font]

This is my promise to you. When I am 70 years old, if I am unfortunate enough to live that long, I will get up and sing the Humpty Dance....so if you come to do karaoke for me, please don't bring a briefcase full of Elvis songs.

Think about it...I'm 40-50 years old now, and I love the music from the 80's. if you're 60-70 years old now, you spent your 20's in the 60's, and that is probably the music that you're going to want to do. Maybe some Jimi Hendrix or Janis Joplin would be appropriate.

Time flies, doesn't it?

-denise

I agree, don't go back too far on the music. The ones in their 70's are going to want some Beatles, Rolling Stones, The Mama's and Papa's, The Carpenters; actually any groups that were on The Ed Sullivan show in the 60's.

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www.thesingingbeader.artfire.com

Hey Connie... Nice pic!!!!

I like the idea mentioned first - making a 'mini-book' of songs you believe will be appropriate, and in large print. Laugh all you want, some of the people who come to my show will ask me to find a song for them because they forgot their 'readers' - I got smart, picked up a whole pile of 'em from a thrift store, and have a basket of them available for anyone who needs them. They're ugly so nobody steals them.

Start out with the idea that someone (or several) may sing - then start singing, and/or playing bumper music. There is a ton of stuff available - Brenda Lee, Connie Stevens, Perry Como, etc., and stuff into the '60s. Eventually someone may get up and sing - if not, turn it into a sing-along - just make sure you have extra monitors out so people can see the words. Either way, it's entertainment for shut-ins and they love it. Music is the great communicator.

I did a freebie once a month show at a nursing home a couple of years back. It was a rural market, so your mileage may vary, but any era of country was ok with them.
I also had very good luck with the Chartbusters Nostalgia discs from the 1930s and 1940s because the younger ones remembered this music fondly from their childhood and the older ones were in high school when it came out.

http://www.ktskaraoke.com/charnosbesof.html


Really I think you can play almost anything upbeat and positive except for the rap music and they will be very grateful for the change in the routine. You may want to see if you can get a singer or two to come with you, like everybody said not many will get up and sing -- HOWEVER...

I did get a lady about 90 years old to sing "Roll Out The Barrel". A few of the seniors will sing along where they sit as long as you keep the microphone a way as long as they can see the lyrics. I liked to ask them if they remembered how to "follow the bouncing ball" like they used to do at the movies or whatever.

As crazy as this may seem, you might even bring along the Cha Cha Slide as well -- I got the staff to get up and do it and the old folks got a kick out of watching the staff do the dance.

I sing at Nursing homes all the time I get $100.00 an hour and they love it. I sing the old standards as well as 60's and 70's it's a blast

Thanks for the idea's all. It went fairly well! A steady stream of singers. They want me to come back for the next "cycle" of campers and I will definitely work up a "sing along" set of songs for that one. The mini-books with standards & show tunes worked very well (I still had the big books available as well) although I didn't have nearly enough of them.

The big hit of the night was the couple (married 60 years) re-enacting "Do you love me?" from Fiddler on the Roof. Pretty funny!

One little problem, average is is more than 70. More like 80.

These folks are still looking for stuff in the 30's, 40's, and 50's. But they will listen to just about anything.

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KingBing Entertainment C'mon Up! I have a song for you!!! [font=MS Sans Serif][/font]

Wish you never posted that.

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