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Music to My Ears, But Not in a Hotel Lobby

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I spend quite a bit of time in hotel lobbies. Yes, sometimes in them and sometimes just walking through them. This past week I saw something strange in a hotel lobby and I can’t decide how I feel about it. I’m curious what you think. I was staying at a Hyatt Place, which I’d describe as a nicer than average Hyatt Place. In the evening from my room I could hear cello music. It was between 8 and 9 PM. Then the next night I was in the rear lobby area eating a dinner salad and I heard cello music. As I walked past the front desk, there in the main entry way where there are a few seats and a table, was the cello player. He had some kind of recorded music apparatus playing a classical music song and he was practicing his cello part. This just struck me as so odd.

a person playing a cello

Image source: http://www.crystalgraphics.com/powerpictures/images.photos.asp?ss=cello

Let me say that I don’t think he was a professional musician and would that even matter? I have friends who are great musicians who do on occasion have their instruments with them in hotel rooms and they would never practice in a hotel room, and especially not in the lobby.

There were also other people in the lobby. Some businessmen were having a meeting, a few people were at the bar, pilots were checking in, and there were people watching a basketball game on TV (that had the sound muted).

I enjoy many genres of music and maybe because it was classical he felt it was OK, but he kept playing the same song over again. He was practicing, not playing. I’ve been in hotel lobbies that had pianos in them, never by the front desk or in the entry way, though. I’ve enjoyed when someone sits down at these pianos and plays something and often I stop to listen. But in the case of this guy on his cello, I really just wanted to interrupt him and ask him why he felt it was appropriate to practice in the lobby entry way.

Have you ever seen anything like this? Am I being too fussy about what’s appropriate in hotel lobbies?


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9 thoughts on “Music to My Ears, But Not in a Hotel Lobby

  1. Josh

    Yeah a bit fussy. Everyone needs to practice before they get good, you don’t known the circumstances surrounding his stay, maybe he’s on the road all the time?

    Reply
    1. Shelli Post author

      HI Josh, I get your point. It’s not the practice to get good issue at all. This I totally get. I did afterwards ask the front desk if he consulted them before practicing, and he did not. On the road all the time……this I do not know. There were other complaints when he practiced out by the pool area. And why not practice in the back lobby area rather than the front of the reception area? If you’ve ever been in a HP lobby, the entry way is rather small. It just seemed to me he was oblivious to the setting. Thanks for reading and for taking the time to comment!

      Reply
  2. MM

    I don’t understand why the hotel staff let him. I agree with you, it’s odd.

    We were on Amtrak last fall, the Coast Starlight overnight from LA to Portland. This was a sort of bucket list item for me. A guy sat in the 1st class Parlour car playing his guitar and singing! And he did it both days. A few people seemed to enjoy it, which really kept him going. He was singing clever tunes that made some laugh. The car is not that big and only for passengers that have a sleeper car, meaning you paid more so this car is your “special benefit”. I found it unbelievably presumptuous to think we all want to hear him for hours. Or at all! Staff did nothing. I don’t get it.

    Reply
    1. Shelli Post author

      Wow, MM. I think your example is even stranger than mine. I’ve taken the train from Portland to Vancouver BC and I wouldn’t have wanted anyone playing music for hours on that trip, for sure. I don’t understand staff that’s not proactive in situations like this either. Thanks for sharing your experience.

      Reply
    1. Shelli Post author

      HI Kalboz, Playing is fine……I would enjoy this in a hotel lobby in Thailand. Practicing…….well that’s a different matter :)

      Reply
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