The best keyboard players in Melbourne
Melbourne rooms are the reason this booking works so often. A converted warehouse in Collingwood, a members' room above a club, a restaurant that has given up two tables for the afternoon: none of them can take a band, and most of them do not own a piano. One player with an instrument on a stand fits all three.
What you have to decide first is which of the two jobs you are hiring for. Somebody carrying a whole event alone is a different musician, on different money, from somebody joining a group already on stage. Say it in your opening line and the replies come back useful instead of vague.
Top picks in Melbourne
Top picks are the acts in this category in Melbourne, without a review, rating or premium ranking: all these sort keys are tied.
Questions people ask about keyboard players in Melbourne
Do I want a keyboard player or a pianist?
Where a room already owns a piano, pay somebody to sit down at it and skip the whole equipment discussion. Where it does not, or the music has to happen on a mezzanine, a terrace or three floors up with no lift worth the name, a keyboard is simply the workable option and not a lesser one. The instrument also never needs tuning, which matters in a cold Melbourne room that has been shut all week.
What does a keyboard player need from my venue?
One working power point within a lead's reach, about the floor space of a small table, and shelter from weather. That is genuinely the list, and it is why this booking gets into rooms a band could never work in. Confirm who is bringing the speaker though, because a musician whose usual gig already has a sound system on stage may reasonably assume yours does too.
None of these players show a rating. How do I choose?
There is nothing to sort by here, so watch and listen instead. Find footage of them playing a real function rather than a studio take, and pay attention to what happens in the quiet parts of a room rather than the showy bits. Then judge the reply you get: a player who wants to know the room size, how many people are in it and what noise the music has to sit under is showing you experience a star rating never could.
Can one keyboard player cover a whole afternoon?
That is the standard version of this booking, and a good solo player paces it deliberately: quieter under the arrivals and the food, more forward once people have had a drink. Ask how they split the sets and how long the breaks run. If you want singing across part of the afternoon, write the word voice explicitly, since a player who sings is frequently listed somewhere else on the site altogether.
Booking tips
Give them the load-in, not the postcode
A weighted instrument, a stand and a speaker up a narrow staircase off a Fitzroy laneway is a genuine piece of work, and clearway parking makes it worse. Name the street and describe the access when you enquire, and the figure that comes back will survive contact with the day.
Ask for a recording of the accompaniment
Some players fill the sound out using the accompaniment built into the instrument, and others leave it bare. People feel strongly about the difference once they hear it, so ask for audio of the exact approach you would be booking.
The local list is short, so enquire across it
This is a narrow field compared to guitarists, and the same names get asked for a Melbourne December well before spring. Write once and send it out to all of them together, and if your date will not move, look sideways at pianist or musical soloist listings too.