The Unlikely Story Of How Quitting Piano Lessons Helped Me Become A Resident Pianist in The Shelbourne Hotel

The beginning (skip to section)
The reason why I quit piano (skip to section)
The one thing I said I would never do, and why I did it! (skip to section)
My most humiliating music story still to this day (skip to section)
My 1st live gig & how I met my long term girlfriend by playing piano (skip to section)
One scary phone call that started my live music journey (skip to section)
The funny mistake that helped me more than anything else (skip to section)
One video I now cringe looking back on (skip to section)
The response that destroyed my confidence (skip to section)
The text that got me playing in the Shelbourne Hotel (skip to section)
Venues I have played at (skip to section)

The Beginning

I started learning the piano when I was 6 years old.

You would think that I’d pick it up very easily because I started at such a young age.

Not me!

I couldn’t pick it up at all..

Honestly, I was very bad and I didn’t enjoy it one bit.

Playing classical songs, doing the scales and the grades - it was so boring...

I wanted to give it up!

Genuinely begging my mother to let me quit for years!

And she did (very reluctantly).

At this stage, I had done up to grade 5, then I quit for 3 years when I was around 14-17 years old..

The funny thing was..

I Didn’t Hate Music!
There Was A Good Reason Why I Quit The Piano For Good...

I was always really into music (film music in particular).

During this time, I stopped playing classical music, but I started learning songs from movies as I heard them.

Movies such as “Inception” and “The Social Network” really shaped my playing and what I started to listen to.

It was so much easier for me (for some reason) to just listen to the song and play what I heard.

I LOVED doing this and so I kept listening and learning songs from the radio that I liked.

I could just play it as I heard it!

Why couldn’t we learn this stuff for our grades!

It only took one day to put an idea in my head...

In A Restaurant With My Parents When I Was Around 17 Years Old, A Strange Idea Was Planted Into My Head..

I saw a guy playing background piano music for the guests.

My mam said:

“You could do that and make some money from it”

I LOVED this idea.

Sitting there, everyone listening to you, playing songs that I like to play.

I loved everything about it - I don't know why.

At this stage, I already knew around 10-15 songs that people like..

So maybe I could do it?

But I didn’t have my grade 8 completed..

And that’s what they would probably look for in a player.

You see the real issue was...

I HATED Doing The Piano Grades And I Really Didn’t Want To Go Back To Them.

It would take me 3 more years to get to grade 8!

So I rang my previous teacher and I asked her if I could skip straight to grade 8?..

She was extremely reluctant!

“You won’t be fit for grade 8 as it is a MASSIVE step up from grade 5.

I knew that I had gotten much better from playing the movie songs and radio songs that I liked

AND…

I actually loved the pieces that were going to be on the grade 8 exam when I looked online.

Famous pieces that most people would actually know, like Chopin’s nocturnes.

Long story short: She let me do it!

So I started to work on it...

But then I had one truly humiliating moment at school which I still look back on...

I Auditioned For The Piano Part In My School Musical And I Only Got The Part Because There Was No One Else

On top of that, they actually had to get somebody else in to play the piano for the shows, because I wasn’t good enough.

It was so embarrassing.

I barely knew the scales, barely knew what key a piece was in.

(stuff that you are taught as soon as you start)

I was now in 5th year of school, working through grade 8 and REALLY struggling..

You see, I did very average in all of my previous piano exams up until grade 5…

I barely ever got past a merit grade - that’s how bang average I was!

But I LOVED playing these grade 8 pieces, and loved learning the scales this time as well (I don’t know why!).

In the end, I actually ended up getting a distinction in my grade 8, which was unheard of for me!

This was around May 2014, and here’s where my live music journey started..

I was just about to start college in UCD in September, and wanted to revisit the idea that my mother had planted inside my mind a few years earlier….

THE BIG IDEA
Let’s Try And Make Some Money Playing Piano.

At the time, my sister worked in a local hotel, so she asked the hotel manager if I could come in one evening and play tunes in the lobby, as they had a grand piano in the corner of the room.

I knew about 20 pieces at this stage, mainly Yiruma and Hans Zimmer songs and some basic 80’s tunes.

A week later: The big night came, and I played for about an hour in front of 20-30 people.

Honestly, I don’t think people even noticed I was there!

Apart from this lovely waitress Hannah (now my girlfriend for 6 years) who must have fell in love with something else apart from my piano skills 😂.

Throughout the next few months, I played there a few times, but I never actually got any money for it - and they didn’t want to pay me either.

I wouldn’t have paid me back then either!

At this stage, I knew I needed to try other places and start making some money.

I hadn’t a clue where to go, so this was my solution...

I Went Around To All Of The Local Restaurants & Hotels With My Terrible Business Cards Made On Microsoft Word.

I even remember driving around in my old red 2002 focus to all these places, sweating as I planned my sales pitch.

My plan was to do cold introductions into restaurants and bars who had no idea who I was..

Most of them ended up either laughing at me, or completely not interested.

I went around to about 20 different places, and got no traction whatsoever..

You can imagine your confidence would be shattered!

“Maybe I’m just not good enough to play live music!”

Finally, I went to a local restaurant in my local town Carrickmacross called “The Fiddlers Elbow”

This was a very popular place in the town at the time, but has since closed down unfortunately.

The manager at the time, Karl; listened to my pathetic sales pitch and said a phrase I still remember to this day!

“Come Down This Saturday Night From 7-10pm And Do A Trial For Us”

They had a digital piano AND they just happened to be looking for someone at that time.

I was ecstatic as you can imagine!

In the days leading up to the gig, I was SO NERVOUS.

I had never really played in front of more than 20 people, and this Saturday night was PACKED.

The night came, and I just tried to really concentrate and focus on what I was doing.

It went very well and I had an absolute ball. I loved every second of it!

It’s hard to describe the feeling you get from playing in front of people for the first time, but I loved it so much.

I packed up my folder and Karl said he would chat to the owner and give me a call in a few days.

Honestly, I didn’t think much of it and knew nothing would come out of it.

2 days later, I was on the golf course with my dad, and I got a phonecall from a 042 local number…

I NEVER Receive Calls!
I Was Terrified To Answer, Not Having A Clue What This Would Be.

I answered and it was Karl.

“Andrew, you did a great job on Saturday night. I was chatting to the owner, and we want to offer you a job for a few hours on Saturday nights and a few on Sunday nights. We will give you €12 an hour, how does that sound?”

This was my first real paid job, so I was ecstatic!

€12 an hour for me back then was like offering me €1000!

I played there every weekend from 2014 - 2017 and I loved it

I am still extremely grateful to them for giving me the chance, as this is what helped me become very confident playing in front of a small crowd regularly.

Throughout this time, I started learning more and more songs by ear - just so I could fill up the time

(instead of having to repeat songs which I had to do at the beginning)

Not too long after this...

The Next Biggest Turning Point In My Music Journey Was Actually A Mistake!

I got a job in a piano shop “Precision Pianos” in Dundalk.

A local musician worked there, and asked me to cover one of his shifts when they could get no-one else.

More and more shifts became available and I ended up working there quite a lot on weekends and then throughout holidays etc.

The shop was extremely well run and it would do great business, and there were also lots of gaps throughout the day where there were no customers in the shop for hours at a time.

Still a very average player, I now got the chance to practise on world class pianos during working hours.

This is what truly accelerated my playing abilities, and allowed me to learn new styles such as swing, jazz and blues.

From learning these new styles, I now wanted to play in different venues and show people my arrangements of popular songs using jazz, swing and blues styles!

So I Decided To Start A Facebook Page Called
“Andrew Boylan Music”

My sister even came into the piano shop to video me playing the “Friends” theme tune (link), which is hard to look at now!

I asked my good friends to share the video on their Facebook pages, and fair play to them they did!

I approached many other local places again, this time landing a residency in Darver Castle Restaurant until they closed it down in 2017.

At this stage, I was living in Dublin for University and wanted to expand into the Dublin market - which was massive and extremely saturated.

So I knew there was really no hope for me at all!

Then, one night when I was playing my weekly gig at Darver Castle, Stephen (one of the managers) said to me:

“Did You Ever Visit The Shelbourne on Stephen’s Green? They Have Live Piano There Every Day, Maybe You Should Throw A Business Card In?”

I had only heard of the Shelbourne from my parents and their friends about how fancy it was and that it’s one of the best hotels in Ireland etc..

I didn’t think much of the idea to be honest!

There’s NO WAY I will ever get to play there, I’m not good enough to play there.

One midweek day throughout 2nd year college (2015), I decided I’d go into the city on the 145 bus from UCD to try and get a few more venues to play background music in.

I must have tried 30-40 places all around the city centre, who all just brushed me off and said thanks for coming anyway.

I tried fancy hotels like the Westbury, The Merrion, Fitzwilliam, The Dylan - you name it!

Walking past the Shelbourne, I said “sure I may as well try here while I’m at it”

I walked in, not having a clue where to go - and went straight to the reception and asked to speak to someone about live music at the hotel.

They directed me to the “Lord Mayor’s Lounge” where I was met by the manager at the time, Adam.

(massive shoutout to Adam, a proper gentleman)

I asked about the possibility of playing piano sometime, he smiled and said:..

“Honestly, We Get So Much CV’s Sent Here For Playing Piano, We Could Cover The Whole Hotel In Wallpaper - But You Can Try Anyway”

"I can imagine!" I said

“But look, I don’t deal with the rosters, this lady does - here’s her email and send her an email and CC me in it”

So I did!

I heard no reply after 4 days, so I emailed again!

They got back to me saying they are full and that there’s no room for any piano players.

“Fair enough” I thought, it was worth a shot anyway.

I didn’t think much more about it, just went through my college week as normal.

A Week Later, I Was In A Friday Afternoon Lecture, Just About To Pack Up To Go Home, And I Get This Text..

Grey God Text Message Love Instagram Post.jpg

This was incredible, what else was I going to say!

I actually posted this on Facebook and it got the most response of any post, I was buzzing!

I couldn’t believe that me (an extremely average player) was asked to play..

I messaged my mam, she was over the moon for me!

Practising like mad coming up to the gig, I knew I had to play to a new level if I was going to impress.

The night came, I put on my best suit and I went in and did the gig.

The funny thing is, I actually didn’t think it went that well, but I loved it at the same time.

It was amazing to even say I’ve played there, so I was delighted.

4/5 days passed, and I was still on a high! Not expecting at all what was about to happen...

I Was In The Middle Of A Lecture Hall Bored Out Of My Skin, And I See A Notification Email From The Shelbourne Hotel Pop Up On My Homescreen.

iPhone 14 Pro in deep purple color_IMG_0899.png

I actually couldn’t believe it..

I got offered a job in such a prestigious hotel - playing piano!

Even though it killed me at the time, I had to say no…

I couldn’t accept it, as I was full time in college and that had to be my priority.

But I wanted to chance my arm and not let this opportunity slip.

I asked if there is any possibility of doing some evening shifts, as music at the time continued until 8:30/9:30pm.

The roster was full, so I had lost hope and couldn’t believe I had to turn down this amazing job.

Thankfully, over the coming weeks, one of the piano players for evening shifts had to leave, so I then got offered and accepted the evening shifts that I could do after college from 6pm - 9pm.

This is where my credibility and name started to be recognised.

I have been a resident pianist in the Shelbourne Hotel since that day in 2015, and it has been some of the best memories of my life.

It has given me the opportunity to be asked to play at hundreds of wedding receptions and private events for amazing couples & clients in many venues all over Ireland.

I currently work as a Chartered Physiotherapist as well as juggling music events and weddings on a full time basis!

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