Got out for a second go at it today; Salamanca Market, the local tourist trap. Came home with $85 in the biscuit tin, which was ok I thought for 2.5 hours. Was photographed numerous times; one girl even asked to have her photo taken with us! I guess we're local colour... Anyway, that's about the only local outdoor gig that could be regular...Saturday morning at Salamanca...could be the go for a while, maybe pay off some of this gear. It's not much of a return on investment but at least it's something, and I get to practice a whole bunch of repertoire and practice projecting some energy, notice which songs get a response. We've been playing Have A Good Time and its been very popular. Interesting today I tried singing without the mic. I found that pretty confronting; I realised I have been using the mic and harp as a kind of mask... Anyway... Busking in Hobart in autumn...I'm learning, having fun...and picking up a little play money for my efforts. Oh yeah, "blooded" the mouse amp today too, and the '49 520 I bought from Bigtone. Nice mic, much smoother than I expected but nice tone. Finished the day with a couple of Guinness and a chat. Good Saturday. ----------
$85 is a decent haul. Any money from busking, gigging etc. helps offset the cost of having this obsession. Sounds like you got the bug, SuperBee. I think you're right about the mic being a mask. Nothing feels nakeder than singing in public with nothing in front of you, other than actually being naked, which is frowned upon. 'Local colour' indeed. Looks like your becoming a 'street character,' which is not a bad thing. A girl came up to me on Thursday and said "I know this guy," making me a bit nervous. Then she reminded me she'd interviewed me for the local Chinese community paper and was flying back home the next day. People don't know that they need to hear the harmonica until we preach it to 'em sometimes. Look forward to more reports of your busking activities.
Yeah Rubes, that thought occurred to me. Mine is a duo...do you do solo? No pre-recorded music allowed at Salamanca, and I have to admit the guitar certainly fills out the sound. Sounds even better when I get the bass fiddle involved...but that 3 way split (thats a hank mobley number) really hurts... Eric, you do the solo thing though...just harp? Vocals? Do you amplify it? Any effects? I've been wondering about a looper but I really like the idea of being unencumbered. Pignose on a guitar strap maybe...I like a bit of delay on the pig...guess I could strap a pedal to it...dunno. Guitarist owed me from the open mic night we did, and he told me to keep the pot. That was before I counted it. He thought we had maybe $50. I was pretty sure it was more like $60...1 guy came up and put in $10 and told us how much he and his wife had enjoyed listening...I hadn't even seen them. They must have been on the other side of the square. Lots of folks had their kids put money in. I dunno why that is. I also noticed more than 1 person remarking to a child that I was playing a harmonica "like you play". I wasn't the only harp player there but I was the only blues harp player. Stall holders remarked positively, which is a bonus. I had the idea of stationing near a food van, but the tips were poorer there than the other spots I tried. People seem more inclined to dig out they wallets when they were coming down the lane and had to walk past. Like there were some who would hang around and those almost always tipped, but many would just tip on their way past. 1 really gorgeous woman stopped with her surly husband. He asked if we knew 'how long blues'. My partner made a joke out of it but I think the guy was actually requesting a pretty famous song (which I don't know). Rolled out "easy" for the first time. That's a winner. Solo would be so much easier in several ways...
Hi SuperBee. I am usually in busking in a duo. Me and guitarist. Take turns on vox. However, when he is working at his proper job, I do it solo as well. If I go to a place like a tunnel where amps are not allowed or impractical, it's just me and my harps. I play some instrumentals, and some where I sing too. I force myself to sing because it is hard (psychologically and otherwise); the singing seems to draw a good response. I sing stuff like Key to the Highway, Trouble So hard, 9 below Zero, Hoochie Coochie Man, Got to Move, Hound Dog, Trouble in Mind, Grinnin' in your Face, Gettin' out of Town, Let me Explain, and a few originals. The first song or two is hard but then I get into the swing. I do the same amplified. I don't use backing tracks or much in the way of effects because I want to work on my timing, groove etc. That said, I got a looper pedal for XMAS which I trotted out for the first time the other day. I have to formalise the arrangements a bit to make it really work in public, I think. I prefer busking with a mate but have met some cool people doing it solo, including a bluegrass band I sat in with just about every week for a year and some young poets who plugged me into the slam poetry scene. Money wise, the 'pay' is actually better solo but the music is better as a duo. You might take 1.5 times as much as a duo but rarely double the amount, in my experience...
Well, I made the leap yesterday. My friend Oliver and I spent two hours playing in the circle in downtown Orange, CA, yesterday afternoon. We decided to go completely acoustic. We did mostly original songs, but we also did "Blue Midnight," "Come on in My Kitchen," "I Ain't Superstitious," Deak's song "Old Soul," "Ends & Odds," "Steady," "Summertime, "Cypress Grove," I'm a Steady-Rollin' Man," "Long Distance Call," "You Gotta Move," and "I Got a Mind to Give up Living."
We got some nice compliments, and enough money to pay for most of our dinner. The weather was perfect, and nobody hassled us. Several people took videos of us without asking, which is, I suppose, to be expected these days.
---------- --Dave
* BTMFH *
Last Edited by The7thDave on May 27, 2013 12:24 PM
We used to work with a guy who made his living from performing, mainly street but festivals too. His act was contortion and sword swallowing...but his patter was the thing. It was a show, semi scripted, something akin to standup comedy with skills... I just don't have that arrow in my quiver, but I think it's important to have an energy in performance. This next Sunday we are rolling out a new act, as official buskers at a farmers market. I'm not expecting a lot of money as its a 4 piece act. Double bass, snare, guitar, and yours truly...doing about 15 mainly blues, plus one original (well, I wrote the words but I borrowed all the licks except the fills). These are pop blues...and then there is Folsom prison blues, which is something else but whatever it is its very popular...and it's all over now, which is probably not blues either, I play minimal harp...well I try but they want me to do 2 twelve bar solos in it...I try to get the guitarist to contribute more...his solos in help me, born in Chicago, and early in the morning sound great. It's like a different, better band...but he is lazy I think. Anyway, I think it's too much harp but whenever I say that the guys are like "no, it's better with the harp..." We also do Willie's "I gotta get drunk". Is it Willie's song? I think so. I think there is enough danceable groove and recognisable familiar stuff...and the bass looks good, the drummer standing up with a snare and a cymbal, guitarist looking at his feet...and me pretending to have a personality...we'll attract attention I'm sure. Just don't know how much patronage a rural farmers market will have in the teeth of winter. But they pay us a $60 retainer plus the hat, and we do two 40 minute sets, should cover costs at least. I'll try and arrange some vision. ----------
Calling all Aussies. It's that time of year again. World's largest busk is on again in Bondi 28 July. Here's some vid from the first one two years ago. Keep your eyes peeled an you might spot a dusky coloured shark...
I busked at SPAH for the benefit of their Youth Grant, and I had a very interesting time. I created a amusing sign in order to help raise some cash, and I eventually made about $400 over two and a half hours. It was quite a productive day!
Last Edited by Boots on Aug 22, 2013 1:21 PM
Here's a very long page on a busking website that gives you the lowdown on busking possibilities in hundreds of cities in the USA and around the world:
@LSC The http://www.buskersadvocates.org/saalocations.html (which has the list) link seems OK but the "main page" (buskersadvocates.org does indeed seem expired... BronzeWailer's YouTube
Went to our usual spot last night and did three hours. Some highlights. One guy came up and said "my girlfriend saw you setting up and told me those guys are really good buskers and you are." Getting some kind of recognition is nice. Another guy said, "keep the blues alive." We said "the blues keeps us alive." A 20-something girl came up and said hi. I couldn't remember how I knew her, but she might have been one of the regulars at the bluegrass group I used to sit in with after busking. A council ranger stood about 10 meters away for ten minutes. I though he was going to ask us to turn down but he was just waiting for his partner to get coffee. We went to the Cheeky Czech restaurant for our usual post-busking beer and a young couple who'd seen us on the street bought us each an ice-cold draft Czech beer. We just played our first festival in October (three sets) so the busking is starting to take us places...
If you are thinking about busking, you should just go and do it.
Just saw a very successful busking group at Balboa Park here in San Diego today. No Harmonica though. The instrumentation was a trumpet, 2 violins, Acoustic bass guitar, guitar, and tenor guitar. The trumpet pulled the crowds in and the great musicianship and upbeat mariachi music held them. Couples were dancing, people were singing along in Spanish and parents were handing dollars to their kids to go drop in the violin case. Five of the 6 musicians sang. They would step out from the group as they sang a solo.
The only other group I have seen at Balboa park pull in cash like this was a 5 piece string group that also had excellent musicianship. I'm sure it helped that they were a family with the youngest being about 3 years old and playing a 1/4 size violin, but they all played well without regard for their youth.
I watched the documentary on busking that was posted in a thread on MBH and one of the comments was that panhandlers make more than buskers. These two groups would seem, at a glance, to go against that idea. Neither group made much in the way of comments between pieces, just one good piece after another.
I have never busked with less than a group of three, but in my experience, the bigger the group, the more "stopping power" it has (the pull that makes someone who had a place to be decide to stop and listen) Respect to the guys who are out there playing solo or as a duo, I think that has to be tougher.
Remsen Social Club on Bald Mountain ^^^ not me playing harp in this one since my band has picked up a dedicated harmonica player, but we dragged my bass up a mountain in the Adirondacks and played to some very surprised hikers. that was our last outdoor busk of the season... the weather really didn't cooperate but I look forward to doing the mountain thing again in spring and hopefully with better weather.
Last Edited by chopsy on Dec 09, 2013 7:50 AM
Did you play Rimsky-Korsakov's "Night on Bald Mountain" on that gig? :-)
Your experience of the bigger groups having more "stopping power" matches what I have seen. But the larger groups I have seen have also had top notch musicianship. I wonder how a large group of mediocre musicians would do?
It's a year today since my 1st outing. We revisited the same festival Last year we had a $200 day...this year...$43.50 Warm and sunny day. So much great music on offer I think we were up against it trying to get folks to stop...or maybe my outfit was wrong...anyone researched the psychology of colour regarding busking? ----------
Hi Super. Takings fluctuate wildly for no apparent reason. It is hard when there is more than one group playing. Charity muggers always make people put the wallets away. Were you louder than the other guys (music volume wise?) Last Thursday a guy dropped $3 when we were setting up. I said "we haven't done anything yet." He said, "kudos to anyone who busks in suits." I usually wear a lairy shirt and tie with my suit for a bit of showmanship. We have some signs we have made that slow people down. If they are moving fast, the tips are less likely. Also have business cards that help us snare the occasional indoors gig. Newtown was dead so I thought our takings would be down but we made about average, or a bit over $60 each. One drunk guy with a bandaged arm gave us $10 so he could scream a couple of songs and get rid of his bad feelings.
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