I'm thinking of doing some busking in order to practice playing in public. In our city it's a simple thing to obtain a busking licence for a month, free of cost, but no amplification is allowed. My thinking is in the weeks leading up to Christmas when the city is busy & the people are in a festive mood.
As many of you have done busking any helpful suggestions would be appreciated.
Our city is sadly lacking in a musical art culture ie football is about as cultural as it gets for most people. Taste in music is similar!
A few weeks back our newspaper commissioned a world class violinist to dress in old clothes and busk in the city for an hour. The response from the public was pathetic. A musician who commands big audiences and big money world wide and most people walked by and missed the opportunity to hear a world class recital.
Not surprising!
We all love blues, but sadly it also has relatively few aficianados. It's not the style of music that would stop people in their tracks ie unless one is a superb player(I'm not)and even then it would be doubtful in view of the violinists experience. Now, if one was allowed to make a bit of noise and use an amp, the story might be different.
So a solo harp player, standing on a busy corner, with lots of background noise, without an amp, will I be shouting to be heard? Indeed, will I be heard at all?
I have long been a believer in the KISS principle ie 'keep it simple, stupid'! Hence I am thinking a selection of 20 or so standards to play ie patriotic, folk, easily identifiable classics and a few Christmas Carols. My thinking is that the average passer by needs to only hear 1 or 2 bars and should be able to connect?
I have followed the story of Michael Hirte who won Germanys Got Talent. His playing started as busking and now he has an adoring fan base, recording contracts, CD's and heaps of cash. I have no wish at all to emulate his extraordinary achievements and in fact it can be argued that his music is simple, very easy to play, easily recognisable and boring. But people listen and love it.
Start by coming up with a list of songs that YOU would want to hear if you were strolling by during the Christmas season.
Work them up.
Make sure you have a tip bucket that leaves nothing to the imagination. Humor is OK. Make a sign: "Help stimulate the economy! Help your local harmonica god!" Etc.
Dress funny. Hate to say it, but the harmonica does have a comic history.
"No amplification" means "No electricity," not No amplification. Explore possible ways of amplifying your sound, including one of those old electrified bullhorns. Or maybe you can blow harp through one of those huge Yale rah-rah cheerleader horns with a small metal handle on the side. Volume does make a difference.
Rhythm makes a difference. Something to keep time. An acoustic stomp box.
Before you go out there, run through your entire song list once at home, even if it takes 45 minutes. Pretend your livingroom is the venue.
If you can set up next to a liquor store on a Friday afternoon, that's ideal. You can play blues there, too. Satan & Adam used to do that.
Brian Setzer and his orchestra have a terrific Christmas album. In fact, you should use the Amazon search engine and put in "Christmas album." Every great jazz and pop musician has such an album. This might help you come up with repertoire.
"Deck the Halls" "Jingle Bells" "Christmastime is Here" (Think CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS. That stuff is incredibly hip, and it tugs at the heartstrings.) "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear." "Merry Christmas Baby" (Charles Brown; you'll need to sing)
Last Edited by on Sep 20, 2009 6:48 PM
Thanks Adam. Tips from the master certainly will be implemented.
I'm going to the city later this week to apply for the licence & do an audition. I don't see any problem as there are really good to downright dreadful buskers working our city streets & I expect that I would probably fall somewhere in the middle?
Love your ideas re the signs. Some people already think I dress funny. Checked the fine print and you are correct re amplification ie 'the licensee must not use a PA system, amplifier, or any other electrical apparatus/ device for the reproduction or amplification of sound'. Will check with my music shop re stomp box and other devices outside this ruling.
Of course, it would be best if you got yourself a three-necked guitar and a really tight spandex Santa Suit, but you could get by with less, I suppose. ;-)
Here is a place where a guy sort of shows you how to build a stomp-box. I made one, but I put the speaker on the inside of the box and I didn't use carpet on it. I also used a regular 1/4" jack on the box so I can just plug it in with a guitar cord.
The cool thing is that it works great with no plugging in at all--you wouldn't even need to put a speaker in it at all--just use thin (1/4") plywood for the top of the box, then stomp away!
http://www.tomdukich.com/stomp%20box.html
Back in the good old days, I used to just put my closed guitar case under my foot, and that worked fine for acoustic playing. . .
Thanks OW. I will pass up on the spandex santa suit and 3 necked guitar. Hell, I need both hands for the harp. Its also extremely hot here in the lead up to Christmas ie our summer and temps in mid 30's(90's F) and loads of humidity. So shorts, T shirt and sandals is all the body could tolerate.
Checked out some stomp boxes & the cheapest our local shop had them for was $295. They looked like a magnificient piece of period furniture ie extremely well made, but heck I reckon I could knock the shell of one up for $10.
a throw away guitar works as a stomp box. I found one on the side of the road and plan to use it as a stomp box. you can get pezzio pick up for amplification when you need it. look on how to sites for info.
Last Edited by on Sep 20, 2009 11:21 PM
A guy in my town (Reading UK) plays the A-Team theme tune repeatedly on a chromatic while standing next to his cat which sits on a stool. He seems to do ok so maybe a cat is the answer.
i have yet to do solo harp other than when my partner goes inside for a breath of cool air, etc. at that time i impro something, usually some tasty riff in 3rd position. i've never "had" to go solo, seems there have been willing partners almost all of my playing life.
when we busk here there are specific spots we can play. it's a farmers market and during the nice weather we see a lot of locals out and also plenty of tourists. many are drawn to a guitar/harp duo and it sometimes rains dollars and change.
but the real main reasons we do it are practice- because there's nothing like live acoustic to help develop harp chops, guitar chops, vocal chops-, and i think one of the coolest things about it is, we see our share of folks getting with the music, even if all they do is shake their butt or nod their head as they walk by. the kids are the coolest, the under-10 years old kids who don't know what embarrassment is yet. if they hear something they like they go with it. many is the time a youngster has dragged mom or dad over and wangled a buck or some change to drop in the guitar case, but just to know we're showing a kid, maybe for the first time, live organic music, that's reward enough.
i had a kid all over my harp case last time out. he was just hypnotized. i asked him if he played. at about 8 years old he told me, yeah, i play but it's been a long time. i cracked up! but i ended up giving him a harp and he jammed with us for a few minutes. who can say but what he will carry on the tradition in a few years.
we never know who may be listening. sometimes someone will stand off a ways for like 20 or 30 minutes before coming over and having a chat, dropping a nice tip for us. a few times we've sold a home made cd also.
it's well worth doing even if you don't make a lot of dough. there have also been times we didn't make a dime, but brought joy to someone who otherwise would never hear live blues music probably.
Christmas busking is something that I've done, and had blast doing for many years.
Christmas tunes are great because everyone has most all the tunes ingrained in their minds. This is both good and bad. If you're playing and hit a wrong note, the listener catches it immediately. You can almost see the wincing when it happens. On the other hand, it makes it a much more receptive atmosphere. If you're set up in a busy holiday shopping area, and you're delivering Christmas music, it becomes part of the background for the shopper as he or she moves along about their business. The same people will pass by you multiple times in a short period of time as they run around. Many times, I have not been tipped by someone until the third or fourth timethey went by me. Kind of an odd phenomenon of Christmas. But, it goes with the recognition of the tunes.
Another thing to remember is that Christmas tunes have very recognizable cadence and timing. If you really make them swing in the manner that the tunes are remembered you get very positive response. Same goes for the slow tunes. You can get as artsy as you want with your own unique jump version of "Silent Night". But, it won't get you the same appreciation as if you just stay true to the tune and keep it hymn-like. The same goes for that slow, wailing bluesy version of "Rocking around the Christmas Tree" that you really think is cool. Save it for subjecting your friends to when you get them as a captive audience at your Christmas Eve Nog-a-rama.
Have fun with it. During the Holidays, people are prone to tipping much more healthily. I regularly make enough from harp busking at Christmas to pay for a huge chunk of my gifts each year. It's become kind of my goal.
@ OW: So, Ray, you made that stomp box? It's on my 'short list' of fun projects to try. You mentioned that you used 1/4" plywood for the top, put the speaker INSIDE and no rug. Interesting. Does the thinner plywood just give it more flex and therefore more sound? Do you have any pics/vids of it?
"A few weeks back our newspaper commissioned a world class violinist to dress in old clothes and busk in the city for an hour. The response from the public was pathetic."
Aussie, the Washington Post did a great article last year on a similar experiment in the DC Metro.
"No one knew it, but the fiddler standing against a bare wall outside the Metro in an indoor arcade at the top of the escalators was one of the finest classical musicians in the world, playing some of the most elegant music ever written on one of the most valuable violins ever made..."Read more.
I'm sorry, but if it had been one of the finest harp players in the world, playing some of the simplest blues standards on a $25 Marine Band, people woulda paid way more attention. So perhaps we should stop having such an inferiority complex about our instrument.
It's a helluva a good article though. Give it a read. -------------------- www.murrayhunter.net
Elwood> The Washinghton Post is obviously from the same Murdoch stable as our Courier Mail. Doesn't Murdoch own everything in print? Well the articles from memory are almost line ball ie except for the name of violinist and location. The violinist in Brisbane whose name I cannot recall also played some difficult compositions on a violin that was created in the 1700's.
I think the point is we have to play what people like to hear which is not necessarily what we most like to play. Although I think it would be a hard sell to play stuff we don't like as heart & soul needs to come through.
Also you are no doubt right that a humble Marine Band in the hands of a master playing recognisable blues standards would probably get more attention. It would be an interesting experiment ie same location, same workday, same time and be incognito.
MagicNick> I can play a chromatic but won't as it is too hot and the windsavers gum up. I have a larger repoitoire of tunes than just the A Team which I must confess I am not familiar with. Also I don't really like cats! Cats however probably appreciate the sound of harps better than dogs?
OW> Have made a stomp box. Already had a 14" x 9" x 2" box that one of my boys made in workshop class when at school. Put a cheap mike inside and a new piece of 1/4" ply on top and voila -sound! Not perfect yet.
But you know what, it wouldn't be fair to put a harp player in the subway and play him off against the violinist. In fact, if we wanted to replicate the experiment faithfully, we should get a lifelong street bluesman to don a tux and go sit in with the Brisbane Philharmonic. Would he be up to the challenge? Find out in next week's Courier Mail!
@Jay--yes, I did make a stomp box--I think the thinner plywood gives it a bassier sound, but I haven't tried anything else. Just as it is, it sounds pretty much like a louder version of tapping your foot on a wood floor. If I throw a hunk of rug over it, it muffles the sound somewhat.
When I hook it up to the mixer along with the rest of my rig, I throw a little bit of delay on it and back the treble and mids clear off and go full bass--that makes it sound better to my ears.
I'll try to get some pictures or a video up with it if you want to see it, (it sure doesn't look like much) but dont have the time to do it right now.
Busking here in Washington state can be pretty good for the money, if you get into a venue where there is enough traffic. I played a Farmer's Market a few weeks ago with my wife--and we made around $25 to $30 an hour--not top wages, but enough to pay for the gas to get there and buy us a nice lunch.
Last Christmas season we did a street thing for as long as we could take it (It gets really hard to play guitar in the cold). We did really well for a short time--I think the take might have been close to $50 an hour.
A good thing for us to do is always put a big sign next to the tip bucket that says "A portion of all tips will be donated to (favorite charity). Especially at Xmas, people love to donate to charity--and we always actually donate about 20% of the bucket. . .
Lodged my licence application today and was surprised to find auditions only occurs every 3 months. Anyway the next round of auditions is in November so it fits in with my timing.
Strictly no amplification of any kind is allowed! In my walk around the city today I saw only one lone almost inaudible guitarist and yet there was all kinds of loud recorded music emanating from within every second shop. Looking forward to the challenge. It's sure going to be fun trying to get heard!
If you are not allowed to play amplified, what about using a plastic novelty microphone like "Echo Mic" or "Magic Mic"?
My old harp teacher pulled one out during one of my lessons and got a gritty almost apmlified sound with it. It is not really louder, but it has a distorted and echo-ey sound to it.
I have a couple of them I bring out once in a while. If anything, people might stop to check out what type of mic you are using.
Here is a link showing some of the ones that are available:
http://www.thefind.com/family/browse-echo-mic-toy
I have one of the black and silver "Magic Mics" that I bought at Cracker Barrel.
Last Edited by on Sep 24, 2009 6:45 AM
Don't talk to me about toy stores. Apart from the harp my other obsession is bloody kites (yeah I know second childhood) Thing is I'm so busy with the harp, don't get time to fly my kites, but I go weak at the knees when I see them in the toy shop and just can't resist the temptation. I know, bonkers just about sums it up. ----------
Hi Aussie, I am in Brissie too, let us know when and where you are going to setup and I will definitely come down and say hello. It would be great to chat to someone from around here who also appreciates the harp and Blues music. I'll even chuck in a couple of bucks to hear you play :)
Blocker > where in Brissie are you? I'm at The Gap ie when I'm not at Peregian Beach.
my email for contact is: harpoldie@tpg.com.au
Tooka > if you like kites you should be over here for the Coolum Kite Festival which is held on our Sunshine Coast early in October. It's held on a large section of the beach, thousands of kites, visitors from all over the world. Its a great weekend for a spectator as apart from fantastic kites theres spectacular action with acrobatic aircraft, sky diving and kite boarding races. A full on weekend + a great destination if you like beaches, fishing, restaurants, relaxing.
Tooka > how do you get your pic onto the signature? Me, I still cant work out how to post youtubes into anything.
