Busking - a bitter-sweet experience

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After about 6 months of learning the piano, I can now play simple songs. So I decided to buy a melodica which is an little keyboard with small keys and a mouthpiece to blow into. It's an acoustic reed instrument quite similar in sound to the accordion.

I've been out busking twice thus far and I've been a little disappointed but I still think it's been worthwhile. I made £1.56 the first time. That was for 1 and a 1/2 hours playing. I made £1.66 the second time for 1 hour's playing.

The frustrating thing is how I am perceived. The other frustrating thing is how I perceive others. I perceive many others perceive me as a nuisance. A bug on the side of the street wanting something to eat. But then the odd person smiles at me so happily and gives generously. Maybe a bit of music cheered them up.

The difficult thing is I want to make money but I don't want to be noticed too much. I don't want people to think I'm just there to impress them because I'm not. I'd love to meet a few friends, even a girlfriend though busking. But not in a contrived way. In a natural, organic, it just kind of happened somehow way.

I think lots of people perceive buskers as desperados. People desperate for money or attention or just there to be anti-social. I doubt many people would believe I want to create an ambience for them in this particular moment of time. That I'd like people to act naturally around me. Not feel pressured to give money.

Yeah, I'd like money. But, please people, don't believe I'm just here to make money. I'm a human being. You are all too. Let's remember that. In cities like Manchester in England maybe the industrial revolution was so powerful and so rushed it left too strong a mark of competitiveness, oneupmanship and work ethic. People in such a situation can find it hard to believe people live for anything other than hard work. Or something. Does anyone know what I'm getting at?

http://www.buskerworld.com

http://www.youtube.com/user/johnniemacband

http://moreintelligentlife.com/story/life-tunnel-mole

http://www.harmonicatunes.com/busking

Good luck on future busking!
I'm hoping to do some this coming Spring/Summer.
I'm picking up a battery powered amp this weekend just for that purpose.

You might look around for Poopylungstuffing here (maybe she's using a new name? I can't remember). She does public performance with unique acts, but I can't seem to recall if she's busked before.

I have been a street busker on and off for a long time. I made my living that way (with a little help) when I lived in New Orleans for 6 months. I play the ukulele and a the kazoo while wearing a funny costume. I imagine that if worse comes to worse, I will always have my ukulele.

My advice would be to relax and play for yourself. Don't impose the (at least partially) imagined perceptions that people have of you upon yourself. "Own" your spot while you are in it. It stinks when the feeling of desperation sets in. I know what it is like...then it stops being fun..you are trying to make dinner..or rent...Grrrr..the competition for spots on the street. I have been bullied by clowns....real clowns...(er...new orleans style gothy gutter punk clowns)....I think I was flirted with by a scary white faced balloon clown....i was sorta dressed like a clown meeself..

more zen....less self conscious...don't think about the money and it will come..,,I am certainly more impressed by street performers who don'T seem self conscious or desperate...though it can sink in..and you can have feelings of self-doubt.....etc...

The main purpose is for fun. The money is residual...if that is the right word...

Maybe you will feel better if you wear a costume. I am incredibly uncomfortable without one myself.

The only Busker I can clearly remember (it's now years after he dissapeared. Or stopped appearing, whatever) was a very old, very thin white man with a long and grimey beard and the hat of a rastafarian. He stood behind another hat, laid on the ground, with very little money in it and in front of a ghetto blaster from the 80s, blearing distorted music, and he would unsurely dance. Or maybe he just had Parkinsons, it was impossible to tell. He was always ignored by passersby, which made me think of him as an omen of impossibly bad portent. Oh! and this one Bagpipe Player who would ply his trade outside my work and who, by the end of the day, really, really needed to shut up.
Never seemed to be a particularly profitable way to spend a day, but they did make impressions. Not positive ones true, but they are very distinct.

A lot of people liked me. I had regulars who would tip for song requests. Lots of tourists had their pictures taken with me. I was very "kid friendly" etc...
Sometimes I would sell sock monkeys on the street.
I am a pretty good singer.
There were people who would just come out and hang around to listen to me....but I guess plenty more who just thought of me as the scum of the earth.
Once mustn't be to sensitive about all the as*hole who get their jollies off from hurting people's feelings. Often I am sure the ones who mocked me were just jealous.

I have been wanting one of those little cigarette pack amps meeself.

It has been a while since I have been out busking. I need to pick it back up again.

This weekend I picked up a CRATE Taxi 30.
They don't make the 30 anymore, but they do make the Taxi 15 and the 50.

I also have a little Roland MiniCube, but as I turn up the volume and/or gain, it distorts too much.
It's a great little amp for playing in the house or other quiet place.
I also use the minicube when I go to look at an electric instrument.
Meeting people in grocery store parking lots, does not always mean you will have an amp or a place to plug in to try out a guitar... so the minicube running on 6 AA batteries is a great portable testing amp.

I'm real happy with the Taxi... I took it to work with me today, but didn't have a chance to practice guitar at lunch.

I remember an old lady who used to busk on busy streets, playing a little bamboo flute. She'd obviously never been trained, but had made up a couple of her own tunes and played them, adding new songs every now and then. I didn't think she was very good, but I liked that she had the gumption to go and do it, and I liked that she was enjoying herself, doing her own thing regardless of what anyone else thought. I don't think ill of people who might not be any good, but have a go anyway. Occasionally I've come across buskers who have been offensive or really really annoying. I just take a detour.