The art of the street musician
Thursday, April 26th, 2007Following on from Musician vs. Venue
where I posted on Joshua Bell’s Busking experiment.
It’s a good read, but it does deserve some critical analysis as well.
Sawlady is a perceptive one from an experienced street musician, with whom I agree that busking itself is an art form.
I’ve spent time in the past as a street musician in various european cities, including 7+ months on Las Ramblas in Barcelona way back in 91 [I think]
As I’ve said before [ slmusic blog ], playing in sl/metavers [atm] is to me a cross between street playing and a small bar. You have to connect with the audience, as saw lady points out, but at the same time [as any experienced street musician will tell you. especially one who does not have an experienced hat worker helping them increase the take] you cannot play with the thought of money in your mind.
If you play with the thought of tips in your mind it seems to disturb the ability to connect with your musical core, in my experience. You have to play as if you don’t care how much you get for the gig [and sometimes you will get almost nothing;-)]
In general tho, I’ve found this attitude frees your mind to concentrate on the most important thing – playing the music that will allow you to connect with the listeners. It’s a little bit of street zen, but that’s the nature of a job where you can’t force people to pay you what you think you are worth.
I was talking about this with Ricardo Sprocket recently and he mentioned a HBO special on street musicians where an old blues guy on a corner put it best when he said:
“when i first started i’d get upset cause i’d have days when nobody put money in the case. but soon i learned that if you make it about the money the music suffers, so i just come out here and play the best i can every day and appreciate what i get.”
Of course there are tricks of the trade to stimulate or embarress people into giving, but these are not really genuine and if you resort to them they will not help you build a base of loyal music followers, though they may increase your income in the short term.