Busking! who's gone and done it?

[dudlebug23]

I do it occassionally at a local Farmer's Market, sit there and put the empty case out...I once made 50 bucks, but can you believe the people who toss in pennies, or small change? What do I look like? I have a good day job and certainly don't look like a begger. I almost picked it out and flung it at the guy's head. But...a penny saved is a penny earned, I guess?

[Brady Smith]

hmmm...well that's exactly 1 cent more than I've ever given anybody I've walked past. #
Not a fan of the idea myself...makes the neighborhood look trashy. #Talented beggers is what I think when I see people doing it.

[JeffD]

#Talented beggers is what I think when I see people doing it.

Well I can understand that. But beggers do nothing for their pay but ask for it. At least the street musician is providing something.

In that sense it is the ultimate entrepreneur, small business. Its fee for service with the service first and the fee is voluntary.

[Jason Kessler]

When I was in high school (more than aptly named in my case, I'm afraid), a friend and I took our guitars to Washington Square Park, the site of "the Great Folk Scare" in NYC in the 60's.

Two shy, bad guitar players won't as it turned out, attract much (any) attention, and we didn't make a penny.

So I made a sign that read, "CAN YOU SPOT THE MISTAKES?"

We still went home empty-handed. Tough town...

[Col. Suggs]

Here's a story, from Uncle Earl's website, of Chris Thile busking by accident:

"I'd [Rayna Gellert] heard that if you go to Telluride, you must ride the gondola. Even better if there are instruments involved, right? On Sunday afternoon KC, Kristin, our friend Christopher, Jake and Ted from King Wilkie, Chris Thile from Nickel Creek, and myself all squoze into one gondola car with instruments (there was some difficulty, but we figured it out). We also had a pound of chocolate and a flask of whisky. Lovely! The ride was far too short, and also, I'll admit, a bit cramped for comfortable music-making. So once we'd gone all the way up and back on our ride, we all poured out onto the sidewalk in Telluride and commenced to busting down in earnest. We were so absorbed in our own little merry band that we failed to notice that Ted had left his guitar case open and facing away from our circle – thus appearing as if we were busking. We all cracked up when the first couple bucks got dropped into the case, then thanked the small crowd that had gathered, and closed the guitar case. But as soon as we went back to playing, a few more people opened the case and slipped money in. We ended up with $6 in all, which we donated to the tip jar for the bartenders backstage."

[Flatpick]

In 1968 a friend of mine and I went to the local park with 2 guitars. We just sat on a park bench and played some Beatle tunes and such, hoping to attract some girls with money, (I guess this could be catagorized as busking.) 4 of the local park drunks showed up, (they were known by the neighborhood as "The Park Directors".) We played all the songs we knew and some we didn't know to the chorus of 4 drunks.

We didn't make any money but had a great time, and they got us pretty tanked by giving us all the beer we could drink.

Thank God I don't do that any more....... # Flatpick

[Alex Orr]

In 1968 a friend of mine and I went to the local park with 2 guitars. We just sat on a park bench and played some Beatle tunes and such, hoping to attract some girls with money, (I guess this could be catagorized as busking.) 4 of the local park drunks showed up, (they were known by the neighborhood as "The Park Directors".) We played all the songs we knew and some we didn't know to the chorus of 4 drunks.

We didn't make any money but had a great time, and they got us pretty tanked by giving us all the beer we could drink.

Thank God I don't do that any more....... # Flatpick

We busked a few times in Dupont Circle in Washington, D.C. The first time we made some money and folks seemed to listen for a few minutes before moving on, then, after about half an hour, no one stopped and no money came our way. We were wondering what was going on when our harmonica player noticed the two junkies shooting up behind us...in broad daylight! Not good.

On another occassion, in Dupont Circle, we were doing alright when a group of folks dressed in leiderhosen erected a Maypole on the other side of the park and started dancing around it while blaring German Oom-pah music on a large portable stereo. Turns out it was some kind of Oktoberfest tradition. How many buskers can claim to have lost all attention from the wandering crowds due to leiderhosen clad dancers prancing around a Maypole to pre-recorded songs that sounded like they belonged in a Kurt Weil musical?

[James P]

In the summer of '76 I played in the Gastown district of Vangroovy with a harp player. Mostly country blues and blues, Roy was a great frontman. We'd pull-in between two and three hundred a day, which was better money than we'd made playing the West coast coffee house circuit.

[Jim M.]

I've done it at farmers' markets, street fairs, and other events. The most we've made is about $120, except for one time when we were raising money for Katrina relief. We made over $500 that day, but it all went to the Red Cross. I've always had fun with it. There's usually some kids who will come along and dance to the music, or who want to ask questions about the instruments. I find when I play a CBOM, I usually get some questions about it.

There's a good documentary called "Playing for Change" that shows street musicians in Los Angeles, New Orleans, and New York. Interesting stuff, including some discussion about turf wars for the best spot in a tourist area.

[Paul Kotapish]

hmmm...well that's exactly 1 cent more than I've ever given anybody I've walked past. #
Not a fan of the idea myself...makes the neighborhood look trashy. #Talented beggers is what I think when I see people doing it.

Wow. Brady's comment illustrates how widely opinions can diverge on what comprises a nice neighborhood . . . or begging.

I usually love hearing and seeing live music on the street, and I make it a rule to put a little folding money in every busker's case--whether I like the music or not--as long as it seems like the player is serious about trying to make music. To me, live music and art on the street is a sign of a vibrant culture.

And I've known too many fine musicians who have had to depend on busking to keep themselves afloat during lean times to look down on them or dismiss their ad hoc performances as mere begging. Scholars differ, of course.

[Greg H.]

In 1976 three friends and I busked for about a half an hour on Bourbon street (we were booked to play at the bar behind us that night so the bar owner viewed it as free advertising). We ended up making about $30 each (which was pretty good money then, almost as much was we each were making for 4 sets in the bar that night).

[Patrick Killeen]

I used to busk quite a lot with my harmonica (and trusty Pignose amp) on Canterbury's High Street. During the day when the street was busy with shoppers people mostly just walked by and ignored me, though bands that got an audience to form around them seemed to do well. Between 5 and 7 pm the shoppers would disappear and the street would be almost empty.

After 7 it would start to pick up again with people going out for the evening, it was then I would make money, about £10 and hour. Canterbury High Street is pedestrianised, so it would be relatively quite and my playing would carry down the road. That gave people plenty of time to hear what I was playing, fish some money out of their pocket and drop it in my hat as they passed. I generally stopped around 9pm, I'm sure I would have done well if I'd carried on but people started getting drunk after that and I didn't feel like dealing with that on my own.

[Soupy1957]

Never heard of it as "Busking" before, but did it at the Montreal Olympics many years ago...and constantly play for free around home....lol.
-Soupy1957

[Michael H Geimer]

Great stories everyone!

Makes me want to try it again, just for sport.

[mrmando]

Made $500 in a week the first time I tried it, playing Christmas tunes on the viola in downtown Seattle during the 1989 holiday shopping season, mostly in front of the old Frederick & Nelson department store.

Never done that well again. Westport, County Mayo, Ireland, is a great town for music in general and pretty good for busking, maybe 20 euros an hour playing fiddle tunes.

Aix-en-Provence in southern France is a beautiful location but the money wasn't great. Made enough in about 45 minutes for two grand cremes (that's a French latte, more or less).

It's hard to busk on a mandolin unless you have one that projects exceptionally well.

[farmerjones]

Best busking experience - We have a week long bicycle ride across the state every summer. We were at the mid-way town on the first day, where everyone is flush with money and ready to party. Wow! Gonna do it next year too!

i'd take busking any day over a dive bar gig.

[Keith Erickson]

Back in High School, my buddy and I were "busking" during the cafeteria hour for lunch money. #

He had the bright idea that we could make "more money than we could possibly dream of" by playing in some street corner around somewhere around Central Park. He thought that it was prime real estate to make some "really" good money. #So the rocket scientists that we were, we decided to make the 1 hour drive to NYC.

....that all came to an end real quick end one Saturday afternoon when two of NYPD's finest showed up and started to asking us for our permits to play # # Never heard of that one before...

...well anyway after some discussion about possible appearances in court for not having a permits, we decided to pack it up and head on home.

We didn't even earn enough money to recuperate the cost of #crossing the George Washington Bridge #

...and I won't even mention how much we paid for parking

[JeffD]

....that all came to an end real quick end one Saturday afternoon when two of NYPD's finest showed up and started to asking us for our permits to play

Several city around the country are granting licenses to folks to play music on the street for tips.

That way thay can at least establish and give you some guidelines.

Some are even requiring an audition, more than anything to prove you are a musician and not a pusher or something.

I forget which cities, but one city gives a large fancy badge, like an over the top doube size almost clownish police badge - which the musician is reuired to display or at least show to the beat cop who requests it.

My first response was that this kind of violates the whole spirit of the thing - busking being a kind of "subversive" activity.

But I am beginning to wonder if it might just make some sense.

[Chadmills]

Solo fiddle - about £10/$20 per hour. Two people playing definitely doesn't double the takings!
Coinage matters, we could be heading into a good time for buskers here in the UK as the £1 coin becomes the main coin in use, and the 10,20,50 pence pieces become small change!

Tom

[guitar junkie]

Florida every year! I made $26.00 an hour one year.... after that I lost a bit of ground when some other folks started playing for free no tip needed... on stage!

But last trip I played with a fiddler from Crown Point NY and we made a little money... sold some CDs I had out and he sold cookies that he baked (he runs a bakery for a day job)

[LeeBohlen]

I busk with my band Hard Times here in Boston (when it's warm) reguarly. We bring out the whole band minus the bass player and usually make $80-100 and hour playing in the Boston Common. It's great fun and the kids absolutely love it. It's great seeing the parents give them a dollar and as they try to put it in the miss the case and get scared and run away behind moms legs. So cute. Yeah our biggest fans are kids and bums looking to get close to our case! hehe.

I started out with the mando in the SF muni too and in North beach playing fiddle tunes and Irish tunes. On separate occasions a guy walks up to me completely convinced I'm Black Irish (if you saw me you'd never think I was Irish or black Irish). I say naw man and play an Irish tune...he says..ha yeah right...black Irish you are indeed!

[Shana Aisenberg]

I busked the streets of Phila during the mid 70s, it was my primary source of income for a while. Played fingerstyle and slide guitar, mostly 12 string, through a battery powered pignose amp. I usually played for around 4-5 hours each day. On a really good day I could make $5 per hour, but often it was less. I busked again for a few months near DC in the early 80s, as the guitarist with a hammered dulcimer duo. Hammered dulcimer players generally draw more crowds and money than fingerstyle guitarists

Seth

[Ron Landis]

In my younger days, this was always a sure way of earning a meal or a beer. I still do it now and then. #We have a very active music scene here in a great little tourist town called Eureka Springs. #In fact, there are so many buskers that sometimes you have to wait to take your turn in the small downtown park. #The money is decent, but I do it more for fun. It's a great way to meet nice people on a sunny day. I think of it as a paid practice session.

If you really want to have fun, go to New Orleans and find a jam. If you carry your instrument around in the Quarter, you'll most likely get several invitations to sit in with whatever group(s) you run into. Those guys love embracing new talent. #Haven't been there since the flood, but I guess it's still happening there according to a few friends.

[Rob Zamites]

I busk at home, my wife feeds me and tells me that "...as a musician, you're a hell of a brewer!"

[DataNick]

Thread Bump:

I went out today to our town big chain grocery store to do some casual busking. Fallbrook is a small town (40,000) in rural North County San Diego that advertises itself as "The Friendly Village, so there is literally one big boy grocery store, and one smaller "local" store, and an additional 4 latino markets that cater to our latino population. I sat down on the public bench about 25 feet from the front entrance, opened my mandolin case, primed the pump with a couple of bucks and proceeded to play music in the following categories Monroe Style:

1. Fiddle tunes
2. Mandolin bluegrass tunes (like my own Mariam's Song, Salt Spring, etc.)
3. Monroe instrumentals (Southern Flavor, etc.)
4. Popular music (Godfather Theme, Lara's Theme, Love Story, etc.)
5. Christmas songs

I did not expect much, and really just intended to "practice" publically and enjoy the sunshine, and I went from about 9:15am to 11:15am.

The response from people shopping was overwhelmingly positive!
I received a staggering amount of compliments and praise, and literally had to stop to take breaks so that I could clean out the cash out of my mando case. All told I made a little over $215...my suspicions about the Christmas giving spirit bode true and folks made a point to just thank me for playing "music" while they were going in and out of the grocery store.

Mind you, Christmas season is an outlier for busking, but I encourage you if weather and/or legal circumstances permit, get on out there and play your instrument in public before Christmas day!

Be courteous, thank people for their generosity, wish them a Merry Christmas, and make some extra mizzou (cash)...I really needed this today and it was a huge unexpected blessing. A mandolin that is on the loud side is preferential, along with a decent amount of sustain; especially for the celtic fiddle tune stuff.

And people really dig the mandolin...

Merry Christmas guys and gals!