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Busking (Street Performing)?

#4
if you have the right set up and the right places to stand you can do alright, I used to busk with my upright(when I had it) along with a fella that was one of those banks of knowlege(older fella been around) , and a mandolin player .

we played swing jazz and some folk stuff but mostly swing (fats waller, cab calloway)

now if it wasn't for Phil (music bank) I don't think it would have worked as well but it did, spent a good part of a unemployed summer making 100 buck a day each playing street festivals and fairs sitting in high traffic parks in the area.

we had a different look/sound with mando guitar and bass and we had to work it though , 8-12 hours a day for that 100 bucks


as far as a lone bass player on the street well I don't know. never tried it,


and +1 for the summer only, we did some fall playing and it was cold then...


get a group together and give it a try, it was fun and you really get to see humanity at its finest.:eek:

cya
jim
 
#6
ForSix said:
Did you post this just to show that you know what "busking" means?

Playing for tips on the street is a good way to become homeless.
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Actually, my band busks as part of our thing. Lots of pros and serious music students do it in NYC. If you have a good act, you can make more then the normal bar-band wage if we find a nice place in the park or a farmers market. Furthermore, people become aware of our group because they see us around town. Its helped the club draw for sure.

The city even encourages busking and has kind of a regulatory system in place. Check this out: [Invalid or Expired Link Removed] . Some good acts, no? I bet some even live in apartments.

That being said, we have gourmet food carts :D . NYC is all about keeping the overhead low, so serious quality is often found in public spaces. I'm sure this isn't the case in the 'burbs, or even a more diffuse city like LA.
 
#8
I unexpectedly ended up busking a few times as I had my bass with me when I ran into old aquaintances that were doing it and asked me to join.

Since we didn't have common material we ended up jamming/improvising most of the time and I really enjoyed it. I found it to be an awsome way to jam (especially being oustide on a nice summer day) since you could get a feel for how you were playing with the crowd you drew, like moths to a musical flame.

They gave me $50 for 3-4 hours of jamming which I found great since I didn't go out there looking to get paid. They told me they make between $100-$300 a day (8-10hrs) depending on the weather, split 2-way between the guitar and djembe player, not too shabby if you ask me and you get to play music all day.

John Butler started out busking and I saw him in an interview saying that he used to pay for rent with the money he made from playing and selling a 4 song demo tape for $5 on the street. Check out his song Ocean, he played/wrote it while busking and there's so much Soul pouring out of every note, very different from his newer commercial stuff.

I've heard many people say that busking is the only true from of music left today, and while I'm not sure I agree with that, I deffinatley see where they are coming from.

Bottom line - try it. Expect nothing other than music, but isn't that why we started playing bass in the first place?
 
#9
Infrasonik B. said:
I unexpectedly ended up busking a few times as I had my bass with me when I ran into old aquaintances that were doing it and asked me to join.

Since we didn't have common material we ended up jamming/improvising most of the time and I really enjoyed it. I found it to be an awsome way to jam (especially being oustide on a nice summer day) since you could get a feel for how you were playing with the crowd you drew, like moths to a musical flame.

They gave me $50 for 3-4 hours of jamming which I found great since I didn't go out there looking to get paid. They told me they make between $100-$300 a day (8-10hrs) depending on the weather, split 2-way between the guitar and djembe player, not too shabby if you ask me and you get to play music all day.

John Butler started out busking and I saw him in an interview saying that he used to pay for rent with the money he made from playing and selling a 4 song demo tape for $5 on the street. Check out his song Ocean, he played/wrote it while busking and there's so much Soul pouring out of every note, very different from his newer commercial stuff.

I've heard many people say that busking is the only true from of music left today, and while I'm not sure I agree with that, I deffinatley see where they are coming from.

Bottom line - try it. Expect nothing other than music, but isn't that why we started playing bass in the first place?
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Was this down in the market beside the Aulde Dubliner?

I lived in Ottawa for 2.5 years :)
 
#10
Me and my girl band have been planning to busk this summer for a bit of fun and hopefully get a little extra rehearsal time, try out new songs and hopefully get a bit of money. I am a little concerned that in this big city we'll get a lot of attention from the wrong types and we'll have to defend ourselves from horrible rude people (men). I'm looking forward to a bit of money though, I think being unthreatening will work to our advantage.

I saw some friends of mine busking around Christmas time, it was so cold the guitarist had lost all feeling in his fingers and his guitar strings had cut his fingers open... His guitar was dripping with blood but he wouldn't stop playing. I doubt they got much money that day because it was snowing all day and I imagine the group of young men looked quite intimidating to most people.
 
#13
My girlfriend (sax player) used to witness several hundred dollars a day busking on Boylston St. here in Boston. Granted, this is where every Berklee student makes a day job, my point is there's merit in it hahaha from experience, she said close to the subway entrance/exit was always the best XD

...but in retrospect, I've seen plenty of fellow musicians (mostly all guitarists/vox) in the actual subway station platform and they were lucky to make only a few bucks. They weren't half bad either but they needed a license.
 
#14
Here's an Invalid Link Removed.

In short, virtuoso violinist (incognito), playing a $3M Stradivari violin, playing in a decently acoustic metro station... follow the link to see how he fared...

If you look at the results in the right/wrong way, it can mean that your skill level has very little to do with your success at busking. It is all about location, time-of-day, and who is passing.

My opinion is that they used the wrong time-of-day for the experiment in the article...
 
#16
Dekker said:
If you look at the results in the right/wrong way, it can mean that your skill level has very little to do with your success at busking. It is all about location, time-of-day, and who is passing.
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When I used to busk on the Pearl Street Mall in Boulder, CO when all the tourists were out during the day, I would be lucky to make $30 in an afternoon. But, if you're out when the bars are closing and the weather is accomodating, I'd make around $40-60 from about 1:30-3AM from the drunks who still wanted to party and weren't ready to go home.

It's all about the time, the crowd, and the location.
 
#17
Rebecky said:
Me and my girl band have been planning to busk this summer for a bit of fun and hopefully get a little extra rehearsal time, try out new songs and hopefully get a bit of money. I am a little concerned that in this big city we'll get a lot of attention from the wrong types and we'll have to defend ourselves from horrible rude people (men). I'm looking forward to a bit of money though, I think being unthreatening will work to our advantage.
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Somewhat off-topic, but -- as women entertainers you will always be subject to "attention from the wrong types" and "horrible rude people (men)". I'm not excusing it, but it is a fact of life. Deal with it in whatever way you choose, but be prepared for it.

Getting back to busking -- find out what the law of the land and the law of the street are for the location you choose. Allocation of the choicest spots might be determined by a combination of bribery and intimidation. You might not be able to just set up and play in Covent Garden on a sunny Sunday afternoon!
 
#18
Neon Scribe said:
Somewhat off-topic, but -- as women entertainers you will always be subject to "attention from the wrong types" and "horrible rude people (men)". I'm not excusing it, but it is a fact of life. Deal with it in whatever way you choose, but be prepared for it.

Getting back to busking -- find out what the law of the land and the law of the street are for the location you choose. Allocation of the choicest spots might be determined by a combination of bribery and intimidation. You might not be able to just set up and play in Covent Garden on a sunny Sunday afternoon!
Click to expand...

Being female will probably help you draw a bigger crowd and more money regardless of the wrong types/rude people, just look at the restaurant industry(entertainment as well).
 

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