• From: BELGIUM
  • Registered: 2007-01-27
  • Posts: 3,403

Topic: STREETBUSKING WHAT, HOW, WHY and WHAT IF

AS YOU SEE, THIS TOPIC IS A LOT BETTER than the previous one.
Playing guitar on public places.
Are there chordians who have experience with this phenomenon?
You don't have to be a busker to answer, due to my condition I am still able, but it becomes more and more difficult, to leave my house, and going to a market, or a subway, a station. Sorry folks, I just can't.
That's the reason why I post this topic, some years ago I loved to drive around in my car and to go to a lot of places. Often I saw buskers, and these fantastic "South-American" bands, dreaming away while they ware playing songs like "EL CONDOR PASA"

Is it a difficult topic? I have a big respect for "street musicians". Some of them are real good, and others have the "guts" to play, only knowing 12 chords, and a few songs.
- What about the law?, what about copyrights?
- What about a good song choice = what kind of songs will attract your audience?
- What about money, do buskers have problems with the taxman?
- What about the best place?
- What if another busker, is sitting 40 ft from your spot?
- What about the money, can somebody who lost everything, except his voice and guitar survive?
- What about BEING ON HOLIDAY, with a friend and your guitars, playing a couple of hours, to pay their expenses?

[color=blue]- GITAARDOCPHIL SAIS: TO CONQUER DEAD, YOU HAVE TO DIE[/color]   AND [color=blue] we are born to die[/color]
- MY GUITAR PLAYS EVERY STYLE = BLUES, ROCK, METAL, so I NEED TO LEARN HOW TO PLAY IT.
[color=blue]Civilization began the first time an angry person cast a word instead of a rock.[/color]

gitaardocphil's Website

  • From: Nottingham, UK
  • Registered: 2006-08-08
  • Posts: 690

Re: STREETBUSKING WHAT, HOW, WHY and WHAT IF

Hi Phil, I admire street musicians as well, they've got the ultimate unfriendly audience. There's also a spectrum between busking and begging, so some buskers can't play but get sympathy for looking so beatendown. Alot of towns have local laws on busking, sometimes even issue permits, same applies on transit systems. If a busker gets a good pitch on a busy street on a nice day it can be lucrative, but competition can be fierce. An old tramp puffing a mouth-organ doesn't always appreciate it when students from the conservatoire pitch up next door playing mozart!

'The sound of the city seems to disappear'
  • From: BELGIUM
  • Registered: 2007-01-27
  • Posts: 3,403

Re: STREETBUSKING WHAT, HOW, WHY and WHAT IF

Once, long ago, I saw two guys, I believe in GREECE, 1973, long hair, Germans, they had a basket and they put first some "drachmes" in that basket. They pretty good, but I had to go.

[color=blue]- GITAARDOCPHIL SAIS: TO CONQUER DEAD, YOU HAVE TO DIE[/color]   AND [color=blue] we are born to die[/color]
- MY GUITAR PLAYS EVERY STYLE = BLUES, ROCK, METAL, so I NEED TO LEARN HOW TO PLAY IT.
[color=blue]Civilization began the first time an angry person cast a word instead of a rock.[/color]

gitaardocphil's Website