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V.com weekend vote: How many times have you tried busking?

May 16, 2008 at 6:14 PM

Seems that everyone is taking up a street corner with a fiddle these days, and it's not just the beat-up, duct-taped old fiddle cases set out to collect donations, but also a few plush velvet-lined ones.

Journalists certainly have seemed to take an interest in the subject. Most recently, Los Angeles Times journalist Steve Lopez wrote a book about a homeless and schizophrenic busker, a Juilliard-trained musician whom he found playing on the streets in skid row with a 2inged violin. The book is called The Soloist: A Lost Dream, an Unlikely Friendship, and the Redemptive Power of Music, and it's already being made into a movie starring Jamie Foxx.

And who can forget, a year ago, when Joshua Bell went busking during morning rush-hour in Washington D.C. on a kind of dare from Washington Post reporter Gene Weingarten, who recently won a Pulitzer Prize for his story about Josh's experiment. Our favorite 40-year-old violin hero (besides me, right? ;) made $59, plus he made everyone turn blue in the face talking about it.

Yesterday Debra Wade wrote a lovely blog about the subject, which made me think even more about busking. Put simply, busking is performing at its most elemental level: get out the instrument and go. What do you play? Whatever comes to mind. Whatever comes to mind depends on everything you've ever studied and heard, not to mention what your environment asks of you. If a three-year-old toddles up to you, perhaps it's "Pop Goes the Weasel." Or perhaps someone comes up and requests "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" or "Happy Birthday," and so you just play it by ear. Maybe you've been studying some solo Bach, or a virtuoso piece, so you just air it out. Maybe you just played your virtuoso piece and need some filler, so you play all of Suzuki Book 3 because it's just still there in your brain.

I love hearing live music in such a spontaneous way. My favorite rendition of the slow movement of the Bach Double was when I heard a couple of students playing it in Aspen during a summer sunset, outside an ice cream shop, their cases open for donations. No doubt they were students at the summer festival, and they were clearly enjoying playing in this informal and unofficial setting. Funny how a one-time experience can prove more indelible than a recording heard hundreds of times.

Have you ever tried busking? To be honest, I haven't. I'm thinking I should!

Vote in our poll, and tell us about your experiences: (BTW in this poll, if you busk on a regular basis, you can mark two choices, that you busk regularly and also the number of times.)

Buskers make me think of the traveling mentrals, and bards of long gone days.
I had the opportunity to busk with some friends in Galway the May after my junior year. The 5 of us made enough for two rounds of Guinnesses each. We were a little worried about getting caught and fined, as we didn't have a permit, so as soon as we saw authority looking people, we up and left. It turns out they were only changing the trash liner. :)

Perhaps the best part were the American tourists taking pictures of us (if only they knew we're true Chicagoans...)!

After a very difficult semester of undergrad, this is what is took to help me love playing the violin again. It was redeeming to play what I wanted to play, rather than what I was required to play. I experienced a new freedom of learning music by ear.

i once busked with my sister on south bank in london. We earnt about 150 dollars in an hour. Pretty good eh? I recently just saw one of my old viola friends and she was busking in the train station. I quickly joined her, and then played some Bach. Interestingly enough, for the 2 minutes that i was there, i already got like 2 dollars. (which i gave to her after) :)
I've only been busking a couple times, but now that summer is here, I plan on trying it more often.
I'd think about it, once I can play some decent music ha ha!
I used to play violin duets on the street in Aspen almost every night. We made very good money - and I spent most of mine on sushi or white water rafting. In school in San Francisco we played quartets in the Civic Center BART station a few times, but you had to go during the morning commute to make any money and I was too lazy :)
I've never done it, but I've thought about it. I don't know that I have the nerve to try it! But I wish I did!
I haven't, but my students have at the farmer's markets and the beach here in So. Cal. They rake in $75-$100 per HOUR!
So Cecily, did I see YOU? ;)
I always busk during the Edinburgh Festival, fantastic money and great banter. Lots of beer money!
I think it would be fun in a safe environment. Macon has a rather high crime rate, so I certainly wouldn't try it here.
I've never tried but I know a frind who made $80 an hour in New york city!
Hey,people appreciate a violin tune.
People like us !
Yes,its important-very important !

You know--music is truth and others appreciate.
How could they not ?
Tradition counts and attempts thereof will NOT go unnoticed by the public.
Your heart and soul are bared to the bone.

Busking is the oldest of musical professions and will,hopefully,continue in future and this is very good !!!

Give others a chance to release themselves from daily drudgery of their
attempts at living.

Be humble in your gifts,play your very best..Make your violin sing as a voice sings--that is WHY we are here !!!

Busking...it depends. A few nights ago I heard a guy on an outdoor stage in an open-air mall, so I guess this wasn't busking exactly, but playing to a pre-recorded soundtrack as his back up. What he was playing was not technically difficult nor musically that challenging, but he was totally out of synch with the backup and he finished like 8 seconds ahead of the back up. Actually I don't think I've ever heard any busker perform that badly. It just proves a really poor musician can get a gig, but busking is a lot harder because you are your own boss.
I busked in Santa Monica (3rd street Promenade) while I was studying with Eugene Fodor.

True story- One night Eugene came to visit me, took my violin (actually one of his being loaned to me) and played through the Tchaikovsky and several other pieces. It was a lot of fun.

Another night, Steven Tyler came up to me (from Aerosmith) and talked to me for a while.

And another day Israel Baker came up to me, listened for awhile, and invited me to his house. I took a few lessons from him as a result. What a great player, Israel Baker.

I don't busk much anymore, but I still miss it. I felt very alive, very free, very at home on the street playing. More comfortable than the stage for me. Unfortunate perhaps, but true.

That'd be an easy gig...just lay an open case on the ground.
I played last summer at a local farmers' market for the first time, and From Karen Allendoerfer
Posted on May 17, 2008 at 10:52 AM