Christmas Busking

jim stone · Post by **jim stone** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 5:10 pm

We've been blessed with some warmer weather, well
into the 40s. So I took my Sweetheart rosewood G
out to the Delmar loop yesterday and today.
Played Christmas carols. Well, these sound lovely
on the flute, the Sweet rosewood G has a pure
sound and good volume, and people seem conditioned to give
money to people who play Christmas carols.
Heh, heh, heh!

Today I thought there weren't enough people on
the street to even give it a go, but I did and
in 30 seconds I made three dollars. This slowed
considerably, but I'm doing well in venues where
I'm often just ignored. What lovely music this is,
even fun Christmas songs--I like Santa Claus is
Coming to Town and even Frosty the Snowman.
I also can do Hannukah songs, and got some
requests for these.

After awhile I get oxygen drunk and just wail
on tunes like Joy to the World--it is very nice
to stand on a sunny street in December
playing Bach, playing my heart out, while grateful
people put money in my plastic jar and say: 'Thankyou.
That's beautiful!' What I was born to do, no question.

Merry Christmas everybody!

Blackbeer · Post by **Blackbeer** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 7:59 pm

Ya know Jim one of these days I`m going to get the gonads to try that just so I can share in the joy you get from doing it. I love hearing you talk about it. I can hear you doing it because of you know what, which I still listen too all the time, so keep haveing fun and have a great Christmas.

Take care

Tom

Doug_Tipple · Post by **Doug_Tipple** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 11:25 pm

Hi Jim,
I just put a nickel in your cup. I used to play on the street when I was younger. It is harder for me now, because I am more concerned that people will think, "This guy is a real dud."

jim stone · Post by **jim stone** » Fri Dec 23, 2005 1:03 am

Thanks for the nickel!

It's often very tough on the street, and discouraging
and weird. A bit of a rollercoaster. But sometimes
it's delightful. So the street is a sort of Buddhist
church.

As to doing this, I'm an old coot and Im out there
in this huge cowboy hat to protect me from the
sun. I look really strange. Also I'm a retired philosophy
professor, for crying out loud, and sometimes
my colleagues walk by and do this double
take--my God, it's Stone under that HAT!

But the trick is to just do it. Otherwise there are
a thousand reasons not to. And the first 20 minutes
are often dreadful. But sooner or later hyperventilation
takes over. The last legal high.

Also I do make money.

Whistlin'Dixie · Post by **Whistlin'Dixie** » Fri Dec 23, 2005 8:03 am

I'd love to work up my nerve to do it. Maybe in a costume/hat, as you described..... or a mask.....

In Seattle last summer, I stopped by Lark in the Morning and picked up an Oak whistle (a beauty, best one I have) and was walking along playing it. Really, really magical sound in Pike Place Market, with all the echoes off the concrete...
I actually had people following me.... one kid followed me into a store, and let me tell you, I am "not" the worlds best player.

I think it could work...

M

BillChin · Post by **BillChin** » Fri Dec 23, 2005 9:40 am

Every now and again, I get this idea to go busking. A costume would be nice. Some venues require permits and that discourages people because they cost a lot for what a whistler might bring in. The big stumbling block is learning some more cover tunes that bring in the money. Take me a long time to learn a new tune. I think I just talked myself out of it

Jayhawk · Post by **Jayhawk** » Fri Dec 23, 2005 9:45 am

I'm with Jim that there is a great feeling that comes from busking (both from lack of oxygen and from kind folks tossing money in the hat). I'd busk more if I didn't have to work.

I'd be nervous with rosewood at those temperatures...I've obviously never gotten over my fear of wooden flutes cracking.

Eric

Nelson · Post by **Nelson** » Fri Dec 23, 2005 4:34 pm

If I had enough nerve, I would get a white cane, dark glasses, and a 10 gallon hat and go busking.

Nelson

jim stone · Post by **jim stone** » Fri Dec 23, 2005 7:59 pm

Another day of good weather, in the upper 50s!
Out on the street again: 65 dollars.

Rosewood seems to me as tough as blackwood,
and both do alright, I think, above freezing.
I'm not out there unless it's 40 or at least
the upper 30s. One watches rapid transitions in
temperature, there's the danger.

RudallRose · Post by **RudallRose** » Sat Dec 24, 2005 11:48 am

my favorite "busking" tale was my first year in Colorado, c. 1982.
I was new to the state, just here for about 3 months.
My first apartment; my first time away from home.
My first Christmas alone.
And I was dead broke.

Down the road from me was a Christmas tree lot and, as luck had it, it was snowing Christmas Eve. My family's European-based tradition was to put up and decorate the tree on Christmas Eve night.
I went down to the lot, not a dime in my pocket and hoped for a tree somehow. I brought my fife along (which was all I was playing at the time, the flute not yet a part of my life).
Able to play several Christmas tunes, I asked the lot owner if he would trade me a tree for music. He agreed and I spent the afternoon and early evening fifing along in the cold. It must have been perhaps 6 hours of fifing Christmas tunes, sitting there in the snow. Cute.

At the night's end, my job done, the lot owner gave me the pick of the trees left. You can imagine the pickings available!

I ended up with a squat, somewhat lopsided tree of about 3 feet tall. It was the neatest tree I'd ever had.
I dragged it to my apartment up the road and with the few decorations I had to me, trimmed the tree. I even strung for the first and only time popcorn. I actually tried to save it for the following year. The mold told me it was a bad idea. But I tried!

That was 23 years ago. A fine Christmas to remember.
Sometimes Busking has a purpose other than funds in the pocket or hat, eh?

Happy Christmas to each and every one of you from (momentarily) sunny Denver, Colorado! (Where Santa would go on vacation if he lived in Florida)

dm

jim stone · Post by **jim stone** » Sat Dec 24, 2005 4:19 pm

Great story. Yes, busking has multiple purposes.
I think it's real, it's raw, cause there you are
on the mean streets with unreformed humanity
walking by in droves. And you're at the
bottom of the heap, or nearly, standing there
on the sidewalk playing for tips. So it's
humbling. Very zen, good spiritual exercise.
Reminds me of India.

Doug_Tipple · Post by **Doug_Tipple** » Sat Dec 24, 2005 4:56 pm

For a couple of years an organic vegatable vendor invited me to play near her booth at the downtown farmer's market. It worked best when her husband wasn't there, because I think my playing bothered him. Anyway, one day it was getting congested on the sidewalk, so I backed up and stood under a tree in what appeared to be mostly plain dirt with some grass. Most people enjoyed my playing (I wasn't collecting money, but I did sell a few flutes). However, I distinctly remember one man who looked at me and said, "You're standing on the plants". You can't please everyone, that's for sure. You need to be able to hold your tongue, smile, and go on playing.

glinjack · Post by **glinjack** » Sat Dec 24, 2005 8:57 pm

Pat Mahon the irish king of busking always said " it has its ups and downs"
especially after too many drinks.

jim stone · Post by **jim stone** » Sun Dec 25, 2005 8:47 am

That it does. Once at a farmer's market,
where I was playing with two other musicians,
a fella came up, pretended to put something in our
plastic jar, then grabbed it and tried to run off
with it. But it was tied to the banjo player's
belt, so it popped out of his hands. He grabbed it again,
reached inside and grabbed the money.
I tried to tackle him, he dodged and I had
a close encounter of the third kind with
a pile of water melons.

Take the money out of the jar before it looks
like much, Grasshopper.