Re: Don't feel bad if you're ignored while busking
Hmm, it makes me wonder what I would have done. It seems most of the people who really payed attention were musicians themselves. I don't know anything abut classical music and would not have recognised the player, nor the calibre of the playing, most likely. It makes you wonder though.
Re: Don't feel bad if you're ignored while busking
To appreciate art in any form, you have to be in a receptive state of mind, and at three minutes to nine (or whatever time you start work), you're probably not in that frame of mind. If you put that violinist in a place where most people were at their leisure, then I'm sure many more would have stopped to listen. While being slightly amused by this story, I still think it's a bit of a cheap stunt. I don't really see what it proves. I also think its rather elitist.. all that stuff about the brilliance of the musician and the perfection of his violin. I am sure there are many classical violoinists in America that could have given an impressive enough performance to captivate a receptive audience. One of the things I like about ITM,
and similar musical forms, is their relative democracy. I don't like this hero-worship stuff. We all have music in us, including the 99.99% of Washingtonians that didn't give that guy a dollar!
Re: Don't feel bad if you're ignored while busking
I can't help it, I have to say it---I doubt this would have happened in NYC. There, I said it. I see buskers in the subway all the time, and the good ones *always* have an audience, even if each person can only stand there for a few minutes until the next train. I'm just imagining Joshua Bell and his Strad in Times Square...wow...
Re: Don't feel bad if you're ignored while busking
Great story!
I doubt the "Chaconne" has quite the foot-tapping catchiness that may be more to the morning commuters taste. I wonder how Natalie McMaster would have done?
Re: Don't feel bad if you're ignored while busking
Thank you, Button! Beautiful article, 'I couldn't put it down'.
I like the examination of IPods (re: the passersby who ignored Bell because they couldn't hear him)
"For many of us, the explosion in technology has perversely limited, not expanded, our exposure to new experiences. Increasingly, we get our news from sources that think as we already do. And with iPods, we hear what we already know; we program our own playlists."
One flattering moment I experienced while busking was when a guy stopped to watch us, and after a few minutes TOOK OFF HIS HEADPHONES!
But back to the subject:
Would you actually want people to throw their filthy money into the case that housed your $3.5 million fiddle?
Re: Don't feel bad if you're ignored while busking
I'm with Mary; I would have missed the train.
Oldstrings, my daughters call people with earbuds stuffed in their ears "Pod People". They are on their own planet, not engaged in the life around them. Tsk.
Re: Don't feel bad if you're ignored while busking
He should have played some Irish fiddle tunes. He'd have made a packet!
Seriously though, if he had been amped he would have coined it in. Playing with concerto backing tapes, even more money. He's obviously not an experienced busker!
People are not used to listening to acoustic instruments anymore, and in that environment they have the excuse of background noise.
I found the article a bit pretentious.
Re: Don't feel bad if you're ignored while busking
Interesting, but not surprising. Consider YouTube, where a great musical performance gets maybe 5000 hits, and somebody's stupid pet trick gets 5 million.
Thanks for the link, though, it did make me feel better about being ignored. Apparently I'm in good company.
Re: Don't feel bad if you're ignored while busking
I was going to bring up this article if you didn't, Phantom...I don't know everyone, give credit where credit is due...if you've never heard Joshua Bell play, it's easy to say that he wouldn't be noticeable as a classical musician.
However, if you've heard ten seconds of him playing, no matter what genre of music you liked, you'd realize that he is not in any way ignorable or forgettable. He really does have an unbelievable gift (just because he wasn't exposed to or didn't choose Irish music doesn't make him any less talented).
Although, I can hardly image what would happen if he had happened to play ITM instead...that would be amazing.
And I'm also with Mary and Batlady...miss the train! Or catch the next one! I mean, I understand that people are busy and on their way to work, but can all2,000 of them have something so important that they absolutely cannot be 10 minutes later? I understand that some can, but...all of them? I don't know.
And Kennedy's probably right....more people would have stopped in an NYC subway than the metro...but more people ride the Subway than the metro. A lot of DC commuters drive, and probably a lot of the more cultured ones are in that crowd...in NEw York, public transportation is just more widely used.
Either way, a really interesting article...but sort of depressing.
Re: Don't feel bad if you're ignored while busking
I think the article is riddled with a pretentious elitism; classical music is the best, this guy is the best at classical music, yet most people ignored him so they're all philistines.
You have to allow for setting, time, acoustics, put in a few variables, contrast with performers in other genres with familiarity with this environment, etc, to get a true picture. A repeat performance when people are at more leisure, at the end of a working day, might give an entirely different result. It would have been interesting to talk to other buskers who work that spot. And how come it was empty on that day if it's a good pitch ?
I'm not satisfied with the results they got. You can't draw any conclusions from them. Also in the words of a busking friend of mine, "To make a lot of money busking, you've got to play for a long time."
Re: Don't feel bad if you're ignored while busking
Thanks, PB. That article moved me to tears.
Some of them the emotional, gut-wrenching kind one expresses when hearing and feeling the kind of music Josh was playing.
More of them for the sad state of our society. I think I felt most for the postal worker who stopped playing the violin at 18 because he'd never really "make it" as a professional.
He is me.
But there is hope. There is still music.
It's just sad that most people don't get it.
I'm happy to be one of the few that does. (I like to think so anyway).
Re: Don't feel bad if you're ignored while busking
Interesting read: I shall remember the name Joshua Bell - the article did succeed in making him seem really worth hearing.
But I can understand the people's wish to move on. People like to listen to music at least partly on their own terms, on the whole, not solely on a musician's (well, the iPod wearers illustrate that); many would have been in a ritualistic morning routine of rushing to the office and THEN unwinding / having coffee / "being human" for a bit; and there may have been the odd passer-by who thought, "This is so good, I couldn't bear to stay briefly and then have to tear myself away".
Re: Don't feel bad if you're ignored while busking
There is a specific talent and art to busking, separate and apart from the music. From my one attempt at busking, and watching buskers ever since to figure out how they do it, I find it as much about working the crowd as it is being a good musician, establishing eye contact, talking to them between tunes, encouraging them to clap along to help draw a crowd, etc. I remember an old trumpet player in New Orleans who drew me in, and I gave a couple of bucks. "Rhode Island, I used to live in Rhode Island," he said. And the next night I walked past his spot, and heard him saying "Wisconson, I used to live in Wisconson" to another tourist, and smiled.
You can't just stand there and play. Even an incredible musician, just standing and playing, is not going to draw the people and cash that an experienced busker can draw.
Re: Don't feel bad if you're ignored while busking
Interesting article. I've actually just resumed busking myself...I used to sing and play guitar (mostly scottish traditional songs) on my lunch break (the college part of town in Pittsburgh). Few people would care, but my original songs and silly covers (I did a bluegrass-y version of "I'm a Believer") caught a bit more attention. I got a lot more people sitting around listening than actually tipping, and I was fine with that. Time passes, and I get more involved in electronic music, so I sorta stopped busking for a while.
Then, in December, I started learning fiddle (this site has been one of the many great resources I've been using); mostly just at work when things are slow. Again, mostly Celtic tunes (I have a project where I do Celtic tunes as electronic music, so they're pretty well embedded into my ear). I'm far from good, but I've reached the level where I'm not scratchy or squeaky anymore, so I've gone busking (as was my intention in the first place). 3 days so far (today will be the fourth), playing tunes, trying out variations, and doing a LOT of improvisation. I've been doing FAR better for a half hour lunchtime busk session than I ever did with guitar (we'll see how it holds up). My skills are improving (as any busker will tell you...play on the street, you'll get better than you thought you were), so we'll see how that reflects on tips or listeners. I've had a few people stand around, listen, really excited about the music, laughing with me when I drop the tune and say they'll come back to see me again.
The point of all this (other than me wanting to talk about my experience)? Head out on lunchtime, it's a different story. Evening rush hour isn't much better either. Or a Friday night, on the street in a district with nightlife. It's not entirely who you are, how good you are, or even what you choose to play. It's where and when.
Re: Don't feel bad if you're ignored while busking
The most successful busker on the London Underground was a guy who played one tune over and over again. The theme from "Match of the day" on his Tuba while dressed in full football outfit. He made a fortune (about 100 quid an hour) but probably wouldn't do so well in the Queen Elizabeth Hall. Anthony Marwood is there this sun playing the Britten violin concerto if anyone's interested . ..
Don't feel bad if you're ignored while busking
Don't feel bad if you're ignored while busking
Here's a story that will make you feel better if you've ever been ignored while busking.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html?referrer=digg
# Posted on April 9th 2007 by Phantom Button
Re: Don't feel bad if you're ignored while busking
Thanks for posting this I found it very interesting .Bet that Tommy Peoples would have drawn a big crowd!!
# Posted on April 9th 2007 by Red Robin
Re: Don't feel bad if you're ignored while busking
"In the three-quarters of an hour that Joshua Bell played..... a total of $32 and change."
Last New Year's Eve, in Viseu, Portugal, someone gave me 40 euros. Does that mean I'm better than Joshua Bell?
# Posted on April 9th 2007 by granama
Re: Don't feel bad if you're ignored while busking
Hmm, it makes me wonder what I would have done. It seems most of the people who really payed attention were musicians themselves. I don't know anything abut classical music and would not have recognised the player, nor the calibre of the playing, most likely. It makes you wonder though.
# Posted on April 9th 2007 by kjay_bc_box
Re: Don't feel bad if you're ignored while busking
To appreciate art in any form, you have to be in a receptive state of mind, and at three minutes to nine (or whatever time you start work), you're probably not in that frame of mind. If you put that violinist in a place where most people were at their leisure, then I'm sure many more would have stopped to listen. While being slightly amused by this story, I still think it's a bit of a cheap stunt. I don't really see what it proves. I also think its rather elitist.. all that stuff about the brilliance of the musician and the perfection of his violin. I am sure there are many classical violoinists in America that could have given an impressive enough performance to captivate a receptive audience. One of the things I like about ITM,
and similar musical forms, is their relative democracy. I don't like this hero-worship stuff. We all have music in us, including the 99.99% of Washingtonians that didn't give that guy a dollar!
# Posted on April 9th 2007 by de Selby
Re: Don't feel bad if you're ignored while busking
I can't help it, I have to say it---I doubt this would have happened in NYC. There, I said it. I see buskers in the subway all the time, and the good ones *always* have an audience, even if each person can only stand there for a few minutes until the next train. I'm just imagining Joshua Bell and his Strad in Times Square...wow...
# Posted on April 9th 2007 by kennedy
Re: Don't feel bad if you're ignored while busking
Great story!
I doubt the "Chaconne" has quite the foot-tapping catchiness that may be more to the morning commuters taste. I wonder how Natalie McMaster would have done?
# Posted on April 9th 2007 by lightsong
Re: Don't feel bad if you're ignored while busking
I would have missed my train.
I appreciate a good performance, doesn't much matter the genre of the music.
Mary
# Posted on April 9th 2007 by Antikhntr
Re: Don't feel bad if you're ignored while busking
In NYC the audience would be Strad thieves
# Posted on April 9th 2007 by de Selby
Re: Don't feel bad if you're ignored while busking
Bah! Politicians and bureaucrats, what do they know?
# Posted on April 9th 2007 by morning star
Re: Don't feel bad if you're ignored while busking
Thank you, Button! Beautiful article, 'I couldn't put it down'.
I like the examination of IPods (re: the passersby who ignored Bell because they couldn't hear him)
"For many of us, the explosion in technology has perversely limited, not expanded, our exposure to new experiences. Increasingly, we get our news from sources that think as we already do. And with iPods, we hear what we already know; we program our own playlists."
One flattering moment I experienced while busking was when a guy stopped to watch us, and after a few minutes TOOK OFF HIS HEADPHONES!
But back to the subject:
Would you actually want people to throw their filthy money into the case that housed your $3.5 million fiddle?
# Posted on April 9th 2007 by oldstrings
Re: Don't feel bad if you're ignored while busking
I'm with Mary; I would have missed the train.
Oldstrings, my daughters call people with earbuds stuffed in their ears "Pod People". They are on their own planet, not engaged in the life around them. Tsk.
# Posted on April 9th 2007 by Batlady
Re: Don't feel bad if you're ignored while busking
He should have played some Irish fiddle tunes. He'd have made a packet!
Seriously though, if he had been amped he would have coined it in. Playing with concerto backing tapes, even more money. He's obviously not an experienced busker!
People are not used to listening to acoustic instruments anymore, and in that environment they have the excuse of background noise.
I found the article a bit pretentious.
# Posted on April 9th 2007 by Rob Millner
Re: Don't feel bad if you're ignored while busking
Interesting, but not surprising. Consider YouTube, where a great musical performance gets maybe 5000 hits, and somebody's stupid pet trick gets 5 million.
Thanks for the link, though, it did make me feel better about being ignored. Apparently I'm in good company.
# Posted on April 9th 2007 by mickray
Re: Don't feel bad if you're ignored while busking
I was going to bring up this article if you didn't, Phantom...I don't know everyone, give credit where credit is due...if you've never heard Joshua Bell play, it's easy to say that he wouldn't be noticeable as a classical musician.
However, if you've heard ten seconds of him playing, no matter what genre of music you liked, you'd realize that he is not in any way ignorable or forgettable. He really does have an unbelievable gift (just because he wasn't exposed to or didn't choose Irish music doesn't make him any less talented).
Although, I can hardly image what would happen if he had happened to play ITM instead...that would be amazing.
And I'm also with Mary and Batlady...miss the train! Or catch the next one! I mean, I understand that people are busy and on their way to work, but can all2,000 of them have something so important that they absolutely cannot be 10 minutes later? I understand that some can, but...all of them? I don't know.
And Kennedy's probably right....more people would have stopped in an NYC subway than the metro...but more people ride the Subway than the metro. A lot of DC commuters drive, and probably a lot of the more cultured ones are in that crowd...in NEw York, public transportation is just more widely used.
Either way, a really interesting article...but sort of depressing.
# Posted on April 10th 2007 by possumawesome
Re: Don't feel bad if you're ignored while busking
I think the article is riddled with a pretentious elitism; classical music is the best, this guy is the best at classical music, yet most people ignored him so they're all philistines.
You have to allow for setting, time, acoustics, put in a few variables, contrast with performers in other genres with familiarity with this environment, etc, to get a true picture. A repeat performance when people are at more leisure, at the end of a working day, might give an entirely different result. It would have been interesting to talk to other buskers who work that spot. And how come it was empty on that day if it's a good pitch ?
I'm not satisfied with the results they got. You can't draw any conclusions from them. Also in the words of a busking friend of mine, "To make a lot of money busking, you've got to play for a long time."
# Posted on April 10th 2007 by Guernsey Pete
Re: Don't feel bad if you're ignored while busking
I heard once that Joshua Bell likes to play American folk fiddle music when he gets the chance. Can anyone confirm?
# Posted on April 10th 2007 by lazyhound
Re: Don't feel bad if you're ignored while busking
HI Lazyhound,
I've never heard him play American folk fiddle but I looked at his website and saw that he has recorded some American trad.
Mary
# Posted on April 10th 2007 by Antikhntr
Re: Don't feel bad if you're ignored while busking
Thanks, PB. That article moved me to tears.
Some of them the emotional, gut-wrenching kind one expresses when hearing and feeling the kind of music Josh was playing.
More of them for the sad state of our society. I think I felt most for the postal worker who stopped playing the violin at 18 because he'd never really "make it" as a professional.
He is me.
But there is hope. There is still music.
It's just sad that most people don't get it.
I'm happy to be one of the few that does. (I like to think so anyway).
# Posted on April 10th 2007 by FyfferGuy
And you thought you had a hard time busking
While not ITM any fiddler here could sympathize
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html?referrer=emailarticle
# Posted on April 11th 2007 by Pirate-Fiddler
Re: And you thought you had a hard time busking
See http://www.thesession.org/discussions/display/13315
# Posted on April 11th 2007 by granama
Re: And you thought you had a hard time busking
Ooops! I looked and looked before I posted and found nothing. Sorry.
# Posted on April 11th 2007 by Pirate-Fiddler
Re: Don't feel bad if you're ignored while busking
Interesting read: I shall remember the name Joshua Bell - the article did succeed in making him seem really worth hearing.
But I can understand the people's wish to move on. People like to listen to music at least partly on their own terms, on the whole, not solely on a musician's (well, the iPod wearers illustrate that); many would have been in a ritualistic morning routine of rushing to the office and THEN unwinding / having coffee / "being human" for a bit; and there may have been the odd passer-by who thought, "This is so good, I couldn't bear to stay briefly and then have to tear myself away".
# Posted on April 11th 2007 by nicholas
Re: Don't feel bad if you're ignored while busking
There is a specific talent and art to busking, separate and apart from the music. From my one attempt at busking, and watching buskers ever since to figure out how they do it, I find it as much about working the crowd as it is being a good musician, establishing eye contact, talking to them between tunes, encouraging them to clap along to help draw a crowd, etc. I remember an old trumpet player in New Orleans who drew me in, and I gave a couple of bucks. "Rhode Island, I used to live in Rhode Island," he said. And the next night I walked past his spot, and heard him saying "Wisconson, I used to live in Wisconson" to another tourist, and smiled.
You can't just stand there and play. Even an incredible musician, just standing and playing, is not going to draw the people and cash that an experienced busker can draw.
# Posted on April 11th 2007 by AlBrown
Re: Don't feel bad if you're ignored while busking
Interesting article. I've actually just resumed busking myself...I used to sing and play guitar (mostly scottish traditional songs) on my lunch break (the college part of town in Pittsburgh). Few people would care, but my original songs and silly covers (I did a bluegrass-y version of "I'm a Believer") caught a bit more attention. I got a lot more people sitting around listening than actually tipping, and I was fine with that. Time passes, and I get more involved in electronic music, so I sorta stopped busking for a while.
Then, in December, I started learning fiddle (this site has been one of the many great resources I've been using); mostly just at work when things are slow. Again, mostly Celtic tunes (I have a project where I do Celtic tunes as electronic music, so they're pretty well embedded into my ear). I'm far from good, but I've reached the level where I'm not scratchy or squeaky anymore, so I've gone busking (as was my intention in the first place). 3 days so far (today will be the fourth), playing tunes, trying out variations, and doing a LOT of improvisation. I've been doing FAR better for a half hour lunchtime busk session than I ever did with guitar (we'll see how it holds up). My skills are improving (as any busker will tell you...play on the street, you'll get better than you thought you were), so we'll see how that reflects on tips or listeners. I've had a few people stand around, listen, really excited about the music, laughing with me when I drop the tune and say they'll come back to see me again.
The point of all this (other than me wanting to talk about my experience)? Head out on lunchtime, it's a different story. Evening rush hour isn't much better either. Or a Friday night, on the street in a district with nightlife. It's not entirely who you are, how good you are, or even what you choose to play. It's where and when.
# Posted on April 12th 2007 by gnarphlager
Re: Don't feel bad if you're ignored while busking
The most successful busker on the London Underground was a guy who played one tune over and over again. The theme from "Match of the day" on his Tuba while dressed in full football outfit. He made a fortune (about 100 quid an hour) but probably wouldn't do so well in the Queen Elizabeth Hall. Anthony Marwood is there this sun playing the Britten violin concerto if anyone's interested . ..
# Posted on April 12th 2007 by Rob Millner
Re: Don't feel bad if you're ignored while busking
Play jigs and hornpipes. If you can get people dancing along the street, you are winning.
# Posted on April 16th 2007 by geoffwright