All I Have To Say About Busking

Throughout my creatively-obsessed life, I've been exposed to a bit of the artsy fartsy side of things. Since one tends to assume that everyone else thinks the same as oneself, I'd not realised that there are people out there who don't know about busking! So I've taken it upon myself to inform and educate - at least of my opinion on the subject.

I guess my busking career technically started when I was a preschooler and my mom would say to me "Sing something for our guests." and I would dutifully stand on the big brown footstool and sing and was usually rewarded with praise and perhaps a peppermint. This progressed to my first planned performance (also known as "circle busking"), when I donned a princess dress over my snow suit and sang "Old MacDonald's Farm" to the MacDonald family down the road, receiving much applause and candy for my trick-or-treating bucket.

After college I occasionally took my guitar to Red Deer and would sit on the benches on Ross Street to play if the weather was nice. Less vehicle traffic at the Farmer's Markets suited my accoustic sound better, but there used to be a great cafe right on the corner where I could trade my change for a double espresso.

This brings me around to a big point about busking - the change.

I'm not referring to the unfortunate change in people's attitudes about busking as society shifts and entertainment becomes a megabyte of ADD bling on a handheld device. I'm talkin' cold hard cash. Which is what ought to be plinking into every busker's open violin case, or hat, or tin pan.

Firstly, I want to make it clear that busking is NOT begging. Buskers have been entertaining the masses since no-one-knows-when, in all corners of the world. You can find them on street corners or plazas anywhere, AKA minstrels, troubadours, mariachis, minnesingers, skmorokh, chindonya... 

And for those folks who are so tethered to their tech that they rarely see real-life street corners, there are even cyber-buskers who accept donations via PayPal. This fine art of busking was originally a legitimate method of performance, long before recorded music was ever imagined, and the donated money was a sign of appreciation and admiration. 

The thing is, creativity is not necessarily an easily marketable skill. I tend to come from a pretty right-brain perspective, which has caused people to say things like "Is there anything you CAN'T do?!" to which I must reply you have NO idea! Indeed, I sing and paint and carve and play instruments and all that but I would basically be homeless and starving if I didn't marry OtherHalf, whose adorable left-brain takes care of all things responsible like holding down a Proper Job and bringing home a Paycheque. I know there are folks out there who bring home paycheques by doing singing and painting and carving and all that but I'm so far out there that I can't even be reliable enough to make my talents profitable! Somehow that seems to suck the fun out of being creative. You know, marketing and record keeping and... blech.

I suspect I'm not the only one.

In fact, I know I'm not. By busking, I keep company with a few better-known artists such as Joni Mitchel, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Jimmy Durante, Andrea Bocelli, Billy Joel, Bon Jovi... the list goes on. Some of these famous artists were once plain old irresponsible musically-obsessed performance junkies like me who just wanted to play for an audience. Unlike me, they got discovered and went on to fame and fortune (BTW, the word "busker" originally came from the Spanish word "buscar", meaning "to seek". As in fame and fortune.) 

Secondly, there's a great benefit for everyone when a busker takes up residence (a busker's territory is called a "pitch"). Studies have shown that areas which host regular busking tend to have a lower crime rate, and people nearby report having a reduced stressed rate. It also promotes a sense of community and improves the atmosphere in any space. For business owners, shoppers tend to linger and relax when good entertainment is provided.

From my point of view as a busker, it's not about making money (I have OtherHalf for that ;) )it's about the joy of bringing a little happiness into the lives of others, the best way I can. It's about the opportunity to share my music with an audience while maintaining my lifestyle of stay-at-home mom, gardener and farmer. For me, a friendly smile, an appreciative nod... at least a willingness to pause and listen mean far more than a bit of silver in the pot.

But it is nice to have enough change for a double espresso at the end of the day.