Busking for real and virtually

Although I have played music for many years it was just last year that I had my first experience of busking. That was when my @swing47 collaborator Danielle and I played in Letchworth. That was fun, but there were not too many people around. Recently Danielle has booked some slots with Hitchin council that allow her to play with others for a couple of hours at a time. Our first one was on Saturday with a couple of friends. We were right in the main square and even had a canopy to protect us from the rain. We made a few pounds there and donated it to a charity shop.

We were back there again today. This time there was no canopy, but the problem was more the sun, so we used a tree for shade. Danielle has a little amplifier that runs off a battery and I brought my microphone.

Another friend, Bob, was due to join us, but he was running late, so we started anyway by playing most of our set from last year's Balstock festival. Some of those involve me singing.

Bob did make it in the end with his flute. We played in various combinations with some use of backing tracks. Due to my right hand issues I cannot play for too long at a time.

Sorry about the quality, but this is a still from a very short clip as my phone ran out of space.

We had a good audience consider it is a week day. There were a lot of families with small kids who like to put money in the guitar case. There are benches around the square plus various outdoor seating for pubs and cafes. We were getting some applause.

I have to admit some songs were under-rehearsed, but then it has not been so easy to get together. You just need to keep going and people may not even notice the mistakes.

We actually had a few spots of rain, possibly encouraged by me singing Stormy Weather. We also did a few songs about the Sun from our repertoire of old tunes plus a couple of more recent tunes from the movies.

This was Bob's first real public performance of any kind and he did really well. We made more money than previous efforts and will use it to treat ourselves this time. Not that it will buy too much.

I think in the current situation people do appreciate any live music as most conventional events are not viable. Playing in the open air with plenty of space ought to be fairly safe.

The virtual busking I have done is in Rising Star, which is free to play on Hive.

The first 'mission' is busking, but all you have to do is press a button, no talent required. I did a couple of hundred busking missions and now have clocked up over 900 radio interviews. These only take five minutes, so you can keep doing them through the day. I have almost reached the end of the second zone and will have to form a band soon. I was lucky to get my first Epic card from a pack in the form of the Pop Diva. She adds lots of fans to boost what I can make on each mission. This does increase issues with 'ego', so I need to do more lesson missions to increase my skill level to compensate.

Check out the game if you enjoy music as you can listen to tunes from the community. It is also an extra source of cryptocurrency as you can trade the Starbits on Hive Engine if you do not want to just buy more cards.

Rock on!