Today I did my first bit of busking as part of my duo with clarinettist Danielle that goes by the name of @Swing47. She contacted the authorities in Letchworth and they said we could play in the arcade. There was talk of having power to plug in a PA, but that did not materialise. When we turned up there was nobody about, so we set up in front of an empty shop. We were both using tablets for our music as it is more convenient than paper and we cannot remember all the tunes we play. I do know a few by heart.
Letchworth is a small town and it was not particularly busy, but someone would go past every few minutes. Some would stop to listen and a few dropped some coins in the guitar case.
It was raining on and off, so we were happy to be under cover, but it was a little chilly. My hands got a bit cold and my weak right hand struggled a bit. I just cannot play for too long. I played a few on ukulele, but that is a bit quiet without amplification. I was singing too. The acoustics were great with some nice natural reverberation. There was a bench just in front of us where some people stopped to listen.
A friend of ours was there with his family and he was able to take some pictures and video.
We took a break for some lunch before returning to the same spot for another hour. By then my voice was shot and I could not really play much more anyway. We both really enjoyed the experience. There was a guy sitting there during the second set on his lunch break who said we made his day! We had other nice comments. Several kids were fascinated too. We do You've Got A Friend In Me from Toy Story that they would recognise. We need a few more child-friendly songs. I think the older folk appreciated that we played music they would know from their younger days. It makes a change from Wonderwall.
So you may be wondering if we made any money. Well we made enough to pay for the car park plus a little extra. We were not doing it for the money, but it is nice that people will give some. The first donation was before we even started playing. I think posting on Steem is a little like busking as you rely on the generosity of those who see what you are doing.
The coin on the right is an Egyptian Pound that is worth about 5p.
We may well do this again some time. We are also looking for local venues who would like us to play. We have a good collection of tunes and we just enjoy it. We repeated a few tunes today as it was a different audience each time.
Rock on!
The geeky guitarist and facilitator of the 10K Minnows Project.
