Washington Post Article

[SWLogan]

Saw this on thesession.org and thought folks here might enjoy it.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 01721.html

[Paul Reid]

GREAT article - thanks, I really enjoyed that. Pathos.

[brianc]

$32 and change? Not surprising.

I'm convinced that Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior Himself could stand in any venue in the world, playing a fiddle, bass drum, or He could perform some Hawaiian nose humming, and he'd be lucky to garner ANY attention.

That this Bell chap is an 'international virtuoso' is of little consequence, I'm afraid.

[fel bautista]

Wow! That didn't take a whole lot of time to hit this forum. I got it sent to me via email this morning. Just for the US folks, the Dennis the Menace cartoon in the l.A. Times I saw had Margeret wanting to play violin like Joshua Bell. Art imitates Bell.

[s1m0n]

Like everything else, busking is a skill that you need to develop. It isn't just a matter of playing well.

The best musician in the world won't make much if he doesn't make eye contact with the punters.

~~

I used make more than that playing flute in the Montreal metro, and I was barely competant at it. Playing, that is. I got better at busking with time.

And also with time, the two to three hours a day I spent playing really improved my playing.

~~

I'd spent a couple of hours or so in the morning writing a novel and then--when I was written-out--go and busk.

It wasn't quite a living, tho.

[billh]

Context, context, context. It really is important, as the article concludes.

This is of course a big reason why 'traditional music' and recordings are so uneasily mated. Just making a recording changes the context, then the recording can be transported to many disparate contexts. And then return to alter the "original context" from which the music sprung.. e.g. a Michael Coleman recording is a different thing altogether from Michael Coleman, and played on a Victrola in Sligo it becomes yet another...

Bill

[PJ]

Context, context, context. It really is important, as the article concludes.

This is of course a big reason why 'traditional music' and recordings are so uneasily mated. Just making a recording changes the context, then the recording can be transported to many disparate contexts. And then return to alter the "original context" from which the music sprung.. e.g. a Michael Coleman recording is a different thing altogether from Michael Coleman, and played on a Victrola in Sligo it becomes yet another...

Bill

This is one reason why, in the absence of having the musician playing in front of me (which is pretty much all of the time), I prefer to listen to live recordings over studio recordings. Why don't more traditional musicians record and release their concerts instead of recording in the sterile confines of a recording booth.

[Wanderer]

Watching the videos, I immediately realized that Bell, virtuoso that he may be, was not playing to his audience.

Out of the thousand people walking by, how many of them would have recoginzed Chaconne, or even known the title of the piece? And even if they did, this kind of music is reflective and complex, and lends itself to deep listening and analysis. Not really the kind of thing you would expect would hook many people who are rushing to commute.

He'd have probably done a ton better if he'd have played more easily digested material with a catchier beat. If it were me, I'd be interested in a repeat of the experiment playing more of those kinds of tunes to see how it affected the outcome.

In my own experience, the hardest part of busking is simply getting your audience's attention and keeping it for the first few seconds. Once you've slowed them down, then you have a chance to catch them with your music. A strong beat can do that...it's powerful in that way. When I lived in Houston, me and my band would often busk for 'band practice'...it was sad and amazing how adding an egg shaker into the mix (for instance) really got people's attention and made us more money.

[DarthWeasel]

"Watching the videos, I immediately realized that Bell, virtuoso that he may be, was not playing to his audience."

That was the whole point!

[fel bautista]

[
Why don't more traditional musicians record and release their concerts instead of recording in the sterile confines of a recording booth.

You are right on with that comment. Traditional music needs the audiance interaction, warts and all.

[brianc]

Watching the videos, I immediately realized that Bell, virtuoso that he may be, was not playing to his audience.

He'd have probably done a ton better if he'd have played more easily digested material with a catchier beat. If it were me, I'd be interested in a repeat of the experiment playing more of those kinds of tunes to see how it affected the outcome.

Agreed. Just think - had he played 'Turkey in the Straw' and 'Cotton-eyed Joe', he certainly would have livened up the place. Music listeners have their taste - and music has its' place. Right venue, wrong tunes ?

The other (obvious) disadvantage is his choice of venue- folks are rushing to work, not about to miss their train so they can toss a dollar into your man's case after they've had the pleasure of listening to him for 9.5 seconds.

[DarthWeasel]

I don't think there is any question that he was a fish out of water.
Wrong place + Wrong tunes.

The whole point of this stunt was to see what would happen. To see if people would actually get it! Not to see if a world class violin player playing tunes like "She'll be coming around the mountain" would make money.

I think its more interesting to see that people didn't "get it". Its very telling of they kind of culture we live in.

[Wanderer]

Now see, I don't find it very telling about the culture at all. Well, except that most people don't listen to classical music very much, and don't take time out of their routines to stop and dawdle.

The article stresses that context is everything, and I agree.

Concert performing takes considerable investment from the audience. Subway riders generally don't have the time or energy or expectation to make that investment.

You don't expect to hear opera at a baseball game. How many world-class opera cd's would you sell at one? Not very many, I wager. Is that to say that baseball fans are low-cultured or that the lack of opera CD sales somehow "says something" about their culture? I don't think it does.

[brianc]

Now see, I don't find it very telling about the culture at all. Well, except that most people don't listen to classical music very much, and don't take time out of their routines to stop and dawdle.

The article stresses that context is everything, and I agree.

Concert performing takes considerable investment from the audience. Subway riders generally don't have the time or energy or expectation to make that investment.

You don't expect to hear opera at a baseball game. How many world-class opera cd's would you sell at one? Not very many, I wager. Is that to say that baseball fans are low-cultured or that the lack of opera CD sales somehow "says something" about their culture? I don't think it does.

Agreed. It isn't much of an experiment (and really, that's what this was) if you undertake said experiment knowing full well what to expect from it. There's nothing that's been revealed here, after all. Hey, gosh, people are busy when they're on their way to work. The same results would have occured if Yo-Yo Ma had sat to play a few classics for a bit in a rail station in Tokyo. And the same would have occured if a virutuso had done a simliar thing in Berlin. There's nothing revealing about the obvious.

[sean an piobaire]

Hoo-boy ! What a longggggg article......!
Busking spots are like fishing holes in the ice,
move over 3 steps in any direction and there's fish aplenty !
If you're working a dry hole... MOVE around for Gods-sake.
Now I recall....(in the early 1970s),
When I used to see a classical violinist at the Cannery
(at Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco) who made excellent
money and played from sheet music on a stand, the music held
together with clothes pins (he also only used the "lee" side of the
building so the performance space was sheltered from the wind).
The broad sidewalk that he faced let people who wanted to
stop and listen, to do so, without getting in the way of the people
"in a hurry".
I don't know if he could have been "classed" with
Mr. Bell, However he had good tone and intonation.
He would play a fast (Allegro or Vivace) piece for 3 minutes or so,
I think perhaps only one third of a Sonata,and then to "lose the crowd"
he would play another third (the slow part), in a Largo tempo.
Thus, he would turn over his crowd in about 7 or 8 minutes.
In addition the violinist took frequent breaks, to chat with
some of the audience.
This time out allowed the "shy" people to come up and put $$ in the hat.
In my own busking experience, these kind of "moves" help make
the performance an enjoyable break from the
MUNDANE and STERILE, public spaces we inhabit
which for the most part don't have any INTERESTING LIFE !
THE STREET becomes a VENUE,
AND THE ARTIST MAKES SOME MONEY !!!
I say 3 cheers for BUSKING !!! Don't let the discouraging words
of a writer for "THE WASHINGTON POST"stop you from doing
what I call..... Public Space Rehabilitation !
Sean (the other busking piper) Folsom