Has anyone here ever tried busking?

No but i've wanted to beat them up while walking around Seattle's U-District.

i did. in 4 hours i made 20.35 and half a sandwich

i busked once with a friend, it was really fun. I don't think i'd like to do it alone though.

should i be afraid to ask what busking is?

Seriously?

You know the buy standing outside your bank playing the guitar for spare change? Busker.

you mean that upper middle class suburban kid with a guitar that cost more than my car?
oh. thanks for clearing that up for me.

Economic necessity is not a part of the definition. So, yeah, it could be a homeless guy with a harmonica or an upper middle class college grad slumming it with a rare '53 hollowbody - technically, either would be busking.

Hear that, amgl?

I've been tempted to get one of those little battery-powered amps and take my bass downtown and spend a day / night just playing and fooling around. Seems like it could be a lot of fun.

I guarantee that there is a musician you like on this list of former/current buskers, some of whom started poor, some of whom didn't:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Buskers

being a drummer, i did the paint-bucket thing. i was in london once though and saw a guitarist who was obviously well off, very talented, and i assumed was playing with a band at a club later that night, making some good money. i remember him playing a strat through a delay loop and just finger-tapping through interesting scales so that it sounded like little bubbles of ambient sound. really neat.

Actually i wasn't thinking. Never had a problem with Buskers. People hassling me for change on the streets....now that's another story.

yeah, no matter how bad i don't have a problem with people playing music.
unless they are super smelly trustafarians with an underfed dog.

there is no reason to bring a dog into your fantasy years of roughing it.

One of my many tramp stories - there used to be a homeless played the spoons (dancing and mumbling) outside a department store in Glasgow.

To subliment his music income he'd also sell paintings. Since they were roughly of the same artistic ability of the average 6 or 7 year old (stick figures, houses with four windows and smoke coming out the chimney etc) I assume they tugged at the heart strings of passers by, because he did a pretty good trade.

There are a lot of really good buskers in Glasgow. I especially like the drummer/saxophone duo who jazz the fuck out of the top of Buchanan Street.

Ok, you made me look. Subliment is not a word.

who, me?

I'm really confused...whats it got to do with me?

Just as a person can't help being born into a 'poor' family, a person can't help being born into a financially comfortable one. Don't hold it against anyone, then you're just as bad as the rich people who look down on the 'little people'.

I guess that should have been "supplement".

I think I have mild dyslexia. I often get b's and p's mixed up - like "but" instead of "put" or vice versa. And I always get "who" and "how" mixed up too. If I mean to write "who" you can be sure I'll write "how".

hmmm,,,you're right.
i'll try to be a little more understanding.

Just goofing, yo. http://www.obner.org/bb/viewtopic.php?t=20823&highlight=harmonica

Oh. I don't remember ever starting that thread...

I hadn't eaten anything all day and got put on my ass by 11 beers and some whiskey. I guess you could say i woman'd it.

<---Never drinking without eating anything in the past 36 hours again.

Once I had to get to Cleveland. O.k. I didn't have to, but it was christmas andi got an invite from the family I wanted to be around, and I was stuck with my boring family who were praying and fasting for a week. I had 7 bucks. I spent 6 hours busking in various rest stops on 90 between here and Cleveland. I made over $200 bucks, so I didn't busk on the way back. I figured I got lucky, people were in the giving christmas spirit, so i tried again over spring break to avoid the mushy holiday factor. I made over $300. It helps if you place a dollar and some loose change in your case, then people seem to throw more bills than if you place just change in your case.

Then I made it from Chicago to Orlando and back busking. but I've never done it since.

Maybe this will be my new job.