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Guitar chord forum - chordie → Chordie's Chat Corner → Busking with a pianist
I've been busking for a fairly long time now, and my friend who is a pianist want to play with me tomorrow. Only problem is that whenever I play with fellow buskers it always seems to fail, and end with a very little ammount of money between us both. I attribute this partially to the songs we play, as I rarely play duets with my friends when we busk, as neither of us know very many. So, have any of you got any ideas for duets for a keyboard and an acoustic guitar?
There are many tunes for such a duo but how much practice time do you want to invest to make less money?
It is hard to play alone. When you get down another companion can cheer you up as well as take some of the load off you.
Unless you can move your act into a pub or concert situation, busking on a street corner limits the money available from passers by.
A super tight act might make twice the income or more than a single but the investment in time would be considerable.
toots
Wow, I wish I could offer advice to help you.
I don't have enough experience to comment...though practice always makes perfect!
=]
Dm
I don't have any advice, but I am curious about how he gets his piano to a busking location. I saw a guy in Seattle once who had an upright piano on a low platform with large casters on it. He just pushed the piano around, locked the casters when he got somewhere, and then played some neat piano boogie-woogie and other heavy left-hand funkified stuff. He had a fishbowl glued to the top of the piano for tips. It worked, but I've never seen it before or since.
So, I'm curious about how your buddy busks with a piano.
Oh, and I agree with Toots. If you guys aren't tight, don't bother. You've got to be really together in your performance to catch people's attention. Plus the piano is going to take a lot of room that would otherwise allow people to stand by and listen. Fewer people listening leads to few people tossing in a buck.
I think that may be why philharmonic orchestras don't busk.
- Zurf
I don't have any advice, but I am curious about how he gets his piano to a busking location. I saw a guy in Seattle once who had an upright piano on a low platform with large casters on it. He just pushed the piano around, locked the casters when he got somewhere, and then played some neat piano boogie-woogie and other heavy left-hand funkified stuff. He had a fishbowl glued to the top of the piano for tips. It worked, but I've never seen it before or since.
Was that the guy down by the market? That guy is a great songwriter. You should buy his CDs if you want a great laugh.
So, I'm curious about how your buddy busks with a piano.
Me too.
Was that the guy down by the market? That guy is a great songwriter. You should buy his CDs if you want a great laugh.
Yes. Unfortunately, that was my one and only time in Seattle, so my likelihood of buying his CD is slim and none. He was an amazing musician, I remember that much. He really rocked.
There were two other guys busking guitar, banjo, harmonica and vocals on the stairwell outside the second level I think. (It's a big landing with enough room). Those guys were jamming on some good bluegrass fingerpick stuff.
I'm not much for cities, so we only stayed in Seattle for a few hours. We took in the aquairium (incredible) and Pike Place Market (most excellently cool). There was a LOT of live music all over the place. I was wishing that I had more cash in my pocket to drop in the kitty.
But we quickly tired of the city and headed north to the Cascades for a few days of hiking and then over to Yakima Valley for a few days of wine tours.
- Zurf
So, I'm curious about how your buddy busks with a piano.
We live in a pretty small town that's also a tourist hotspot on the weekends, and he lives almost next-door to where we busk, so he pretty much just wheels it out of the door.
jerome.oneil wrote:Was that the guy down by the market? That guy is a great songwriter. You should buy his CDs if you want a great laugh.
Yes. Unfortunately, that was my one and only time in Seattle, so my likelihood of buying his CD is slim and none. He was an amazing musician, I remember that much. He really rocked.
There were two other guys busking guitar, banjo, harmonica and vocals on the stairwell outside the second level I think. (It's a big landing with enough room). Those guys were jamming on some good bluegrass fingerpick stuff.
I'm not much for cities, so we only stayed in Seattle for a few hours. We took in the aquairium (incredible) and Pike Place Market (most excellently cool). There was a LOT of live music all over the place. I was wishing that I had more cash in my pocket to drop in the kitty.
But we quickly tired of the city and headed north to the Cascades for a few days of hiking and then over to Yakima Valley for a few days of wine tours.
- Zurf
We are fortunate that we have a great music scene here, and always have. It's probably the best place in the world to be if you play originals, because there are so many places looking for it. In fact, I'm not sure where I'd play if I played in a cover band!
Anyway, I work five short blocks from the market, so I get to see a lot of the buskers that play there. Fortunate stuff.
If you're ever back in this neck of the woods, let me know, and we can go see someone make some noise somewhere.
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