... I suppose knowing your venue and audience helps... "...throwing your jewels to the swine..."

It could be worse - imagine everyone focused and THEN hated the music :'(

Keira WitherKay wrote: WELL we as musicians sometimes think we just not noticed, and maybe we just not good enough .... to make the cut to be famous

Ever have a gig where you play from your soul and no one even looks up from their meals/conversations ect ....

<...SNIP...>
This is a real story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of an social experiment about perception, taste and priorities of people. The outlines were: in a commonplace environment at an inappropriate hour: Do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize the talent in an unexpected context?

This is not comparing apples with apples. Perhaps in an ideal world we would always pause to examine such a performance, ask ourselves if it is beautiful, stand and appreciate etc. In the real world we wouldn't have the time.

It's not the same as people paying $100 for a ticket and then ignoring the show.

Certainly in clubs and anything that could be lumped into the broad category of "rock concerts", a large number of people are not there for the music. They are there to get a bit of the old rumpy pumpy or because something deeply fashionable is going on and they want to be seen there, or because they are a SPUD (Spouse Under Duress).

Perhaps a little less unkindly, a lot of people go to shows for the EVENT. The music is an aspect of the EVENT, but it is not all of it.

In pubs and clubs you will also get a share of people who came along for a drink and/or meal and the bunch of guys over there with guitars are not part of why they came nor anything they are going to consider.

Anybody in their teens or early 20s who goes to a gig and very obviously is there to consider the music as first priority is going to get a reputation for being weird. And probably won't get much in the way of the old rumpy pumpy.

In 2001 in the UK, One of the shows on BBC did a story on the buskers that perform in subways, tube stations, railway stations etc, and a lot of them declared that they do sustain themselves from busking.
Some of them were earning 300 pounds in a good week (back in 2001).
In Plymouth I saw some students from some Guitar making School in Totnes busking and they were freaking good. I spoke to them and they said they were earning some beer money for the weekend.
In London I saw a lot of classical musicians perform all over the place. Very good stuff, but as the article states, how many people actually appreciated any of it!!!

Bob Dubery wrote:
This is not comparing apples with apples. Perhaps in an ideal world we would always pause to examine such a performance, ask ourselves if it is beautiful, stand and appreciate etc. In the real world we wouldn't have the time.

It's not the same as people paying $100 for a ticket and then ignoring the show.

Certainly in clubs and anything that could be lumped into the broad category of "rock concerts", a large number of people are not there for the music. They are there to get a bit of the old rumpy pumpy or because something deeply fashionable is going on and they want to be seen there, or because they are a SPUD (Spouse Under Duress).

There's also the interesting question of what people think they're entitled to do in various sets of circumstances.

I have been at a performance of the Johannesburg Philharmonic where two people made a noise during the performance and the conductor stopped the show and asked them to keep quiet. He went as far as to say that their behaviour was disrespectful to the orchestra and, most importantly, to the rest of the audience. (I was on his side). They do ask at JPO performances that you not talk, turn off your cell phones, and if you want to cough then get it over and done with RIGHT NOW.

I don't suppose anybody's going to stop the show if you fall asleep or start doing the crossword - as long as you do it quietly.

Irrespective of the type of performance, I do think that a modicum of respect is due to the rest of the audience. It's reasonable to assume that they are there to enjoy the show, and so you don't want to disturb that.

But what about the poor people up on the stage?

Generally protocol is very relaxed these days, and consideration for others is seldom a consideration. 20, even 10 years ago it was the case that if you went to cricket at The Wanderers people didn't move during the over, and the ushers wouldn't let anybody in our out of the seating area during an over. If somebody stood up mid-over they'd be shouted at and usually go red in the face and meekly sit down.

These days nobody gives a hoot about such considerations. People routinely stand up during the action because they are talking to their friend on the other side of the ground on their cell phone and they are going to stand up and wave so that they can see each other. And if you point out that they're standing up and so you can't see, the best reaction you can expect is a glare.

Bob Dubery wrote: SPUD (Spouse Under Duress).

LOL. ? Nice one, Bob. I've been one of those on more occasions than I'd care to remember ...

I'm gonna go out on the limb here and just drop my pint.

The technological fast paced world as much as media would like to convince us otherwise has done nothing but drive society apart and grow an every man for himself mentality the world over. I bet you the guy walking past which is not a violin lover is thinking to himself he also gets just the bare minimum in his proffesion without any appreciation 99.9% of the time even if he is in fact one of the greats. Engineers, designers or proffesionals in general don't get any appreciation when some of these guys in fact contribute something much greater to society than the average artist (flame suit on). With the pressure of the fast paced world unfortunately came along an average working day 10 times more straining than recent years for most working class people, this put quite a spin on everyone's mindsets. It's a matter of survival and the human instinct, wanting to simply survive. It takes much more than a musical marvel in a subway station to take people's eyes off the prize (Work in this case).....with all this said, a $100 bill will do the trick.

Really interesting. Thanks for the post Keira.

Rudolf wrote: Engineers, designers or proffesionals in general don't get any appreciation when some of these guys in fact contribute something much greater to society than the average artist (flame suit on).

Well I don't know. I might agree that a doctor or an architect contributes more and has a greater effect on the real world. But they would still shell out loads of money to sit in the Golden VIP Circle (or whatever) at a Pink Floyd show - and not necessarily feel resentment. It's the guys who lug appliances who might feel resentment towards rock stars (cue "Money For Nothing").

But I doubt they'd stop to smell the roses during their daily commute or en route to a meeting.

Of course, if you put U2 (or Joshua Bell) on a flat bed and drive around town with police escorts and a big neon sign with an arrow announcing "major star HERE" then everybody and his dog would stop to watch and they'd all go home and rave about how amazing it was.

Interesting post! There's a similar story about Sting - apparently he went busking in London one day, just for the fun. It was already at the height of his popularity. He played for a long time without anyone paying much attention. The session ended when a teenage fan finally recognized him and made such a scene that he had to leave. Don't know how true this is, but a good story anyway.

it's like that myth about elvis winning 3rd place in a evlis impersonation contest .... how true it is i don't know but still funny as hell .....

well if anything i think the lesson we should all gleam off this post is that beauty is all around us.....and sometimes if we just pause long enough to watch that sunset or appreciate a cloud formation.... or a busker ( there are 2 guys who busk at my local shopping centre playing double bass and trumpet....and as a jazz musician i would hire them anyday for my band and i often just sit and listen to them.... and pay for entertainment of course....) i have busked a lot in europe and it has paid for many a hotel room ... i am seriously thinking of starting to do it for fun in this country .... cos busking is fun.... as long as you not hassled by the cops /security guards mmmm should be an interesting exercise.... and i have my gear all ready for busking ... i already have battery powered guitar amps and mixers that i travel with ... so just sorting out some legal consent ... (last thing i want is my gear confiscated by some over zealous cop..heheh )

anybody know if there's any laws preventing this....???? cos in london you can busk on the underground but you need to apply for a liscence(by auditioning) and they have alotted spots and once a week you have to call in to get your spot.... first come first serve so you can imagine the bun fight heheheh

busking is something that is not big in this country but should be.... we have great weather for it .... (try busking in winter in europe hehehhe even on the underground it's freezing ) and it's a great way to get art into the streets and onto the streets ...
maybe let your music brighten up a few peoples day....... and a good way to sell CD's too ...

i will seriously look into this... so any idea's let me know

peace and light
Keira

Busking does sound good. I tried it once in the old Hillbrow about 1983, The only problem is that we could only play about three songs the whole way through.
So we did half an hour versions of "Locomotive Breath", "a Horse with no name" and "Hey Joe", and we got quite creative for for how limited we were at that point. It was good fun, and we made just enough to have pizza at the Highpoint.
It would be good to start a buskers group??

theres alot of buskers at rosebank mall , specially at the paypoints , and on weekends i see alot at hillfox , have always wanted to try it .

busking is something that is not big in this country but should be....

I agree. Instead of buskers like the English have, we have "car guards"...

Many times I've questioned "why am I doing this". What got me even more confused was when people would expect me to play something completely different to what I was playing. On the other hand, I've been to "high brow" concerts and wished I hadn't gone. I've realised that I can't be and play everything so as to cater to everyone. I will also not be relying on people's "good manners" to hear me out. I'm playing what I REALY REALY love and that'll have to do.

Viccy wrote: Many times I've questioned "why am I doing this". What got me even more confused was when people would expect me to play something completely different to what I was playing. On the other hand, I've been to "high brow" concerts and wished I hadn't gone. I've realised that I can't be and play everything so as to cater to everyone. I will also not be relying on people's "good manners" to hear me out. I'm playing what I REALY REALY love and that'll have to do.

And that's fine, but there's a magical thing that happens when artist and audience get caught up in the same thing at the same moment. I've been on the "audience" end of this often enough, and every now and then I manage to sell the story in a song well enough that you can feel the audience getting sucked into the story as well.

YMMV. I relate to words, to songs more than to instrumentals.

It's those moments that made me want to be a musician in the first place. "The whole is greater than the sum of it's parts".