I tuned up to the free tuning application that I downloaded onto the cheaper government phone.
The application came like a trojan horse bringing so many advertisements and pop ups that sometimes I have to take a quick survey before tuning the next string on the guitar, type of thing.
I played from about 11:40 PM until 1:15 AM and netted $33.50 which, divided by the 95 minutes that I "put in," comes to $21.15 an hour -a slow Monday into Tuesday morning hour, at that.
So, the idea of going to work for someone for an hourly wage seems ludicrous, unless it is going to work for someone who owns a little Irish pub or something and the job is making an ass of oneself on stage for a set, and guaranteed amount from the bar, and then the tip jar.
I need to not delude myself into thinking that any music that I do at the Lilly Pad should not be subjected to the test of being amplified mightily so that the audience can hear all the subtleties which the pounding of mule hooves might obscure at the Lilly Pad.
There might be a danger in that the standards for a guy sitting on the sidewalk are commensurately lowered to factor in his situation, and he is apt to be doing pretty good for a guy just sitting on the sidewalk.
But, put the guy onstage at an Irish pub, and all of a sudden it's: "Who's this guy supposed to be?" type of thing.
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I've blogged about that before.
This brings up an irony in the fact that it's the guy who just sets up somewhere and starts playing who probably deserves the "who's this guy supposed to be?" and that is what I hear the most from those 2% of the population that I talk to when I'm busking, the ones who compliment me upon my bravery, saying that they themselves couldn't just set up somewhere and start playing.
I think their fears are based in insecurity about their musical ability. They feel like they would be putting upon display a lack of skill. This, I can understand.
The next time someone say's that to me I will have to ask her: "What if you could play like Jimi Hendrix, then would you be able to just set up somewhere and start playing; uninvited?"
So, I am thinking that, at $21.15 per hour, I should, someday, really try to buckle down; pretend that I am 19 years old and back in basic training, maybe, and busk for 40 hours in a given week. That would be just about $850 take home.$850 that is safe from the thieving hand of the tax collector (He will get his 6% whenever I purchase food and general merchandise; and his 10% whenever I buy kratom.)
And, given a 40 hour busking schedule, and adding the commuting time of about an hour each day, then the time leftover for the wonton throwing around of money is usurped away, and the rest of the time is spent sleeping. So, there is likely to be an almost full pile of $850 on the coffee table after a week spent working and sleeping.
I am convinced that 99.99% of those who pick up an instrument have the guts to go out and play the thing in public. It's not even about skill, because as we know, most of the people who play on the street aren't very good.
ReplyDeleteI'd say for most, they have a job and have no need to play in the street.
A lot of people were just sent off to lessons by their parents and they developed pretty decent chops on the guitar or piano or violin or something, and when they move out as adults they just set it aside as something, like Boy Scouts, that they don't have to do any more.
But in your case, aside from working in a gas station or other things you've done, playing guitar has been a money-maker for you. I'd not try to "work it like a job" right off, but just start ramping it up. Not many can keep the kind of schedule Tanya does!
It seems somehow degrading to make conversion to slave (hourly) wages. First of all the only way most hourly wage jobs are worth it is if you actually work at least 40 hours a week. Usually strictly to a schedule set by your employer, you gotta show up precisely the same time every day, play the '5 min late' game or punching a clock... and you can't just go home in the middle of the day because you 'aren't feeling it'( or out of cigs 'n weed, heh). I'm sure you know the zillion other things that suck 'working for the man', you've just forgotten them over time.
ReplyDeleteThere's virtually no metric by which the remuneracy of busking can truly be iterated.
Don't sell yourself short comparing what you do to wage slaves.
Busking is freedom. Freedom's just another word for...well, you know {wink}.
Sure, you could play the numbers in a tourist heavy area like NOLA but you're more likely to burn out forcing yourself to play too long. Quality of performance is more important than grinding out sets all day if you want to keep your ambition/inspiration intact. And the calories...my god think of the calories!
Quality of performance, image, location, time of day, tourist density and equipment.
Just my .02 cents..
Cheers