12/31/13 1:00pm
It seems that every time I go busking, people are more and more generous. Or maybe it's just that I'm going to busier places as my bravery increases. This day began very poorly but got much better. So here what's happened when I parked my car a bit before 1pm…
I often park on top of the Montagne De Bueren, a huge staircase with hundreds of steps. On the way down it's really easy but the hard part is going up afterwards. I never look forward to that !
Anyway, I decide to go to the spot where I started it all : below the Pont Maghin. It's not busy at all but I thought it was a nice place to warm up a bit. So here I am unpacking my saxophone and I decide to start with the James Bond Theme (a new addition which I thought could be really nice). I then go to some A minor soloing but realize that after 15 minutes, my case is still empty. There's really no one going through here. But I was only there to warm-up a bit so I decide to pack and go to the other spot I went to the first day, Place Saint-Barthélemy, without too much disappointment (though, last time, I still made 1.5€ here).
So I unpacked at my favorite spot on Place Saint-Barthélemy. I went over some of the songs of my set (which grew to 6 songs : Autumn Leaves, Blue Bossa, The Pink Panther, The James Bond Theme, The Bare Necessities and Michelle). But then still nothing. A guy in his car shouted at me "Go somewhere else where it's busier, there's nobody here !". He's actually right. He's so right. I decide to pack and decide to go to the next level : La Place Saint-Etienne, just behind "Les galleries Saint-Lambert", one of the biggest malls of the city. It's a nice plaza, a bit like the other one but only busier as people enter and leave the mall from this plaza. As I pack though, a young guy comes and tells me that's he's studying and that I'm disturbing his peace and quiet. I'd only been playing for 15 minutes so I wanted to tell him that every body has to earn money but I was going anyway and didn't want him to make a scene out of it.
So I'm walking to La Place Saint-Etienne. I must say I was feeling a bit disappointed because I still had nothing except my seed money.
When I arrive, I study the place and the people and decide to unpack by a tree, so I can put my case against it (I took a bottle of water with me this time that I put in the pocket of my saxophone case, which means it doesn't hold on its own and I have to rest it against something).
I always feel a bit uncomfortable while unpacking. When I'm playing I'm ok, but when I unpack I never know what will happen, maybe a guy will come to me and say I have to leave, or a homeless guy will come to say it's his spot or whatever. So I unpack looking mostly at my saxophone and not too much to the people around me. I start playing, a bit timidly at first. I start again some lone A minor improvisation. I see an old man on the other side of the street looking in his bag. I'm always relieved when the first coin comes in. It means I'm doing it right and that other people will start putting coins too. But this man didn't give a coin but waffles instead. Of course I refused and told him that I didn't need food, but still he put them in my case. That was a weird feeling. That man must have thought I was homeless or something. From the outside, it might be easy to mistake a busker for a tramp, but those are two completely different beasts. There might be tramps attempting to make music by banging on a drum, or singing drunk with an out-of-tune guitar. But buskers ask money for their talent and the performance they put together, and they are able to do so only because they spent years practicing. Buskers try to brighten the day of the people walking by and those who feel entertained or otherwise pleased are encouraged to put a coin in the case. People give money to tramps out of pity, not because they enjoyed any kind of performance they put together.
So I have 2 waffles in my case and still no money. Fortunately a little girl comes to me to put 50 cents in my case. That's what I've been waiting for. I thank her and suddenly realize that the 2 waffles are still there in my case for everybody to see. This is not really a good thing as other people might think that this is what I want and give me food too. So I decide to take the waffles and hide them away in a pocket of my case.
People start tipping. Some are more generous than other. In front of me is a café. It's inside the mall but it's a glass wall so people can see me and I can see them. They also can hear me from what I can tell. I think maybe when they leave they'll tip me, but I don't think I saw any of them tip me, even though some seemed to enjoy my music (only a woman with a newspaper wasn't so enthusiastic about me playing, giving me looks each time I started a song). I have many children come by to tip me, old ladies who seem to enjoy the older songs like Autumn Leaves or Blue Bossa and the improvisations I make around them, and other very nice people (and the occasional teen girl asking for a coin to her parents), most of whom also wish me a happy new year, which I wish them back.
I also remember a lady who congratulated me in particular, and I thanked her as this is mostly for this kind of reactions that I perform in the street. There was another guy who walked past me, looking like he was enjoying my music very much. He was like waving his hands and suddenly stopped when I looked at him and suddenly thought about tipping me. So he went in his bag, then came to me with his purse. He said how nice my music was and how much he was enjoying this. I said the acoustics of the plaza was really nice too. He looked at how much he could tip me then suddenly threw all the coins he had in his purse in my case saying "Oh what the heck ! I can tell you're enjoying what you're doing !" He also told me he was an artist too, a tunisian folk dancer. I had the feeling he was kind of hitting on me, don't know why, maybe because after that he came to give me a kiss before leaving. Nice change to the teen girls ;)
So after 1h15 of playing, I finally call it a day, and start packing up my horn. I realize I still have the 2 waffles the old man gave me at the beginning of my set. I wonder what to do with them. I could still bring them with me, I like waffles after all. But then, the paranoid me appears telling me that these waffles could be out of date, or maybe the man didn't like me playing and poisoned the waffles to prevent me to doing so again. I decide to put them in a nearby garbage can, I need to watch my weight anyway !
On my way back, I come across a beggar. I don't know why he asks me in particular but "Excuse me, can you help me eat tonight ?" I shouldn't have thrown the waffles away.
Now, I have to climb the stairs back up, which is actually the hard part of the job ! I'm pretty exhausted once at the top but I meet a clarinetist friend when I'm halfway up the stairs and we chat a little bit so that's nice.
When I'm home, I put my coins on the table and start counting. I build little stacks of 5€. I make 2, 3, 4, 5, waw that's impressive ! Then I count the smaller coins, I make a 6th 5€ stack. When I've gone through all the coins, I'm at 31.81€ ! Not bad at all ! I stayed a bit longer than usual but still that's impressive ! I might go again next saturday but I don't know where though…
Total profit of the day : 31.81€ (yeah, I decided to write the cents as well !)
After the first entries I thought I should take pictures of my case or the spot I played at after I'm done so I have pictures to add to this diary instead of the random picture I put the other day. Unfortunately, I forgot ! So I had to chose another random picture and hopefully next time I won't forget !
Oh, and Happy New Year everybody ! ;)
