Busking Diary - Entry 4 : Quick session in a so-so spot

01/07/13 12am

I'm off for a quick session today since the weather's nice…

I'm planning on setting up Place Cathédrale or somewhere nearby but it's far too crowded ! And I'm still a bit shy so… I walk around a little and find that these whereabouts are packed with other buskers ! They look like they do that very often. I realize they all play the accordion. I guess people will find a nice change in my saxophone. One has a little jewelry box and another has some sort of upside-down small djembe in front of him in place of a hat. I guess the latter is rather clever as people will have a harder time stealing from it. They are all in very crowded places, places where I wouldn't dare to go !

So I decide to settle a bit further from the cathedral, next to the opera house. I'm in front of a café and a bakery, in between a jewelry a butcher shop. The café has a terrace with a group of people. I guess the weather's nice enough (nearly 12°C ! Not bad for early january).

I start playing, a bit shy at first of course. People start tipping, I thank them. I find that a couple of tippers were coming from the bakery just in front, where the line is rather long, so they had time to listen to me.

A man in wheelchair comes to me, and gives me some coins. "Good luck", he says. Don't know what he means by that but I thank him anyway.

I see the waiter coming to the people sitting at the terrace. They're talking about me, positively from what I could tell. I hope they give me some coins when I'm done or when they leave. They don't.

A woman sits at another table, she's obviously enjoying my music, that's good.

After 40 minutes I have to leave. So I pack.

Funny thing I realize at the end is that obviously the first person put his coin not in the main compartment (the one where my sax usually lies), but in another one where I put like my reeds and my mouthpiece. And I see that, seeing the coin in that compartment, everyone else put his/her coins in the same little compartment, following what the first did.

Back home, I count my coins : 8.54€ For 40 minutes. Not as good as last time but I'm still happy, I'll go get a coffee. I think next time I'll go back Place Saint-Etienne, where I got 30+€.

Total profit of the day : 8.54€ (12.81€/h)

Oh and yes, I forgot again...