Let's Promote Co-operative Busking Culture!

Here I am busking at the International Jazz Festival in Cork, I was accosted by a troup of french mime clowns

Busking is fast popularizing. It's always been a fringe fad. But now every man, woman, child and dog are getting out there and having a go. It's great to see so much music on the streets!

Remember to respect shop owners, people and other buskers. This is important to ensure the longevity of the practice - keeping it permit-free because music is about spontaneous expression and sharing. We don't need policy to bog us down and restrict our expression. So here's some simple rules, from my experience as an international busker of three years, that will help the busking experience stick around for longer than a yoyo and assist everybody in respecting us as honest folk making a living:

1. For towns and cities with regular busking, use regular busking spots first. These spots are established in the people's minds as busking pitches because there is regular street entertainment there. It's an unwritten code. Shops around those areas are prepared for music because they are used to it. (It doesn't always mean they want it). Respect the people, it's polite to use spots that have been used before as a first choice.

When these spots are filled on busy days, be creative and respectful when choosing a new spot. If you maintain good rapport with the people around you in a new spot, it can become a regular spot for you personally with people and shop owners looking forward to your next performance.

2. If using an amp, don't use high volume to make your act stand out. Unnecessarily high volume is what gets shop owners complaining and policies made to protect them from you. Try being just loud enough to be heard clearly ten or twenty metres away. There are busking pitches where acoustics are awesome and the sound carries quite far but be mindful not to fill up too larger a space with your sound out of respect to other buskers. I was busking in Perth in Scotland a couple of years ago and there was a pan piper playing obscenely loud music to a backing track while another person was selling CDs. No doubt they made their living, but where there were normally three or four buskers making their dough on the main strip, there was one centrally located extremely loud busker that drowned out all other buskers. This is a selfish practice and it's what gets using amps banned.

Be respectful of acoustic acts if you have an amp, they can't throw sound like you and require a greater dedicated space to create their feel. If in doubt - communicate, talk to people, and ask them - "Am I too close? Is this ok for you?" Seek to create a culture of communication on the streets, we all need to make our dough.

Aim to be approachable. If a shop owner or a person from the public asks you to turn it down - do so. We are all working together to create the best experience for a happier people. Remember happy people means more money for you and louder does not mean talented. There are some public that respond to loudness and high reverb - please don't fall into the trap of trying to please these people only - it is our aim to please as many people as possible. We are an unintroduced public act and we must give people the respect of allowing them to get away from our music if they choose to do so.

3. Communicate with fellow buskers! Speak to them! If you set up only metres from another busker that is already playing - please reconsider your actions. A culture of co-operation works best for everyone involved. In Galway, there is a good unwritten busking code that most buskers follow. There are set busking pitches, set by the buskers. People play for approximately two hours and then they move. You can ask the current busker if you can be next on the spot and they'll give you a time and do their best to ensure you get the spot at the changeover. Buskers respect this unwritten code and work together in respect of each other so everyone can have a go and/or make their living.

If there is a busker that has just started busking recently and seems to be getting in your way, be kind enough to give them a small introduction into co-operative busking ethics without the flavour of anger on your tongue.

If you're act is predominantly spiritual for the sake of 'spreading the good word' - please don't dominate a space with a loud speaker or keep a spot for longer than two hours.  Remember that there are real people that do this for a real living and no matter how urgent your need to spread the gospel - their need to eat that day is greater. The same goes for charities that use busking to raise money. This is good for you I see but I've seen three or four pitches taken up by a charity with a 'super-act' with twenty people with buckets collecting coins in Galway, meanwhile the city was sucked dry and people make an honest living were deprived of an income. Let's work together. You want to do good? Great, just use one spot and don't dominate an entire city. Allow others to do their thing. Your thing, no matter how good is not better than anyone else's necessity to make a living. Let's do good, but not cut off others in the process. Respect.

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When things go wrong, and co-operation is not possible between people and buskers, maintain a cool head and just let things slide. Anger on the streets is probably the most unattractive thing ever, and it's the easiest way to get a negative reputation, directly affecting your ability to make a living.

Being a busker is like having the fame of being a public personality but not having the millions of dollars to hide from the people. This means we are observed with a keen eye by passerbyers. A negative reputation in a city is hard to shake. I speak from experience and I've learned from my mistakes.

These simple rules will help us all get along and serve to promote the longevity of policy free busking with or without an amp. Busking is not illegal, but give towns a reason to strap it down with regulation and it will be. I need to make a living and you need to make one too, let's work together.

If you find a nice little town that isn't use to busking but loves music on the street (AKA a busking gold mine), please be respectful to everyone in the town so other buskers that come along have the opportunity to do the same and fill their pockets for a rainy day.

Co-operative busking culture actually promotes tourism and industry, so it is within a town or cities interest to have buskers and street performers there.

Oh and here's a couple more things just for the heck of it: please learn more than 3 songs, try not to repeat a song more than once in a thirty minute space and attempt to learn any song other than Wonderwall by Oasis. =)

People appreciate novelty and innovation on the street, make an act interesting even if you're just one person and a guitar (dress up, use a rug on the ground to create the feeling you're on a stage, find a nice box or case for your tips to show you value their contribution).

My opinion, bring back the classics!

Love,

Monti