Busking - Week 4

Yes, well, I planned my week last week to do Friday, Saturday and Sunday night. Then I forgot about New Year's Eve on Monday, so yeah, I went out Monday AS WELL.


I knew New Year's Eve was going to be good, and hell, dare I mention it? I came back with a tad over (amount deleted for privacy reasons) on New Year's Eve alone. I did play from 6:30 to a little after 12:30, and I was pretty blooming wrecked after doing 6 hours, but my goodness it was well and truly worth it. (Knock off the 20 minutes I took to move up from the Esplanade to the Crowne Plaza, and the ten minute break just before midnight when there was no-one around). Had I gone home at 10pm, however like I usually do, I would have had LESS than $100.  The 2 and a bit hours at the Crowne Plaza netted me a substantial improvement in the overall take.

Now, to Johnno - YES :-) (Mind you I'm pretty sure I had some practice reading that email quite a while back :-) )

To Mark - overdoing it? Well, not really. I didn't know my limits until I tested them. Okay, I won't go out five nights in a row again, but I can do four no worries.

Now today I'm going out, devoid of 21 songs. Yep, I reckon I can't really do the Christmas songs any more. I'm going to pull out the Lennon song "Happy Christmas" and put it into general repertoire, as it's ALWAYS a money song. And has some good messages (War is over, if you want it, etc). But the rest are sadly going to have to go on to the backburner. And I loved doing Rudolph and Santa Claus is Coming to Town. Anyway, there'll be other times.

I've had an incredible boost from playing the Christmas songs, as I'd been listening heavily to good ol' Bing Crosby; and I've been channelling his vocal style. Listening to pitch-perfect singers like Bing, James Taylor and Karen Carpenter is one of the biggest helps in singing. (The other thing is to sing INTERVALS. Singing scales is a complete waste of time. Not many songs have melodies that only leap by one tone at a time. You need to practice jumping 3rds, 4ths, 5ths, 6ths, 9ths, 11ths (3rd+octave), etc, etc, etc. Both up and down. But if you've had a singing teacher getting you to sing scales, you've been ripped off, and probably wasted a lot of time).

So I'm now adding BEATLES songs. I've got a VERY old copy of The Beatles Complete (which is NOT true to label, there are some BIG hits missing, as well as some more obscure songs - I started making a list of missing songs in High School inside the book). So I've been sitting here practicing them. I've gotten up to "Any Time at All" (they're in alpha order) and figured I'm crazy practicing them here, I might as well go out and sit opposite Terrigal beach and get $$ for practicing. Yep, Mark, I often hone my repertoire ON THE STREET. That's the beauty of busking - you DON'T necessarily have to play everything 100% correct.

Problem with The Beatles Complete is that it's sometimes hard to see the S's, the crossed spots, the fines and the "to Coda"s. So I'm taking a pen and a highlighter with me. Up to that point I'd played every song in the book, so there's enough material there to keep me going for probably 8-9 hours. (And no, Mark, 6 hours is definitely my absolute limit, so I might get halfway through the book tonight after 3, maybe 4 hours).

I reckon a Beatles night is just what the doctor ordered. I love em all. Kevin Johnson: "Had all the Beatles records, sounded just like Paul"...

To Sharon: Yep, things are going really well for me at the moment - I wonder when it'll all come crashing back to the ground?

PS - bought another guitar from the Pawn Shop in Gosford today. It's got heaps better harmonics, and a MUCH lower action than the Aldi $99 one. And it was only $129, plus he threw in a hard case (MUCH lighter than the other one I've got) which was marked at $59 for $31 and charged $160 all up. New Year's Eve paid for all that and more. I'm tearing up again.... Bye