Dear Stav and All,
I spent many hundreds of hours busking most days with the
Shakuhachi in my late twenties (10 years ago), I was unemployed in the
UK at the time and was often busking on an empty stomach for my lunch
and the days fix of tobacco, newspaper and coffee. I was living in an
alternative town (lots of old hippies) which helped. I also busked here
and there in the UK, Amsterdam and Oslo. The more cosmopolitan cities
were better paid. When I first arrived in Japan I tried playing in Ueno
park in Tokyo, but people in Japan don't seem to have a tradition of
giving money to buskers, I noticed this in the UK too... visiting
Japanese tourists often stopped to hear the big ugly foreigner playing
Shakuhachi, but rarely gave me any money. I heard someone say they did
OK busking in Japan, I think you have to know the Minyo (folk songs) and
be able to play requests.
Busking is excellent practise, even if you don't need the money...you
have to play for hours without any breaks, and play loud, and it gives
you a feel for the kind of music people want to hear. Oddly enough I
think I collected the most money playing Rokudan! What you chose to
play also depends on the venue, if people are within earshot for a long
time (in a subway for example) you can play Hon Kyoku, otherwise you'd
better play something snappy and sweet with a melody that's easy to
follow.
However, at that time it's worth pointing out that I wasn't a very good
player (nothings changed there!)... I think someone with a real gift
could play anything and captivate passers by... I don't recall ever
attracting a huge crowd of people who stopped to listen.
Great experience though, possibly the best kind of practise. I humbly
suggest all budding latter-day Komuso should get out there and try it on
the street.
Best Regards,
Bill O'Connor.
-----Original Message-----
From: Stav Tapuch [mailto:tapuch@hotmail.com]
Sent: Saturday, March 23, 2002 7:06 AM
To: Shakuhachi@communication.ucsd.edu
Subject: Busking
I would be interested in hearing about people's experiences in busking
with
a shakuhachi. I imagine that shakuhachi buskers are fairly rare,
considering that this is a very middle class instrument. But the
subway in
NYC seems like such a great acoustical environment for a shakuhachi.
Anyone up to sharing?
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