Hi, it’s spring and I’m busking again,
I wrote about it on the fluteboard
and Loren asked a general question: ‘What
are good tunes for busking?’
I can use suggestions,
so I’m transferring the thread here, too.
I could use suggestions. If you’all have
any ideas of tunes that would work on the
street, even if you’ve never tried,
please post them. I need the money.
Needn’t all be ITM.
Thanks
people like to hear stuff they recognise
Danny Boy?
Yes, thanks. Very helpful!
more, more.
Peter if your children were starving
and your pipes in hock and you had
basically the resources of a G flute,
say, and a crowded street full of
people in a reasonably good mood,
what would you play?
I love playing hymns because I grew up singing them and I like the tunes, and other people seem to like me playing them too.
I’ve always thought might be a good wheeze to sit outside the church and play hymns… all the people inside know them.
In fact many folk tunes are hymns and vice versa… Danny Boy, To be a pilgrim, Greensleeves, Be thou my vision, all pop to mind as tunes people know well and are nice to play on a whistle.
Just about any of the tunes from The Wizard of Oz would work, I think. “If I Only Had a Brain” (or whatever it’s called) is fun to play (no, I’m not a fan of the movie).
Take it or leave it, you’ll find that people will throw money at you for playing Danny Boy or the irish Washerwoman and not for an intricate version of the Buck of Oranmore.
When I was in my teens i did an awful lot of busking, we did a set of Breton music on Biniou and Bombarde which would attract people, get them to stop and listen but they’d pay up only when we’d do a version of Scotland the brave. We did stuff on whistles and banjos and fiddles, for the moneyspinner at the end we’d play the irishwasherwoman and out came the purses.
What I’d do now, probably play what I always play because that is what I do, I’ve given up on thinking what other people might want to hear.
If I only had a brain, Yes.
Hymns, Yes–I wish I knew more.
I’m quite successful with Bach, it seems.
Minuet in G; there’s a tune from the
Easter Oratorio which works well.
Favorite Things goes well.
O’carrollyn’s quarrel with the landlady
goes well.
Soldier’s Joy; St. Anne’s Reel.
Just promise me you won’t do Beatles songs. I propose a 40-yr moratorium on an Beatles songs except those who wish to listen to the original versions in their homes.
I Will is lovely on the flute; also Here, There,
and Everywhere, except for all the half-holing.
Never Smile at a Crocodile.
There are lots of children, by the way,
among my clientele. Yesterday I couldn’t
respond to a request for ‘Barney’s Theme’
to my chagrin.
If Ever You Were Mine
Midnight on the Water
The Leaving of Liverpool
Galway Bay
Waltzs, waltzs, waltzs…I always stop to listen to a waltz but then my friends, while they love me, consider me strange. While you certainly wouldn’t want to have only waltzs, people in love, love watlzs. Just my opinion.
peace
jim d
Since the question is about busking tunes, you have to apply the principals of commerce. Play to the customers. If they’re under 40 inches, you’ve got to know the themes of current favorite programs on the kiddy channels, and a commercial jingle or two. Intersperce those with stuff you like and they’ll love you and stand there while you expose them to some culture or whatever. For the ones with money, be assured the profit makers are the ones you least want to play again.
I don’t busk, yet, so I play what I want, keep my hat on my head, and sometimes pray someone will make me a lucrative offer to go play somewhere else.
Irish Washerwoman
Someone did a killer version of Gershwin’s ‘Summertime’ here once. That would be good to learn.
usually, we just play want we want to play. We do “scheduled” busking at an outdoor farmer market during warmer weather (we’re doing our first one of the season the Saturday before St. Paddy’s day).
We try to do a mix - slow and fast, etc. If there are little kids, we’ll do things where they can dance (I also have shakers and things they can “participate” with). If someone does actually stop and request, we’ll do our best to play it (or we’ll say we can’t, but we can do “XXX” and play that instead).
But - on the subject of “Danny Boy”…we don’t DO Danny Boy. If someone comes up and asks for Danny Boy, Tom points to his hat. It says “Pog Mo Thoin”. Someone else who speaks Gaelic can translate!
Missy
Barney stuff is easy. The tune theme song is Yankee Doodle, and the tune for the “I Love You” song is “This Old Man” (played slowly). Just don’t play either for children over the age of about six, or they will run screaming!
Redwolf
Will keep this in mind. Thanks
Share your partiality for waltzes.
Favorite Things is a waltz, by the by.
I may get shot for this, but the Titanic or Braveheart songs would work well.
The Butterfly seems to have that “popular appeal” to it as well.
I will take unilateral preemptive action to prevent the proliferation of music such as the Barney song.
I don’t speak Gaelic, but I use Google. It means “kiss my [hindquarters]”
btw, did Jim sneak past 4000 posts a while ago and no one noticed???
Ooops, slipped by me too.
Isn’t Danny Boy really London Derriere?
ants: you are correct!
and Jim - yes, that is why we use that phrase for it!
We tell people we will play Celtic (and that includes tunes from Scotland, Wales, Brittany, and Gallicia), renaissance, old time, blue grass, and folk. We do NOT do “American” Irish.
While I do wear green on St. Paddy’s day, I also wear a LOT of Celtic knots, etc. I tell people (even though I know there weren’t female druids) that I’m honoring the older traditions! Tom usually wears orange on St. Paddy’s day, just for the heck of it.
We’re rebels all the way!
Missy