If you’re a professional busker, you want to make money doing what you love. But if you want to make the big bucks, you need to do things right. Here are five tips that will guarantee your success as a professional street performer.
1. Choose a pitch
2. Have the right attitude
3. Be ready for anything
4. Bring the right music
5. Have business cards on hand
This is an excerpt from Are You a Professional Busker? 5 Tips to Guarantee Success: A blog about how to be a successful busker.
Many people have a dream of being a professional busker and making their living as a street performer. But how do you get there? What are the steps to success? And how can you guarantee success?
The first step is to make sure you’re actually ready for this kind of career change. Here’s five tips to guarantee you’re prepared:
1) Practice your craft, and then practice some more.
2) Take your act on the road.
3) Get out of your comfort zone.
4) Keep practicing and keep learning.
5) Never stop dreaming!
Are you a professional busker? Do you have a dream to one day be a full time street performer?
I’m sure you have heard the saying, “You can’t be a starving artist.” Well, there is no profession that exemplifies this more than being a professional busker.
Most performers don’t start out as professional buskers. It takes years of practice, hard work and dedication. Most people that do give it a try try for only 2 or 3 days and then quit. They might think they are not good enough so they never become professional buskers.
You’re convinced that you have what it takes to be a successful busker, but are you really ready to take the plunge? Do you think you have what it takes to be a professional busker? To help you answer these questions, we’ve come up with a few tips that should guide you on your way. Take a look at the advice below and see if you can check off each item on this busking preparation list.
1. Choose Your Location Wisely
When it comes to choosing a location for your street performing, not all spots are created equal. You want to make sure that you will be seen and heard by passersby. Try not to set up where there is already an established performer or too many other street performers around. Popular tourist destinations are great places to perform as there are usually large numbers of people milling about, but they can also be highly competitive areas so keep that in mind when scouting out locations.
2. Keep in Mind Local Busking Laws
What’s the good of picking out the perfect spot if you’re going to get kicked out or fined? Research local laws before setting up shop and make sure you abide by these laws at all times. If there is no law in place for street performance in your area, then don
British songstress Adele recently went undercover as a busker in New York’s subway, dressed in a wig and sunglasses.
In the video above, she performs her hit song “Hello” with a guitar player and collects a few dollars from some excited passers-by. The video was posted to her official Facebook page on January 26th and has since been viewed over 40 million times.
Many of the comments on Adele’s Facebook post are from people who didn’t recognize the singer at first.
“It wasn’t until I saw one of the subway workers ask if he could take a selfie with her that I realized it was Adele,” wrote one viewer.
Adele is far from the first famous musician to go undercover as a busker. In 2013, country music star Garth Brooks performed as Chris Gaines at an outdoor concert in Nashville. He sang several songs, including his hit “Friends in Low Places,” before revealing his identity to the crowd.
The best part came when Brooks asked someone in the audience to sing “The Dance” while he accompanied him on guitar, resulting in an unforgettable duet between strangers.
1: Make a good song choice – It’s all about the song, it really is. You need to find a piece of music that will work well on the street, and be able to carry it off vocally.
2: Crowd participation – If you can get your audience involved in what you’re doing then you’ve won half the battle. Better still if they’re all singing along!
3: Choreograph your performance – If you’re singing in a group then make sure that your dance moves are choreographed and rehearsed well.
4: Interaction with your audience – This is key for me, I love to see buskers interact with their audiences…whether it’s by making eye contact or handing out percussion instruments for them to play along.
5: Have fun – It seems obvious, but I think it’s essential that if you’re going to perform on the street then you have fun whilst doing so. Don’t let criticism get to you, just smile and sing 🙂
Last week I had an incredible experience. I was walking down the street and heard a guy singing on the corner of my street in NYC. He sounded so good that I stopped and listened to him. In fact, he sounded so good that I took out my phone and recorded a quick video of him. Here’s that video:
His voice is amazing!
I’m not sure who he is but he seems like a professional singer to me.
What do you think?
This is a great example of how social media can help promote your music career, even if you’re not a famous artist. It’s also a good example of why you should always have high quality recordings of your live performances. You never know when someone might record your performance and post it online for all to see!
If this guy is reading this blog post, I’d love to know more about him so please comment below or contact me directly via email (see below).