What is happening in my life right now…

I haven’t written in a while and I apologise for that. Initially, my intentions for this blog were to recycle assignments – academic essays… to prune them down and alter them into interesting yet approachable articles… Somehow the tone of this blog got washed into something that sounded a bit more instructional and probably something that also sounded a bit too opinionated (Should my son/daughter get into music, classical vs. contemporary = war?) … my life has changed a lot in the last couple of months and so I think the contents of this blog will change significantly as well.

Right now, I am not a full time music student. I grew very tired of the demands of being a uni student. In addition to this, the university work and culture, felt at times, too idealistic and too dislocated from the real world. I tend to harp on about how opposed I am to elitism, though it’s strange, now that I have spent some time away from university, I do wonder if I am in fact an elitist.

I am taking this year off to study hospitality management in TAFE (or a technical college – for the readers I know who don’t live in Australia). Food is my other passion and I have always wanted to open up a cafe with classical music events. The change, for the first few weeks, was refreshing… I didn’t have to ponder the abstract, come up with new theories or talk about the ‘isms’ at all. Everything was practical, the culture had an air of pragmatism in it. I loved the sea change, I enjoyed how it was so very different, but in some ways similar to the music-world.

I have now spent two months studying hospitality. The assignments, exams and other assessments are very easy.  The student culture is a bit too pragmatic and I miss conversations about theories, music, ideas and the like. I feet that my brain is not working to its full capacity. I’m beginning to crave stress and pressure in my life. I miss thinking. I miss using my head. There needs to be a middle ground, there is too much idealism in university and not enough pragmatism. Conversely, there is not enough idealism in TAFE and far too much pragmatism (at least to my liking).

I hoping that this blog can reflect this new life and I hope that you readers would be interested in this change of direction/subject matter. I’d like to write more about food and my culinary adventures… I’d also like to write about performing – location, setting and atmosphere. Above all else, I hope to blend my musical adventures with my culinary ones.

Anyway, so my life looks like this at the moment:

- Performing (in quite a few different locations and settings)

- Managing music events with a chamber ensemble

- Piano and singing lessons

- Hospitality classes (learning about business, industry, legislation and the like)

- Working as a waitress/bartender in a fine dining restaurant; sampling food and alcohol

- Writing creatively … My other hobby, I’m going to start doing a creative writing course soon (just to satisfy my mild boredom and dissatisfaction with TAFE)

Why art?

I like writing letters. Thing is, I don’t actually write them. I type them and then hit print. Then I fold up the pages and stick them into an envelope. I guess it’s not really much different to emailing… but emailing feels totally different. I’ve thought about writing my letters by hand, people generally tell me that my handwriting is quite nice and neat and so legibility isn’t really an issue. Having said that, due to my student life taking up a lot of my time; I feel very comfortable with typing. It’s faster and it doesn’t make my hand hurt so much. I wrote this in a letter a while ago to a friend. This friend is a fine arts student. It feels a bit wrong to expose something that is intimate and in some ways a secret to the world (since when do you expose a letter to the cyber world?). Anyway, even though it was addressed to her personally, I feel that I probably would reiterate the contents in a conversation. It was pretty much an opinion piece on the topic ‘why art?’ Enjoy reading.

Why art when we don’t really need more artists? Why art when it doesn’t seem to be as helpful as curing cancer? I think they are perfectly valid things to ask, particularly since my dad is a huge pragmatist, as all engineers are. Mathematics to him and I’m sure also to a great number of engineers, is not about defining and unlocking the beauty of the world into simple, comprehensible equations. Mathematics to engineers is not about exercising the brain and challenging it. To engineers mathematics is seen as a tool used to solve a problem. To the pragmatist, art doesn’t seem to be practical; it would seem to be indulgent and too theoretical. In our materialistic, capitalist society, art is not seen as a real profession, it is not assisting the world in the same practical way that doctors, lawyers, nurses, teachers, and policemen do. It is not seen as a necessity either.

If I would be practical, which I am at certain times, my practical answer to “why art” would then be: art encourages creativity and imagination. Imagination fosters the way to innovation and innovation is not limited to only the arts. It is fundamental to the sciences and almost to any other field, even in mathematics (just think about it, geometry and physics require a person to imagine and think outside the square in a very challenging way!). Art exercises and encourages creativity, innovation and imagination.

Other reasons for “why art?”

   History allows us to see the origins of thinking. We can find where ideas first originated. It gives us insight into the problems of the past and helps us to not make the same mistakes again. History allows us to empathise and it allows us to explore sensibilities, cultures and philosophies of the past. We can compare where we are now, with where we were 500 years ago thanks to history. It validates some of the hardships that people have had to live through; it also validates some of the things people have to endure now due to the mistakes of the past – e.g. war, post traumatic stress disorder and the later generations that have  had to deal with it. History is objective, it is a science in that sense – I guess you could call it a social science. History is not about morals or emotions. The bloodiness of the war, the prejudice we see today is mentioned in history books but it is written about objectively without emotion. There is nothing wrong with this, we need objectivity – it has its place in our world. Art paints history in a subjective way. It allows people to see the disgusting side to war. It encourages people to sympathise, to cry, to feel disgusted, angry and bitter about the mistakes that humanity made. For example, you have probably read “to kill a mockingbird.” It encapsulates prejudice in a way that the reader can relate to, the reader is taken through the story of a man judged purely on the basis of his colour, the ‘artist’ – in this case Harper Lee, paints the story so that it is sad. That is what art is capable of doing, communicating a subjective story that stirs the emotions.

Art also unlocks the beauty in the world. It gives human beings a realm or domain to create and through that they are able to encourage other humans to look, to feel inspired, to be enamoured and to see and appreciate the beauty of the world that they exist in. Art communicates a great deal of things – there was a Japanese film photographer who developed his own photos, he did very well in physics when he was in school but never did extremely well in maths. He admired and envied those who did understand maths, and tried to encapsulate it in his photography. It featured natural simple structures that were so geometrically perfect – a spiral shell, a tree … a few other things I can’t remember but this type of art encouraged people to appreciate the natural beauty in the world, the structures weren’t complicated, they illustrated the golden ratio, something that a person dumb to mathematics can’t understand but that person can still look at and appreciate the beauty in mathematical structures.

  Since the beginnings of human existence, human beings have continuously wanted to create and innovate and so creativity is part of being human. People take up art classes after work, they take music lessons or join choirs for leisure, they decorate their houses and learn to knit, sew and sculpt. Of course, taking part in drawing, painting, knitting, sewing, sculpting is not necessarily art, just like writing about your angst in a diary is not writing literature… but art to me, encourages people to think and also people to create. It inspires people. Art exists because creating, making, innovating is part of being human.

Art gives people an escape. A German philosopher by the name of Arthur Schopenhauer believed that music was one of the best art forms that carried humans away from their toils and problems.  Art can do that, it allows a person to be transported from the trouble in their lives and this is important in a fast paced society. Even from practical standpoint, stress is one of the biggest epidemics in this world. Music, particularly slow-paced music, is known to take away all physiological signs of stress. Other arts also allow for escape. It encourages people to think and to find meaning in their lives. People turn to art for escape, they also turn to art to for meaning, it would seem that this statement is paradoxical or perhaps dialectic … but I think there is truth in that statement.

Anything else to add?

Good vs. Bad music = Classical vs. Contemporary = war?

Not too long ago, I was invited to afternoon tea by an (almost) perfect stranger. Sometimes it can be quite funny how people know me… this (almost) perfect stranger saw me busk and wanted to meet me. She knew one my friends and that friend introduced her to me. About six months later, I am inside her lounge room as one of her many guests, sipping peppermint tea, talking to an older woman, probably in her 70s, who had strong opinions on music – particularly classical music. She talked about classical music as ‘good’ music and expressed belief in the fact that young people need to be exposed to ‘good’ music. I read this post, written by Stephen Fry on language, it was a pleasure to read and it certainly did make me think.

Below is only a small incipit of what he wrote.

“Language is the universal whore that I must make into a virgin,” wrote Karl Kraus or somebody so like him that it makes no odds. One of my favourite remarks. T. S. Eliot said much the same thing in a different way: “to purify the dialect of the tribe”. But is there a “higher language”, a purer language, a proper language, a right language? Is language a whore, used, bruised and abused by every john in the street … is the idea of purifying the dialect of the tribe a poetic ideal or nonsensical snobbery?

And so, as a musicology student, I am left here thinking about music in a likewise manner – Is classical music ‘higher,’ correct, pure, ‘good’ music? Leaving contemporary music (rock, pop, hip-hop, rap, take your pick) to be ‘bad,’ sinful, incorrect and wrong? Or as Stephen Fry so eloquently put it “is the idea of purifying the (music) of the tribe a poetic idea or nonsensical snobbery?” I also find myself thinking on the other end of the spectrum, thinking about my audience, taking a peak into what it might like to be if I walked in the shoes of some of my audience members. I’m sure one of the big questions asked are: why classical music? In the eyes of the general public, it’s a dead industry, not as big or successful as the pop world. Why should we bother to revive seemingly old, irrelevant and outdated music to the general public? Why should we bother to even ‘convert’ people to classical music? Is classical music the superior brand of music? Or is this idea, as Fry puts it “nonsensical snobbery?” .

I am a classical music enthusiast. I spend a lot of my time sharing in it, either as an audience member and listener, performer, presenter, researcher, student, teacher … the list could go on.  For me, the answer to ‘why classical music?’ changes and grows every day. And perhaps that would make my opinion bias then when it comes to answering the questions: Why classical music? Is classical music good music? Is rap music bad? What makes music good? What makes music bad?

The thing is, as a budding musicologist, we are scientists of music. We put aside personal taste and look at music objectively. In my first year, I did a bit of dabbling in the genre Gothic Rock. It was certainly a pleasure to research. It was interesting and enlightening to see how music affects young people. When researching, as scientists, we do not use the words “better,” “good,” “bad,” “dumb” or “boring” to describe music. We assess how music functions within a culture. We analyse music structurally, we gather as much context and history as we can on music. I’ve listened to a lot of ‘weird’ stuff in my first year. Some of it included traditional music of several eastern cultures, avant garde music, atonal music, ‘noise,’ minimalistic music, early medieval music and much more. I don’t think I can ever recall walking out of a lecture and thinking “goodness me, that music was bad.”

Having said that, I understand that my position as a full time music student is different to the position of general music listeners; it is after all part of my ‘job’ to listen to music objectively. For most people, music is a subjective experience and I feel like listeners are entitled to say what they feel. They should be allowed to make statements and judgements about ‘good’ and ‘bad’ music because they are ultimately the consumers. As a performer, I see my position as being a service to them.

Having said that, even though I try to be as objective as I can in my research, I do ultimately have an opinion, or if you want the scientific word, I have an ‘evaluation.’ Alex Ross, music critic and author of “The Rest is Noise” very articulately said in a talk that we cannot sell classical music like we sell cars. We can say very definitely that the new Mercedes model is better than the 1980’s Ford model. However, for music, we cannot make such comparisons; we cannot say “classical music is better than popular music.” Classical music and music in general are not objects. Music is a way of life. I agree with Ross’ statement wholeheartedly and I’d like to add that I think that music in general should not be distinctively categorised under “good” and “bad.” I’m not saying that people shouldn’t have personal taste. I do personally prefer lieder to opera, but I don’t see opera as “bad.” Categorising music under “good” and “bad” imposes that a person’s personal taste is ‘correct’ and superior, it also imposes this stark ‘black and white’ or ‘good and evil’ view to music, which to me conveys a few things: snobbery, elitism and narrow-mindedness.

Of course, I might sound like a paranoid freak saying such things, if my mum was reading this, at this point she would say to me that “people have personal tastes Rebecca, they just talk about it in funny ways.” I’ve seen snobs though, saddens me a little that such snobs will very readily go to my concerts. I’ve spent a lot of time with snobs, those snobs talk about pop music as stupid, not innovative and just boring. I think that is just ridiculous, they dismiss the fact that artists like Taylor Swift can express very effectively communicate some of the struggles of being a teen. They forget that when a person is feeling low, the Beetle’s “here comes the sun” might be the right antidote for cheering a person up. To me, music should be viewed by its function – it should not be categorised under ‘good’ or ‘bad.’

Career Advice … the starving musician myth

I receive a lot of career of advice, generally not from very old people (the elderly, people past the age of 70 or 80). I get loads of advice from middle aged people probably in the 30 -50 age range. As a young, inexperienced and perhaps mildly naive musician I feel like saying a few things. It bugs me a little tiny bit to hear them telling me what to do with my life. I say this because I feel like their views on music careers are narrow, extremely narrow … now I’m not claiming to know everything but seriously there is more to music than performing and teaching. Quite a few of these people are not musicians and yet they feel equipped to tell me what I should do to make money. I understand that these people are well intentioned adults, ones who probably have had the biggest shock of their lives when they brought their first car or house. I’m sure that they want the experience to not be so scary for me, so they load me up with crap-loads of career advice.

There are some middle aged people who I very readily receive advice from. These people are generally my teachers, people who know the ropes, people who are in a good position to give me advice. I do remember very clearly my entrance interview for musicology, I was asked by one of my professors: so what do you see yourself doing when you finish your degree? I said I’m really not too sure since I’m obviously really young but I’ve thought about it and a few things come to mind: teaching, research, music critic. Two years later, I change my mind like the many young people who change their minds!

In saying all of this, I read this post a while back and I couldn’t agree with it more.  Written by Ahmed Fernando Anzaldúa a concert pianist, accompanist and teacher he states:

“A college athlete that exclusively aims to play in the NFL or the NBA is probably setting himself up for failure. However, athletes that gear themselves up to be able to play several sports, teach, train teams and run sports-related businesses are equipped to succeed in their careers. Thousands of music students every year enter the best universities and conservatories with a similarly improbable goal in mind, to join one of the top orchestras or to be a famous soloist. Yet, the odds of attaining a full-time position in a good orchestra or being able to make a career of touring and playing concerts exclusively are astronomical.

A huge demand for music and music educators exists in today’s economy and musicians can make a decent living. Indeed, the myth of the starving musician applies only to those that fail to maintain a suitable level of skill with their performance or teaching abilities and those that fail to engage in multiple aspects of musical life.”

I remember also reading in an article, it was written by the dean of the music institution I go to. It said:

   “Only about 50% of law students go on to a legal career; the proportion of music students who enter the music profession is much higher, probably because of the severe culling process on admission”

The general public however, has a rather narrow view on music.  In the eyes of my mother, father and middle aged friends, signing up to be a musician normally involves only two jobs: teaching or performing. For those who are not good enough to perform, they teach. And that is far from the reality! The first quote by Anzaldúa illustrates the fact that there ARE jobs in music. The problem is people are fussy.  There are people who enter a music institution with the goal of achieving the (almost) impossible – full time work in concert performance.

In saying all of this, there ARE jobs in music. Quite a few people maintain a part time performance schedule as well as a part time teaching schedule. There are opportunities to perform, not just on the concert stage but also in weddings, funerals, in ensembles – large and small, in cafes, restaurants, competitions, churches and the list goes on. Besides this, there are jobs in music journalism – radio presenting, opportunities to do pre-concert talks, writing articles in magazines, writing reviews of concerts. Teaching also should be seen as something not restricted to only private lessons or high schools. There are ‘kindermusick’ programs (pre-school music programs), orchestra and production administration jobs, conducting jobs for youth orchestras and choirs, music appreciation courses, examining, lecturing and tutoring in universities… again the list could go on. There are jobs for session musicians, accompanists, jobs in arranging music, also jobs in music therapy. I haven’t listed every single music job, but you get what I am saying… the jobs in music are plentiful. Most music jobs, with the exception of teaching are not stable, full time, 9-5 jobs and so a number of musicians teach (for their base income), and all the rest of the jobs are freelance jobs.

Being in a music institution equips one with the skills to be a well rounded musician. When they finish music school then they would be able to utilise their skills and find a job. All in all, is it impossible to find a job in music? Nope, not at all… It really depends on how fussy you are. I’m sure a few readers would be thinking “but how about such and such who works as a reserve for this orchestra who can’t find a job…?” it really depends on how fussy John Smith is but I’m sure he isn’t on welfare or on the streets… I’m very sure he’s teaching or keeping some sort of a musical day job! My very first music ‘job’ was in busking … I was 17 and I got paid $87 over an hour and fifteen minutes, I’m seriously not going to complain over that!

Should I encourage my son/daughter to do music? How became a musician … my choice

As the semester comes to an end, I am left once more to ponder on what to do with my spare time. I’ve been also pondering over what will happen next, when I finish my degree, what will I do afterwards…? Will I be jobless? Or will I be fortunate enough to have some sort of a job that has to do with music? Occasionally I hear this line from parents: should I encourage my child to be a musician? I don’t claim to be the expert at all on parenting but I’d like to share with you my own personal experience.

I come from a not so wealthy middle class background. I started piano lessons at eight and both my parents were not very ideal when it came to handling my musical upbringing. My dad would normally drop me off to piano lessons and my mum usually spent most of the week nagging, telling me that I should be practicing the piano. To an eight year old, practicing the piano is a chore, sitting down for half an hour is bloody boring and there are always better things to do (e.g. watching tv, playing with the neighbour’s cat, going to the park). If I could go back in time, one of my parents would have sat down at the keyboard with me to supervise practice. This ensures a few things 1. Practice would have happened 2. Practice would have been productive 3. I’d be motivated to practice because SOMEBODY took an interest in my piano playing. I’m not saying that parents in general are like this, mine were and so piano lessons did not last for very long.

So how did I end up in music since I stopped piano lessons at eleven? When I was twelve I entered high school and everybody was learning how to play “Ode to Joy,” “Mary had a little lamb,” and a bunch of other easy pieces. I didn’t go to a high school with a great music department. I didn’t even have great music teachers in high school. Since I had already taken piano lessons, music class was VERY boring to me. I remember playing a C major scale hands together over two octaves.My music teacher was impressed, very soon she left me with a book. I was self taught for a few years and I refused to do formal piano lessons since I didn’t have the greatest past experience.

A few years later, when I was fourteen I realised that I really needed a teacher. There is so much you can teach yourself, after a while it helps to have somebody there to guide you. My mum also brought me a piano at that age (I was using a keyboard before) and in a week’s time I called around for a piano teacher. I found one and then I quit because she wasn’t really the best teacher for me. I found another teacher and stuck with him for two years until I realised that we weren’t getting anywhere.

My music education seems to be far from polished. My dad in particular never encouraged me to be a musician. He told me that it was a waste of time and that my chances of employment were very slim. He always told me that I should be studying,  so I’d do very well in the HSC and then I’d get into science or medicine, or something that equated to a stable job with a good income. I took singing lessons later, when I was sixteen. And my mum had this image in her head that I was going to be famous, sleeping around and either taking drugs or in rehab. I begged for singing lessons and when she finally gave in, the first couple of weeks were spent with her in wonder of whether I should even take singing lessons. She felt that they were a waste.

Did my music teachers encourage me much in pursuing music? Did they tell me that I was talented and that it would be a waste of talent if I didn’t do music? I ended up finding the ‘teacher of my dreams’ (a phrase that Joan Sutherland once used!) this was in piano. I’m still taking lessons with this piano teacher today (not much time has elapsed; I’m nineteen years old now). He never forced me into a music career. He always supported my endeavours and decisions in all my interests, even the non-musical ones. When it came to crunch time and it was time for me to audition, he was there as my accompanist. I always felt that the choice I was making was my own, and I was always determined to do music, despite the fierce opposition from my parents!

Perhaps it was my strong will and personality that led me to ‘follow my dreams’ and do what I love doing. Music is a very competitive field, it’s not for everyone and I can respect that. I hear the question: “should I encourage my son/daughter to be a musician?” a lot. I’d like to answer it a few ways. If your son or daughter is as determined as I am, and I’ve seen it in quite a few musicians who I study with, they will fight and nothing could probably stand in their way. I know people who are mature aged students, people in their 30s some even older who work very hard and study music at an undergraduate level! I’d also like to say that for those who end up in music, it’s not easy. It was very hard for me to get into a music institution. When I finished high school; I needed an ATAR of 80 and above. As soon as I finished my last HSC exam, I spent a lot of time preparing for an audition, two interviews and music skills test. I also sent in a 7500 word paper on music.

Once I made it in, I still had to work very hard. There were people who went to specialised music high schools who have had it easier than me. Quite a few people had been in youth orchestras and choirs all through their lives, they also have had the best music teachers ever since they were eight years old! I worked very hard and scored a few credits in my first year.

I don’t claim to know all the answers… I am quite young and perhaps too innocent and naive. Still, I feel like 2 years of uni and ten years of music lessons leaves me in a position to say a few things. I really don’t want to come across as the person who tells you how to raise kids without having raised kids myself! I think it is totally legitimate to worry about what happens to little Johnny or Mary when they finish school… when it comes to employment, music is known to be not so secure, and so it’s very legitimate to fret over whether or not they are going to end up in music!

If you are worried that your son or daughter will end up in music, don’t. I say this because only two things can happen. 1. They end up in music. If they do, then they would have done so under A LOT of hard work and determination. Also, if you are worried about employment, my next post will be dedicated to career advice… (It’s not as bad as it looks is all I’m going to say for now) 2. They don’t do music. This could be because of the fact that they are interested in other areas and they don’t want to put that much work into music. Or they may change their minds. If this is the case and you have paid large dividends on music lessons, it was not a waste. This deserves a whole post, but really their work was not in vain. They will probably still find happiness in making music and pursing it as a hobby. They will have a creative outlet for the rest of their lives!  Besides this, if worse comes to worse and your kid ends up in music, screws up, decides half way through his/her music degree that it’s not for him/her there are plenty of other jobs to look into!

“You really should have done medicine”

I get that line a lot, I also get the alternate “you really should have done science.” If it’s not already obvious in the former blog entries, I am a very curious person. I read a lot and quite a lot of what I read is outside of my specialised field. The topics are broad. They range from the biographies of serial killers to cat breeds. If I ever do begin a discussion, and I don’t mean small talk, I mean something meaty and thought provoking. If I just so happen to be talking about science to a scientist/science major I will often get this line “you should have done science/medicine.” The line really does drives me insane, it makes me irritated, angry, passionate and a bit depressed all at the same time … maybe I’m reading into this too much, my mum tells me that I should seriously calm down and take it as a compliment – after all they’re implying that I am smart aren’t they?

I feel like that there is this perceived hierarchy of careers and whenever somebody says to me “you should have done science” I feel like it’s just reinforcing that science is way more important than music and it’s reinforcing this perceived hierarchy. At the top we have doctors, and then we have people who work in health or medicine. Next to that, we have lawyers because well they are notorious for making a truckload of money. Musicians probably appear to be at the very bottom next to the garbage bin collectors. I am not saying that doctors aren’t important… I’m not implying that musicians should be at the top either… but I really hate this whole hierarchy business. Yes, I do understand that in the music world, we are a bit overcrowded. We don’t necessarily NEED more musicians as much as much we need people to work in health or science. After I watch young children or teenagers perform music, I rarely ever hear “you really should consider doing music.” What I don’t understand is why do we have to see our scientists as the ideal of all jobs? And why should we rate importance anyway?

My father, a man of equations and science loathed the idea of me ever becoming a musician. He works in engineering … and told me that literature, music, anything that is categorised under ‘arts’ is frankly just bull. I tend to reason on this on a number of angles – What I like to ask in return is: What is the purpose of life when we are all going to die? What is the point to a sunrise? We didn’t need to exist… we don’t even need to survive. In order to survive, yes, we do need doctors to fix us up, and it is amazing what medicine can do, but once we are fixed up, once we are living, we leave our doctors don’t we? We continue to live our lives working and enjoying it.

Music is one of those things that makes survival worth it, it’s one of those things that does more than just entertain and relax or soothe a person, it communicates emotion, thoughts, ideas, it scares people, it brings back memories, it makes people laugh, makes people dance, it puts forward philosophies, ways of perceiving and thinking.

Also, I think we should try to break away from this perceived hierarchy of careers as much as we can. It makes me feel lousy sometimes … and just bad to hear that I should have done science or medicine. I feel like that person is implying I’ve made a dumb life choice and what I am doing is really not important. I’ve always thought, if we were to remove one job, one job that is generally not realised all that much – let’s say truck drivers. They work very hard, delivering masses of products. If we didn’t have truck drivers can you imagine what would happen? Maybe a week, two weeks, maybe even a month, shops would be stocked … but what happens if they are empty? Famine perhaps?

I have tremendous respect for people in any job or field, I really hate looking at the world through a smart/dumb lens, makes me miserable. I’m doing a concert in three weeks; all I am thinking about is the amount of amazing skill that was involved into making this happen. I had my uncle, who works as a tailor make me a dress, my friend who is a student photographer take promo shots, a graphic design friend who made the poster, the cafe manager who is going to make coffee and snacks so the audience can fill up and be content … there’s a lot more when I think about it and I won’t list every single occupation in the world but I do believe that I am doing something important and I believe that the people involved are just as important as I am, if anything, they are more important, without their assistance, there might have not been a concert! More than this, I love being a musician, I love my job a lot … or perhaps not a job yet, I’m still a student … I love what I am studying and at this point, although I am very curious on scientific matters, I don’t think I’d give up music to pursue science!

Busking Diaries – No. 2, the good, the bad the ugly

Busking is certainly never boring, it is always interesting and fun. This post will be full of anecdotes.

I was busking in front of a local plaza, I was very lucky that day as I received forty dollars in notes, and another forty in coins and this was all in an hour! I thought that the people in this area must really like me! I guess you can’t appease everyone though. I say this because a young boy threw a scrunched up paper ball and said “booooo,” and this was actually my very first “boo.”

A little girl, probably three years old, dropped and dollar and said to me “you are a good singer.”

A grandfather gave his four year old grandson a dollar. The grandfather told his grandson to “give it to the girl” but the boy proclaimed “No… I don’t want to give it to her.” His grandfather ended up dropping the dollar into my basket and we ended up having a good conversation.

The first time I ever started busking was enjoyable … at least sort of enjoyable. An old German man, in his 50s at least gave me a 20 dollar note. I was so pleased! Afterward, he gave me his number and said to me “lunch, is on me!” I tried to decline politely but he kept urging me to have lunch, my mum was nearby and it was in a public spot so I figured it can’t be unsafe. I took my mum along and he handed me a ten dollar note, I refused telling him that he was too generous but he then said to me “young girl should not sing on the street” … he told me that he was a singer who used to sing publicly but not on the street and he also told me that he could write songs at the drop of a hat. He started singing and his voice didn’t exactly sound ‘nice.’ … I don’t really know what to think…

An old man give me a $50 note and then talked to me about his grandson and told me to think about meeting him… Also told me that his grandson was single. I didn’t know how to decline after receiving such a generous donation! – I didn’t end up meeting his grandson, I just told him I’ll have a think about it and thankfully I never saw him again!*

One time I recieved a rose. What made me happier was that the cute, young boy who gave me the rose did not give me his number! It was given to me out of pure admiration, not with the incentive to go out with me !

Two drunk guys, extremely drunk, staggered towards me and asked me “what are you doing?” I replied “I’m singing.” Which prompted them to say “give us a song.” I started singing and they nodded their heads up and down sort of violently, it’s hard to describe without me demonstrating it, put it this way, their bodies sympathetically nodded with their heads. One of them told me “you’re good, sorry we don’t have any money, but we just want you to know that.”

I read somewhere in an article, a musicologist talked about the behavioral factors that define pop and classical music, one being that popular music is about audience participation – hands are thrust in the air, glow sticks and mobile phones are swaying, people are dancing – people physically react to the music, whereas classical music involves the audience sitting down and just listening to the music. An interesting definition, I’m not sure if I agree with it. I say that because once when I was busking, an older man approached me, threw some money and then stopped and listened. He didn’t just listen, he reacted to the high notes by thrusting his arms in the air and opening his mouth in awe and in the sentimental passages he put his hand up to his heart!

I know I’ve mentioned this one before in my last post, but I think it bears repeating… it tends to make people laugh. A young boy approached me and said

“Excuse me what is your name?”

“Rebecca”

“Ok Rebecca, I don’t have any money but I want you to know, if you have faith in God everything will be o.k.”

“Um, o.k. … thanks… “

A certain man approached looked into my direction for a little while. When I finished singing I said a quick ‘hello’ to him and he asked me “are you saved?” I replied “um, yes I am actually” which prompted him to shake my hand.

I busk in a certain location fairly regularly… behind me there is a church and a certain middle aged lady regularly attends that church when I busk. She never looks happy, she’s always looking at the ground and frowning. Once she said that me “you shouldn’t be on the streets singing, you should be working and earning your money.” When ever I see her now I make eye contact and smile at her… she never smiles back.

Not a busking experience but something close. I performed at a nursing home voluntarily. Afterwards the staff presented me with a token of appreciation. I unwrapped the gift later on – it was a tin of biscuits and a golf ball … quite different to flowers but I appreciate the sentiment!

A teenage boy, carrying a guitar, approached me and told me he was a student completing his HSC and doing his major works in composition. We exchanged emails and now are good friends. He told me later on that on that day, he reckoned I deserved a note but only had five dollars left on him, he wanted to leave me his email address but didn’t have a pen, so he went into a shop and brought a pencil, wrote his email address down, was going to give me the rest of his spare change but realised he had to use it for the bus! I didn’t get much that day, but what he told me made me very happy!

*DISCLAIMER. I don’t want to create the impression that it’s all about the money. It’s not. Yes, I do it to get some pocket money, but at the end of the day, when I count all the money, I forget about which face gave which amount. I’m doing this because I love it a lot, I love music, I’m a classical music enthusiast and it’s so enjoyable to crush the uptight and snobby connotations we hold to classical music. I do appreciate very much donations in notes and I remember the regulars who give as well as the ones who stop and talk to me or say some nice words, but I don’t attach their worth in accordance to the donation they gave.