Things that Bemuse Me #2: The Busker and his Stingy Audience

Busking is something that most musicians do at some point - be it for experience, pleasure, or the money. Personally, I think that walking through streets in iconic towns and cities such as York or Beverley without being surrounded by music would be the end of the world.

 

© chrisjohnbeckett at Flickr

Sadly, in many places, especially Hull, people don't stop to reward the musicians, but instead just walk straight by. We've really got to the world where many people are too busy to even stop for even one moment to listen properly and admire good musicianship. Would it kill people to just throw in 50p, or even less if they don't have that much on them? Even person walking by gave the musician busking even 10p it would at least be something.

For me, I almost always give any busker I see some money, and usually at least £1. Quite often, if they're selling CD's I buy those too, just to show support for local artists. It shocks me to see how many people don't.

The other day I was out with a friend, and after walking past a hipster playing the guitar he turned to me and said, 'I didn't personally give him money because his strum pattern is rubbish'. Despite the fact that this friend of mine is a guitarist, I couldn't help but feel saddened by the fact that it has come down to such a trivial matter. As we walked down that street, at least 40 others passed the boy, and not a single person stopped to listen.

Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of people who do give money. It's just personally I feel that especially where I live, buskers are frowned upon.

Why do people behave like this towards street musicians?

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Things that Bemuse Me #1: The oxymoron that is... The Hipster

Everywhere I go I see wannabe hipsters, and it annoys the hell out of me. Not going to lie, I love how they dress, but what annoys me is that they look practically identical.

©Neil.sadler Flickr
If I am not mistaken, the whole point of being 'hipster' is to be different to everybody else - not 'mainstream'. In a way, I agree. I mean ew, who would want to be a mainstream skin-ginger-slag? The problem is though, they try to look different by looking the same. Baggy trousers, smart shoes, flattering tops shaped loosely, statement jewellery, 'unusual' died hair, piercings, hats, big glasses etc. This is not being 'different'. Not if every hipster looks like this.

Another thing that the stereotypical hipster does is look for music and hobbies that aren't 'mainstream'. For example bringing back the awesomeness that is reading, and searching out indie bands that 'nobody' knows. The problem being that all most of the hipsters listen to these bands, and therefore they cannot say that nobody knows them.

To clear one thing, I have no issue with hipsters. If you want to dress/act like that, what business is it of mine? Hell, pastel hair and piercings unf. I just feel like people take themselves far too seriously, and for what reason? Life is fun, enjoy living like an oxymoron, just understand that you are, indeed, making things mainstream.

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Artist Profile: Thisbe Vos

I sincerely apologise for the delay, things have been more than a little hectic, but I shall be coming up with a structured posting schedule soon.

Name: Thisbe Vos
Country: USA
Instrument: Vocals
Genre: Jazz
Facebook | Twitter | Website


The soothing vocals of Thisbe Vos leave you captivated and needing to hear more. Her voice is graceful yet raw and flawless, with a gorgeous tone to her voice that is similarly found in the jazz legend Ella Fitzgerald. This is hardly surprizing, as it is stated on her website that she draws her inspiration from her.

I can honestly say that she is one of the most incredible jazz singers in the modern times, most definitely in my favourites. Her voice is full of emotion and she showcases the songs perfectly. I have even dropped a tear or two listening to her, and that means something. If you love trad jazz, you should most definitely check her out. In fact, scrap that. Even if you don't like jazz, her performances will surely make you a fan. You're a fool if you don't go and listen.

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'Wipe the mark of madness from my face~'

Tomorrow I will have a lovely artist profile on Thisbe Vos for you, but for now all I shall do is ramble slightly. Like I said, this blog documents my musical journey, so therefore I'm allowed to ramble.

Well, I think one could safely say that yesterday was the best day of my life, despite the fact that I actually 'forgot' to sleep the night before. I say 'forgot' but really it was just my insomnia, and in fact I spent the whole night on twitter which is never healthy. But anyway, I was happy because I got mention from the Filipina singer Sitti who is like an idol to me. Everybody has an artist or maybe even more who they aspire to be like because it's part of your musical persona, how you learn your tastes and styles, and for me that is her.

The second fabulous part was that I became number 1 locally in the jazz charts, with my song 'Your Only One'. Obviously, this is a big achievement considering who I am and what I've been through.

Anyway, I'm currently working on some more songs which I'll upload very soon, and I have some small gigs locally so things are great in that department.

If you'd like me to review your music or and do an artist profile of you please feel free to comment.

As a final note, I'm working on getting my Facebook profile smartened and more full of content, feel free to take a look: http://facebook.com/AstridGwynedd

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Sick Days

As you possibly know, I've been out of action with the flu and a nasty throat infection for the last two weeks, (hence my frequent blogging). Now, obviously this has been a downer on my music-making abilities, and I've been falling behind with my request list of covers. However, I've found that it has almost also been quite useful.

Instead of just lazing around for the full two weeks, I put my time to use and I listened to some of my roughs, my covers, and of course Your Only One. Not to say that I didn't laze around, I did *cough* watch all of season 6 and 7 of NCIS, but I listened back on these old things and I wrote feedback on each one. First, I wrote things that I liked about my songs, as my violin teacher always taught me to look first at the positive things because every performance, even if sung by somebody who has the voice of a strangled cat, has to have one positive thing about it. Then, I wrote everything I didn't like about it and everything I want to work on for live performances and recordings. For example, I hate my pronunciation of the word 'my'.

It may seem stupid, but little things like that often get forgotten and can make all the difference. I've realized that there is a lot I want to work on both vocally and instrumentally, and I know that if I focus on those specific areas, my recording and performance will become much better.

After I'd finished my self evaluation, which I kid you not, took me HOURS, I asked my brother to do an evaluation. Now, obviously I wasn't going to ask him to do it in the same depth, but I just asked him to pick out one thing that he liked and one thing that he didn't about each song, to see if we had chosen the same areas or if he spotted something entirely different. Of course, people have different musical tastes and biases and levels of training - I mean, my brother is classically trained like myself but loves electronic game music. This will only broaden your understanding of how people interpret you as an artist though, and while you might not necessarily agree with what they say, it won't harm you to know. I highly recommend doing this as it can certainly produced a much more polished, professional sound.

As a bonus, I'll tell you since I got my voice back, I did record this. You can hear an example of my strange 'my'.

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