Steps along the road to musician-hood

For those Luddites security-conscious people who don't use Facebook and therefore aren't seeing my updates, I've been going out busking with some regularity for the past month and a half. Nothing ambitious, just once a week or so, usually for an hour at a time - at that point I've usually fully and completely run out of material, and if I go for much longer my fingers start complaining. Most of the time I play on one of the benches over by the post office; I tried playing on the upper part of Main Street once but had a shop owner give me a snippy passive-aggressive "The polite thing to do would have been to ask before playing on my bench". And frankly, I didn't like having to compete directly with traffic. (Though once or twice a couple of cars with their windows rolled down slowed for a moment to listen. Which was gratifying, but also a little worrying - I'm not trying to create a traffic hazard!)

Aside from the one aforementioned incident, it's been a pretty positive experience all around. Not particularly lucrative - I've ranged from $2 to $11 for my hour - but given that I'm just starting out and this is mostly performance practice (not to mention it's not exactly tourist season), I'm not fuzzed about the money. I have had a number of very nice compliments from people, and it's definitely been a motivator to expand my repertoire. Current projects: "Diamonds and Rust" (oh god all the picking!), "American Pie" (oh god all the chord changes!).

Today was especially interesting. It's been cloudy and sprinkling rain every now and then - pleasant enough for an Alaskan native, but not the sort that really draws folks out around here. So I wasn't expecting to make much during my hour. (The day's total was looking to be a grand total of $1 until a bunch of nine-to-twelve-year-old-looking kids came by with shy smiles and dropped another $3 in my guitar case. Awww.) But I did have a dude stop by, see my "Find me on Facebook!" sign and join my page there, which was awesome. And even better, a couple of locals came up and offered me an actual honest-to-god paying gig! Apparently during the home-and-garden tour in early September, they try to have musicians hanging out in some of the nicer gardens to add ambience. It's $50 for three hours playing for passersby in a pretty garden somewhere in town, with no restrictions on what I can play or really even any rules other than "show up". And I can still have my case out for tips. Sounds pretty sweet.

So, yeah. Achievement Unlocked: Offered A Paying Gig. Now to expand my repertoire a bit more and get my fingers toughened up to where I can play three hours in a go by September...