Finally got out and DID it

[Lex Brodie]

Last weekend I took the bus up to Mountain View (I live in Gilroy) California and busked. I arranged to stay over Saturday night with a friend, so I busked some Saturday evening, and some on Sunday. It was a slow weekend with not very many people on the street and a sort of subdued feeling. Sunday, it never stopped raining all the time I was there.

I'm a beginner. Been playing the cornet a few months. And hadn't been practicing diligently enough because it's hard to get really motivated here at home. You could tell.

But I can play anything by ear that's within my range once I work it out, and since Christmas carols seemed a bit early, I worked on other stuff.

My average for 7 hours' playing was a bit over $5 an hour.

On a minimum wage job, after deductions, I'd get about $5 an hour.

If I were a kick-butt player, I'd likely have gotten $20 an hour. I was dressed decently, and was not getting sympathy donations. I was getting "hey you rocked the for a bit and that sounded good" donations and "attaboy you're workin' hard" donations.

Mountain View is a pretty expensive place to live. But there's a working-class, "interstitial" population that couch-surfs, rents rooms, etc. I could live on $5 an hour cash, even there. And as my skill went up, my pay would also. Also, once truly skilled, I'd have the option of playing in clubs etc.

I just want to repeat what the old pros here have said: Get out there, and put the time in, and you'll do OK even if you're not to the level of getting all the notes right all the time. And swing. People like it when it swings.