I moved to NYC fairly recently and the other day I saw a street musician playing an electric violin hooked up to an amp. He was doing one of those Ed Sheeran songs. The pre-recorded accompaniment sounded the same as the regular song, and the violin replaced the singing melody part.

Can someone explain this wizardry to me. First, I thought amplifiers were only useful for...amplifying. i.e. They would amplify the violin, or pre-recorded music, but what's the source for the pre-recorded music in this case? Is there some recording device built into some types of amplifiers, because I'm pretty sure there was no other equipment there.

Second, how do they get the "canned music" part so that it only plays the back-up part but not the actual singing? Are there special versions of CDs or whatever they have to buy that only have the backup parts? Or do they (the street musicians) actually record their own version of the backup music to play with for themselves?

I really thought Google could answer this stuff for me but it's proving surprisingly difficult, or maybe I just search bad.

yes they're called backing tracks.. and by the looks of what I saw of a similar setup... he uses an ipad to play the backing track thru the amp, and then has his violin hooked up to the amp as well...



best street performer tho:

lol that Mario guy is amazing, it's a travesty nobody gave him money during the filming of that video.

I was thinking of trying to play music on the street/subway until I find a job since I'm super broke right now, but it looks like I'd have to buy an amp and an ipad just to get started (and maybe make zero $ anyway, who knows how it would end up going), blech.

the street performer business must be really hard these days since there are so many fewer people carrying cash

Try fire juggling, it always seems to be a big hit. A word of advice - your standard alcohol fire can be difficult to see in the daytime. Use grease.

WTF no!

You don't use alcohol or grease to juggle fire. Just juggle and eat leaded gasoline if you are going to be so dense.

What horribly dangerous advice, wow (for those who don't know, fire jugglers use nearly pure paraffin oil).

You'd think so, but this guy was killing it.

Well I don't think I have the ability to juggle, and adding fire sounds scary. I can play violin a bit though, at least enough to get through whatever the current pop song du jour is. It seems like in crowded spaces with no accoustics I'd really need electronics to make the sound pop and get people to notice.

This guy uses a looping peddle:



****

The problem is finding a battery-powered amp that's cheap, which is brutally difficult to find. If you have access to an outlet, you'd want to use it (and get into fist-fights with other buskers for your spot), and try to get at least 20W amps. You can get a good 20W amp for about $150. You really would want one with two inputs, but that will cost extra...

Once you get an amp, you want to get this:

https://www.amazon.com/Hosa-YPP-111-...s=amp+splitter

You'd need a cable. This is the cheapest you should go. Anything less has "major quality control issues" to put it lightly. I use this one and it honestly works better than many $100+ cables:

https://www.amazon.com/Mogami-Silver...i+guitar+cable

You will also need an adapter for your phone / ipad, whatever your canned music source is:

https://www.amazon.com/Aurum-Cables-...1%2F8+to+1%2F4

Doesn't hurt to get extras since they can get lost and stop working for mysterious reasons.

Of course, you would also need a 1/4* to 1/4* cable:

https://www.amazon.com/Anker-Premium...2F8+inch+cable

You also don't *need* to use an Apple. Android lets you drop music files directly on the phone. Even a cheap one sounds good enough if you download VLC player.

Jeez, that's quite the startup cost. I've got 118 bucks and that includes my food budget for rest of month lol. I would either need a pickup for my violin or have to just buy an actual electric violin (I was amazed how some cheap electric violins can be after googling actually, they must sound like **** though).

DaveT what do you play? It sounds like you have some experience with this, can I ask what your hourly is? Are you a really awesome musician or a decent musician who hustles?

Just do some street drumming on buckets. Low start-up costs and no amplification or backing track needed.

No money in violin busking without an amp, though I guess this guy kinda sucks



https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifes...e5f_story.html

I remember that video, he's playing my favorite piece of music actually. Unfortunately he's lacking a strong gimmick:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwYHJPAEpsA

Turns out he made $32 in 45 minutes so I guess there is money in it.

I play guitar. Started when I was in my early 20s for the explicit purpose of playing on a street corner for money. The money really broke down to getting good spots more than talent. One night could have been $100, another night would be $0. Can't predict the crowd. This was all 15 years ago, so not sure what the climate is now days.

There's that youtube video called "music is not a meritrocity," and that's equally, if not more true in street performance. No one is stuck listening to you at all, unlike playing at a bar or wherever.

If you don't have an amplifier, find a doorway that's sunk into a wall and has a ceiling. It will give ample amplification. The upside is that you will get a pulse on how well you may do before going out and investing in a bunch of supplies. For many people, dropping a dollar is automatic. If someone stops and listens, keep on playing like they aren't there.

I never got the impression that solo violinists did very well.

Why ask about my hourly, lol. These days, I just record, toss stuff on youtube, and play on stage now and then. Some people think I'm "amazing" and others think my music is trash... I've been offered side gigs, asked to join bands, and so on, but wasn't interested or able to at the time.

I used to bang on buckets with friends in parking garages late at night because it was loud and echoey and fun. One time some guy walking by threw us a couple bucks and it was a really awkward moment because we weren't doing it for money, and also because we were terrible and just making noise.

Just looking for a data point. Why wouldn't I ask that? Seems like a relevant question for someone looking into doing that to try to make money (obviously you don't have to answer). I just meant hourly for street performing, not other stuff.

Just realized NYC also has a $45 daily fee required for a permit to use amplification lol, f that. Back to drinking gasoline or whatever the other suggestion was.

As I said, the hourly depends on many elements, the main one being how entertaining you are. If you can get people to stop and listen for 2 seconds, you will do well.

The other element is location. McDonald's isn't in the business of selling burgers; they are in the business of real estate. Finding a good spot at whatever day / time is the biggest factor. Counter-intuitively, high traffic places aren't the best places, since everyone is rushing by.

Song selection matters as well. Brown Eyed Girl will probably do much better than Prokofiev's 1st violin concerto.

I can only say what the hourly was 15 years ago, which wouldn't be super helpful today. If you really got good at figuring out the time / location, you can do $100 / hour on a good day, but that was limited to 1 or 2 hours a week. There was very high variance, and overall, the hourly isn't very good if you aren't super-optimized. If you tried for 40 hours a week, it'd probably be less than minimum wage. For the most part, every performer I knew did it more for fun and practice than profit. Chances are, they already had some other income (welfare, ss checks, part time job, etc) and used that extra money for ends.

There are a bunch of people who dress in costume on Hollywood blvd. They appear to make a lot of money, getting their photos taken, hugs, etc, but walk around after dark, and you'll see your favorite cartoon characters sleeping on a park bench.

why not get a job and be a street musician on a side? you can always quit once you become a street legend with wealthy patrons fighting for a front row access

There's this really old school thing that used to be done where you play an acoustic guitar and leave the case laying open so people can toss money into it.

Just play your acoustic violin. It projects the sound, you don't need a pickup or cable or amp.

Yeah I wasn't really planning on doing classical. I was thinking about the issue of what to play, and the problem is that most of the tunes that can "carry themselves" on the violin without accompaniment of some kind (at least the ones I can think of) are classical. Most popular music I can think of just isn't made to sound good on solo violin.

What songs and what areas are the best to play? I am not good but I can learn songs by ear really fast. Should I look for some Irish bar and play Irish music outside of it? Are the owners/managers going to get mad? I saw a cowboy-themed gay bar somewhere, maybe I could try doing country music there. But maybe it's dumb, idk what to do. I saw a guy playing hip-hop stuff at Coney Island who seemed to be doing well, but he was an attractive-looking African American man, so maybe it would be weird if I tried the same thing (spoiler: I'm white).

This is actually the reverse of my idea, I wanted to try and make some money playing gigs until I can find a real job. I don't have any long-term musical aspirations. Where are these mythical jobs at? I'll be certified to teach math by November, I assume I'll be able to find something then. The issue is surviving until that point. Maybe the wealthy students will be fighting over front row access to listen to me explain how to factor a polynomial.

I mean it depends on the location, but for most street-type locations the sound isn't going to project that well IMO, at least not at the radius I'd hope for.

Look, it won't matter. Just set up and play somewhere that has medium traffic. I feel like waxing philosophical about this, but just do it if you really want to.

Standing in front a bar full of drunks is the worst possible place. Don't ever do this. You won't make much money and you are bound to get into fights. I don't know the laws where you live, but I would guess there is a 10ft rule irt to open businesses.

You would want to position yourself somewhere between the bar and wherever people are going next. That means between the bar(s) and the train station, the parking lot, the next strip of bars, or wherever people get into a mental place where they aren't really occupied. Find a place that is fairly quiet and be sure you are in full view of the people walking. They aren't going to stop and listen to you, they are just going to pull money out of their wallet and carry on with their night.

All of this means that you can likely play whatever you want or are able to. Yes, people with amps and a well-known song collection will generally do better (pianists do horrible for some reason), but you really don't know until you try and lick your wounds with some $3 nights.

Amps are more optimal for places with heavy foot traffic, where the musicians can draw crowds, but that's not going to be your thing, as competition will be very stiff. Besides, many people recognize and like the Mozart stuff.

I don't know the NYC music scene at all, but IME, getting gigs tends to break down to finding a network of musicians that you can work with. All I know of NYC is that most networks are created from the various music schools out there, and the musicians who work a lot really know their stuff. This sounds very different than other "music capitols" I've been in, where there is some local work.

I suppose you can find a jam session or meetup group somewhere that you can find others to jam out with. Open mics aren't the worst places either, but really getting from zero to paid gig tends to be a very long road, though you may be at an advantage being a violinist. It's hard to say, really.

Maybe we need to start a musical duo daveT

wat