Busking is a great way for solo musicians to promote themselves, refine their craft, and even make some money. In fact, there are professional buskers the world over who have turned their street performances into a lucrative career. Tash Sultana, for example, Australian looping guitarist extraordinaire, got their start busking in the streets. Many cities around the world have a lively busking scene, particularly in wealthier countries like the UK, US, and Australia.
If you want to start busking, there are a few things you should make sure you’re confident with beforehand. This handy checklist should provide you with an easy way to get going.
How to Start Busking
Portable, reliable gear
Musicians who are playing regularly at licenced, dedicated venues have a few advantages. Venues often have their own PA (sometimes they even provide drums and amps!), and they tend to be indoors, protecting your valuable equipment from the elements.
For buskers, both aspiring and professional, you have to provide your own gear. That means it needs to be portable, as you’re likely to be carrying it yourself. Playing outdoors means you’ll need some kind of amplification system, preferably one that you can power with a reliable battery.
You’ve no guarantee of a power point where you can plug your amp or PA in. Your gear will also need to stand up to the elements. It doesn’t need to be waterproof, but it needs to be able to survive the increased wear and tear that comes with performing outdoors in a dusty, polluted, windy environment, potentially for up to six hours at a time.
Your busking equipment has three important criteria: portability, durability, and reliability. It’s worth spending a little more on a portable PA with a rechargeable 12-hour battery, for example, so you can always trust it to do the work.
Know the rules
Depending on where you live, you might need a permit to start busking. Many cities, particularly those with a strong tourist presence, have strict regulations regarding street performers.
You might think that the human statues, fire jugglers, and omnipresent boombox dance crews just set up shop and start performing. The reality is that in many cities, public performance requires a permit from the government, or the relevant local authority.
Some city councils have dedicated bureaucracies specifically addressing the enquiries and requirements of street performers. These rules vary from city to city, as do the fees required to keep them up to date.
Public transport stations are a popular option for buskers, but in some areas the public transport authority can detain you for performing there without a licence.
This leads us neatly to…
Know your area
As a busker, you’ll want to research which times and places yield the best results. As a general rule, more pedestrians = more money and a bigger audience, but you might find better results targeting your audiences than simply going for the big ones.
In cities like New York and London where virtually everybody takes the underground (New York’s subway or London’s “tube”), these public transport hubs are considered prime real estate by any and all street performers.
Solo guitarists often set up near the mouth of the station where people get out. Close enough that pedestrians can hear them, but not so close that they’re getting in the way, or at risk of angering station security.
Some areas also restrict how long you can perform for in a single spot, so you might be moving around quite a bit every day. It might not be very “rock and roll” to research local council regulations, but most street performance regulations are there to make the lives of pedestrians and performers easier.
Know the rules so you can follow them and minimize hassle from the local authorities.
Know your set list
Buskers generally have to play for longer than other musicians. You can’t just do a 30 minute set at a DIY house show and drink beers for the rest of your night when you’re busking in the street.
You’ll be in the streets, serenading the masses, and you need to be prepared. You need to have your set list prepared in advance so you know which songs you can play on the fly.
It’s much easier than thinking you can just “wing it”. As you play your setlist, pay attention to which songs garner attention from pedestrians, and which ones get ignored.
If you can work out which songs and styles of music get the most attention, you’ll be able to really maximize your performance time. Also, remember that people will usually only stick around for a few songs at most, so don’t worry about playing the same songs a few times throughout the day.
Memorize your songs
Unless you’re headlining the main stage at Coachella or Glastonbury, you probably don’t have a teleprompter handy for your performances.
Some performers prefer to use an iPad or similar tablet to read their charts and lyrics from, and many classically trained musicians can only perform if they have sheet music in front of them.
But you’re not Sir Elton John, and you aren’t performing to an opera house full of tuxedos. You’re busking, and that means that you want to minimize the amount of stuff you have with you. Your performance needs to be more spontaneous and reactive.
Think about it this way: if you’ve buried your head in sheet music or you’re staring at your iPad looking for the next chord change. You won’t be able to engage with your audience as well. If you bring a book of sheet music, we can personally guarantee that the wind will disperse your papers.
An additional stand for your charts is yet another thing to worry about carrying. If point one didn’t make it clear enough, you’ll recognize very quickly how valuable portability is when you’re busking.
Take the time to memorize the music you’ll be playing. It will make you a much better musician and it will improve your performance. It will also make your life as a performer that much easier.