Busking in Göteborg

The swedish town of Göteborg was the final busking destination of my "One Girl Band" busking and cycling trip during the summer of 2013.

I spent 3 days there, catching up with an old friend back from my days as an exchange student in Montreal, and just wandered around this wonderfull city, my inner busker always on the look out for the perfect spot! The weather during my stay wasn't always the best, but amidst the dull grey skies, the city offered me one of my favourite pics from the entire trip:

The second day I set my heart on the Haga neighborhood, with it's cosy walking streets and handicraft shops. So I decided to set up shop in Haga Nygata:

My busking times in Göteborg are amongst my favourite memories from the trip. In the last couple of days I had been writing a new song, entitled Child of the Universe. I got the inspiration for this one a few days before, back in Norway just before entering Sweden. I had left Fredrikstad and was trying to find a way around to Norway. Coming up to the crossroads I pause to take a look at my maps. This  friendlyguy comes up to me asking me whether I am lost and would need any help. After letting him know that I am ok we start chatting, me telling him about my cycling adventures, and him telling me the story of how he ended up staying in Norway after coming up here as an exchange student from Togo. When I asked whether he missed his homeland he said: "I am a child of the universe,everywhere I am at home". And later as we parted and I was pondering upon which route to take, either the most direct and slightly boring one, or the more scenic/hilly/windy one along the coast, he kept on repeating: "you got to take it easy. I guess he meant I should take my time on the scenic one, which I ended up on.

These two phrases: "I am a Child of the Universe" and "Take it easy", and the philosophy behind them, stuck in my head for the remaining days of the trip to Göteborg, and so on my first day there I put them into a song called "Child of the Universe".

Anyways that day busking in Haga was my first time performing this song to anyone. And I had been playing for a little while by the time I got to this one. But as it came to an end, one of the shop owners nearby just jumped out of here store like a jack-in-the-box and came up to me to tell me she had been listening to me from the beginning and really enjoyed it, but that for this song in particular, she felt she needed to come out and tell me how wonderfull it was, and how good it made her feel. That meant the world to me, it doesn't get much better than that when you play a new song for the first time and don't really know what to expect, or how people are going to react to it. It felt pretty good!

The second day busking in Haga I also remember quite fondly, because that's the day I met Chao Chen, another wonderfull encounter and stranger who happened to make my day. Chao took amazing pictures that day, one of which I later used as the cover for my One Girl Band album.

I don't know what the rules are for busking in Göteborg, but I wasn't bothered by police while I played overthere, but then again I didn't use amplification so I don't know... All I can say is Haga is a nice and friendly neighborhood to be busking in!

Busking in Munster

I stopped for a couple of days in this smaller but very nice city. When I told people I was heading for Munster they told me "Ho you are going to love Munster it's great for cycling, it's like the number 1 german city for that, maybe the only one that compares with cities in the Netherlands." And truly enough there were bicycles everywhere! As usual I headed for the Altstadt, the Old town center, on the look out for a nice walking street where to busk. Here I found two streets: the first was the main shopping street with all the usual shopping stores, pretty busy and noisy. The second one was a smaller and quieter shopping street also, with less passage. This allowed me to conduct a little experiment in Munster: first I busked the main busy shopping street, and it went great, it was a good busking session in terms of income. But it was also streneous for the voice and not that enjoyable because of the noise level. Then later on in the evening (sometime around 6pm I think) I did a quieter session in the smaller and less busy street. Actually at first there was so few people that I wondered whether it was worth it. But as it turned out it went great, and it was much more enjoyable for me too! People would interact more, stop to listen in, and although fewer people gave money in the end it came out the same as my afternoon busking session on the main street because people gave more each time (actually got a couple of 5 euro bills, which goes to show how much they appreciated it). I even allowed myself, for the first time, to do really quiet songs without the whole cajon and tambourin set up for a change, and to my surprise also people listened in and gave a little something for these songs, so that was great! It was also nice to play something else than the major hits I usually play when I am going for making money, because although I enjoy these songs it's nice to play something different every now and then! This is also how I met Ludwig and Julie, who kindly filmed and took pictures :) So all in all Munster was great for busking, and the whole experience got me thinking about my busking strategy: I think from now on I will try and go for more intimate setting in quieter walking streets if possible, rather than the main busy street which, although it brings in money too, doesn't make for such an enjoyable busking experience. Plus I like the fact that people interact more and feel more ate ease to stop and listen in in a quieter setting.

Busking in dusseldorf

On the road to munster I decided to stop in dusseldorf to try out a littlr bit of busking inthe altstadt. It fell a Monday so I wasn't expectng much,but still it was the holidays and there are always people in thr streets. In the early afternoon I found a nice busking spot at the intersection of the two main shopping street. And things started out prrtty well: the location was good because people could see me well, and I ve found that to be pretty important with the one girl band thing because it is also a goodvisual act. There were benches too close buy and people started sitting down around to li st en in. I got a request to do Mrs Robinson by Simon and Garfunkel, and so I improvised something and the chap who had requested it seemed very pleased. Then as I was talking to some people two women from the city council street surveillance service or whatever came and say hi. They explained the rules for busking in the city, which I already new, as I had now learned that the half hour busking rule applied to many pla ce s in germany.like in Koln you can busk bf from every half hour till half past, thrn you have to stop and look for another busking spot 200m away at least, and you can start busking again nth at the start of the next hour. As it turned out they had bf fallen on me at a timr when I was allowd to busk so all was good, I was respecting the rule and all. But they were sort of aggressive about it, repeating like the three times that If they caught me la ter on at that same spot or playin the other half hour or smtg they would confiscate the guitar. It was kind of harsh and it didn't feel very welcomingy! Even the people who were sitting and listening in were ki nd of shocked and took my defense,saying like "yeah ok it s cool she got it you know, she won't play when she sh ouldn't and all" :-) so that was kind of nice! Anyways the problem was th at this spot turned out to be the only good one for me that day, as the others didn t work as well, but I definrtely couldn t take therisk of going back to it after that, although the rule isn't quite clear on whether you can come back to it later on in the day... The thing is I realised lat er that day that local buskers didn't respect these rules at all, so I don't know either it was just bad luck or th ey we re ju st bluffing because hey knew I wasn't from that town! So in the end busking wise dusseldorf was average for me, but the ci ty itself was nice enough and definrtely worth thr stop for a day ;-)

Busking in Koln

My first stop along the Rhine route was the beautifull city of Cologne, where I spent 3 days busking, and meeting all kinds of great artists. Yeap Cologne is defintetly a great city for busking, but there is also a lot of competition. And so you need someyhat of an original performance act in order to stand out.

The busking rule in Cologne (and apparently so in quite a few german cities), is that you can start busking every roudn hour for a half hour, which basically means that you can play from 5pm to 5.30pm, but then  youneed to wait until 6pm to start playing again. This is kind of a strange rule and it takes some getting used to, from a logistics point of view. Basically during the second half hour you go and find your next busking spot, and because there are so many street musicians in Cologne you must get there early for the good spots.

Good busking spots in Cologne generally are the main waliking and shopping streets like Hohe strasse (but it is very crowded and loud), the platz around the Dom cathedral area (but again without amplification it is a great open space so for unimplified ac ts it can be tough to  get heard).

My personnal favourite which worked best for me in the evening was playing on the promenade along the Rhine known as Leypstadel if I remember correctly, because it is quieter, the whole setting is quite beautifull and all in all it seemed better suited to my act.

I met great buskers with great acts in Cologne, especially guys who take down a piano to the streets. First I met Constantin and Jacob, who respectively played the piano and cajon, with a full  size acoustic straight piano: Needless to say this makes auite an impression in the streets. On my second day I had the greatest busking and jamming session on the promenade with these two guys. We had an amazing crowd (actually their were so many peoiple who stopped to listen that others couldn't paas by the promenade any more, so they just had to hang out and listen in too!! I was an incredible night, and the audinece participated too, as Constantin would invite people from the audience to come and sing or play songs of their choice.

On my third day I met Marcel form Netherlands, who takes the concept even one step further by üushing a full sized grand piano in the streets!!! Very very impressive of course, and his playing was brillaint too, so all in all ´he did more than ok ;-) pretty damn well actually!!!

This is what I love about this kind of adventure and travel, it's that you meet so many great people, with so many great ideas, sometimes all crazier the one than the other!!! 

I like the idea of busking with a piano though, I am going to look into that for sure ;-)

And the next stop: Dusseldorf!

Busking in Maastricht

Leaving Belgium, Maastricht was my next stop, and a promising busking location as I had read blogs from other buskers about it.

I arrived there fairly early on on a friday afternoon, so after checking in at the Youth Hostel StayOkay just alongside the river and not far from the town center, I had time to go out and try out a first evening busk.

I found a great spot immediately right at the entrance of the old town, on the street that continues from the walking bridge. There was lots of passage and once again a closed store location made for an excellent spot!

Maastricht didn't disapoint one bit: after the first song, which was Out on the weekend by Neil Young, a crowd had gathered around in a circle, applauded at the end of the song, and money started flowing in! I played there for about an hour and a half and had one of my best busking sessions to date :) Things seemed very promising for the week end to come.

As usual I hadn't really inquired about the rules for busking in Maastricht: I had read stories from other buskers and nobody seemed to know exactly how it works. As usual nobody seemed to bother with a permit and didn't seem to have had any issues, although some said you needed one and it cost about 20 euros, which is a lot!

So anyhow I went back the second day, it was a saturday, to set up my busking rig in the same street as the previous evening, only a bit higher up so as not to bother too much the same shops twice. Again a closed  shop provided a great spot for me.

I'd hardly started setting up that some kind of street patrol guys (not cops) came and asked me if I had a permit. In this kind of situation the only rule is to play nice, and say that basically you didn't know a permit was required to play there. If you are nice about it there usually is no problem, and all you have to do is ak where and how to get the permit, and pack up your stuff. These guys were nice about it and so there was no problem, although they told me that the permit in fact does cost 20 euros. This sort of put me off a bit, but then I thought well maybe this is worth it if I make as much momey as the day before. But the real setback came when I asked where to go for the permit, which is basically the townhall, and they told me it was closed on weekends.

My week end of busking in Maastricht was thus over, as I couldn't get the permit before monday, and monday I had to get a move on towards Germany. This left me fustrated, mostly because the busking would have been great probably, but still I couldn't take the risk to go back without the permit if ever I fell on the same guys again, for this time I would get a fine! (I don't know how much)

It is a matter of luck really, but I learned my lesson in Maastricht: for a big and potentially profitable city on weekends, whenerver it is possible, I will enquire about permits and stuff before hands. Had it fallen in the middle of the week it would have been fine and I would have been able to get the permit, but as it turned out...

Still I got a great busking session out of it anyway, and then made the most of it visiting the town and its surrounding during the week end, thus spending most of my busking sessions earnings, but hey, that's what it's there for right ;-)

Busking in Liege

The next stop in Belgium on my summer busking tour was Liege.
After arriving there in the late afternoon and checking in the local HI Youth Hostel I went on to do my research for a nice busking spot on the next day. I found a couple of walking streets right in the center of town that would seem to do just fine. On the one, called rue du pont d'isle, there was an abandonned shop location wich seemed just about perfect, at the crossroads with another street. Acoustics seemed promising too. So I decided I would try this spot in priority the next day, provided that it would be in the shade in the late afternoon.

I usually busk either during launch time, say between 11h and 13h, because then people come out of their offices and into the street to grab some launch, and so they have both a bit of change on them and some time to relax and enjoy the music. This time I chose my second favourite  time of the day, somewhere between 15h and 18h, which is time of busy shopping and also snack time, so again people have a bit of change to spare maybe ;-) But there I choose it because my elected busking spot was in the shade, and that counts a lot!!!

Busking was good, a bit better than in namur, and I must have made around 35 euros for a bit less than two hours busking. I never do more than two hours per day really because of my voice: I have no amplification and it can get quite tough on the voice singing in open spaces like these, above a cajon, a tambourine and a guitar ;-)

So anyways I would recommend busking in Liege, in either one of the main walking shopping streets. Once again I didn't enquire about a permit or anything but it was ok, I didn't meet any police or anything and had no complaints from local shops, so that' s good!

Busking in Namur

The first stop of my busking tour was the city of Namur in Belgium, where the rivers Sambre and Meuse meet.
I didn't find much information about busking in Namur before getting there but I knew there was the old town north of the river, and usually old towns have walking streets, which are the best for busking, as you have much passage and little noise from traffic. Plus if they want to people can stop and listen very easily.

I happened to arrive there at the beginning of the week, and so my busking days were on monday and tuesday, which is far from ideal. As I feared the streets weren't too crowded, and as it happens the most crowded shopping streets wasn't a walking one, which is saft for that was where most of the people were, as usual.

The only other place that seemed worth it was a square next to a church right in the middle of the old town, with people gathered around terasses for drinks. Normally this wouldn't be my first choice for two reasons: the first reason is that squares are usually quite noisy and there aren't any acoustics to take advantage of when doing an non-implified gig; the second one is that I don't like to feel like I'm imposing on people or anything, and whenever possible I respect their right to drink or eat in silence if they wish to do so, after all maybe they don't care much for music and are looking for a bit of calm and quiet.

But this time I made an exception for I was out of options, and the square seemed big enough so that my acoustic set wouldn't be so loud as to annoy anyone. I was actually worried that it wasn't going to be loud enough!

This was a tough start to my busking tour: I didn't get anything at all for my first 10 to 15 minutes of busking, which is kind of tough! But as any busker will tell you the key to successfull busking is patience and perseverance: you can't let this kind of situation bring you down!

And finally after a while money started to flow in regularly and it was an honest session in terms of income: Although I didn't count exactly how much I made I guessed around 25 euros for a bit less than 2 hours, wich is ok, without being great. I even got one of the wiaters at the tables of the terasses to contribute, which comforted me in the idea that what I was doing was appreciated, and that I wasn't being a nuisance basically!!! Who knows I might even have brought in some extra customers for them too, as quite a few people came to sat down at the tables closest to me to listen in :)

A nice thing about this particular gig too was this other busking girl I met passing buy, can't remember her name though I'm terrible at that, who sat in to jam a little. We did a couple of blues improvisations as she had a fantastic voice for it!

So all in all Namur turned out just fine for busking, I didn't enquire about permits and stuff like that to busk and it was ok, no one bothered me or said anything. I think it can be an even better busking location on the weekend.

Folk Vagabond Bicycle Tour 2013 (following Eurovelo 3)

I have finally decided on a route for this summer's "One girl band kind of deal" busking trip! I'll be going along Eurovélo route 3 from Ohain in France (my hometown) to Trondheim in Norway starting mid July 2013, which is in just 2 weeks from now! 

The idea is to busk (play music in the streets) in the town I'll be traveling through, and sort of finance the whole trip that way. A travelling on a shoestring kind of deal really! 

Below is a map that shows the main routes for the busking trip so you can get a broad idea of the itinerary. And who knows, maybe we'll meet along the way!






Afficher Folk Vagabond Bicycle Tour 2013 (following Eurovelo 3) sur une carte plus grande

Un cajon pliable?

Le souci principal de tout musicien voyageur c'est la place et le transport de ses instruments. Pour la guitare cela fait longtemps que les fabriquants se sont penchés sur la question et nombre de solutions de guitares de voyages ont été proposées au fil des années.

Il en va de même pour les amplis de voyage, des marques comme Roland avec les séries Micro et Mobile Cubes s'en sont fait une specialité, ou encore la marque Vox qui propose des formules d'amplis portables comme par exemple le Vox DA 5. Personnellement j'ai opté pour le Roland Mobile Cube, pour sa polyvalence et son format qui permet de le ranger facilement dans une sacoche de vélo.

Mais quand est-il pour les cajon? Comme je fais un one girl band j'utilise également un cajon en guise de grosse caisse ou caisse claire de batterie, et il me sert de siège aussi, ce qui est bien pratique :)
Seulement  voilà le cajon ben c'est pas super compact, alors au début je pensais prendre une remorque à vélo et le mettre dedans. Mais bon une remorque c'est assez contraignant et si je peux m'en passer je préférerais!

Alors je me suis posée la question d'un cajon de voyage que je pourrais mettre sur le vélo et j'ai fait une recherche sur Google pour voir si des solutions existent. Je suis tombée là-dessus:

Ces cajon sont  pliables, ce qui semble à priori une solution vraiment géniale, seulement voilà pour l'instant impossible d'en trouver y compris à vendre sur Internet. Le nom serait Beat
Si jamais quelqu'un en trouve un faites moi signe surtout ça m'intéresse!

Sinon j'ai également trouvé ceci de la marque J.Leiva percussion:

Cette solution à deux inconvénients: même si c'est rapide il faut monter/démonter le cajon à chaque fois, et surtout c'est cher ( plus de 400 euros le cajon). Ce sont  sans doute de très bons cajons mais bon pour voyager et taper dessus avec une pedale de grosse caisse,ça fait un peu cher le cajon!

Enfin voilà où j'en suis pour l'instant. Si vous avez d'autres idées n'hésitez pas à les partager :)

Folk Vagabond One Girl Band

Avec l'idée de silloner la planète en partageant ma musique je mets sur pied un "one girl band" avec comme objectif de présenter dans la rue et les bars un show à part entière.


Voici les différents ingrédients: un cajon, une pédale de grosse caisse, un tambourin Beatnicker, une guitare, quelques harmos, un kazoo, et last but not least la voix bien sûr :)

J'irai d'abord rôder  dans les rues de Lille en ce début d'été avant de partir vers des contrées de plus lointaines. Rendez-vous rue de Béthune et Grand Place à Lille d'ici peu!









Et comme une petite vidéo vaut bien mieux qu'un long discours sur comment tout ça ça marche!