What are we missing?

[ysabetwordsmith]

This popped up on the Cybermind list. *chuckle* If it had been me, I probably would've stopped to listen. I like violin well enough, but I love busking in general; any good player will usually get me to stop for a song or two unless I'm really rushed. But Doug is always with me, and he's an avid fan of classical music. He'd stop for sure. And both of us tend to throw money in the hat.

A man sat at a metro station in Washington DC and started to play the
violin; it was a cold January morning. He played six Bach pieces for
about 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, it was
calculated that thousand of people went through the station, most of
them on their way to work.

Three minutes went by and a middle aged man noticed there was musician
playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then
hurried up to meet his schedule..

A minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a woman
threw the money in the till and without stopping continued to walk.

A few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to listen to him,
but the man looked at his watch and started to walk again. Clearly he
was late for work.

The one who paid the most attention was a 3 year old boy. His mother
tagged him along, hurried but the kid stopped to look at the violinist.
Finally the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk turning
his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other
children. All the parents, without exception, forced them to move on.

In the 45 minutes the musician played, only 6 people stopped and stayed
for a while. About 20 gave him money but continued to walk their normal
pace. He collected $32. When he finished playing and silence took over,
no one noticed it. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.

No one knew this but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the best
musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever
written with a violin worth 3.5 million dollars.

Two days before his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out at a
theater in Boston and the seats average $100.

This is a real story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station
was organized by the Washington Post as part of an social experiment
about perception, taste and priorities of people. The outlines were: in
a commonplace environment at an inappropriate hour: Do we perceive
beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize the talent in an
unexpected context?

One of the possible conclusions from this experience could be: If we do
not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the
world playing the best music ever written, how many other things are we
missing?

Comments

[tabard.livejournal.com]

"Pearls Before Breakfast" on WashingPost.com (if you haven't already found it :) ). This is an amazing and sadly telling experiment.

[wild-irises.livejournal.com]

I think this is a little slanted. I often truly enjoy buskers' music without much varying my normal pace. You can hear music for a goodly distance as you walk. If I give a dollar, it means I'm appreciating the music.

Also, I for one am not the least bit qualified to tell the difference between a good street musician and Joshua Bell.

[angelmcc.livejournal.com]

What an awesome reminder. Thank you!

[seticat.livejournal.com]

Dear Gods, how could someone hear that and *not* stop, if only for a moment? And even if they had no money, not take the time to catch the musician's eye and thank them?

I have busked a bit. I'm not all that good, but a lot of times just haveing someone stop and take a moment to connect with me and share the joy of music was enough. yeah, it won't buy dinner, but it can make a tight belly a bit more bearable.

In the end, it doesn't really matter if you 'understand' the music being performed or not. The one and only way to 'judge' is 'Do you like it?'

Life and the world is filled with music of one sort or another - take a moment to enjoy it and help the universe renew itself.

[green-knight.livejournal.com]

I love music, I usually stop, and I often buy CDs from buskers, if they're any good - I've gotten some awesome stuff that way.

[gothikfaerie.livejournal.com]

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

Context is vital in busking. Frex, busking licenses for "Taste of Chicago" are expensive, but a good busker can make thousands of dollars there. Even some everyday street-corner buskers make impressive annual incomes.

Taking requests helps. Many buskers, if someone stops to listen, will pause at the end of a song and ask what they'd like to hear next. One at the Wentzville faire asked what language I'd like to hear next and started rattling off a list. I stopped him at Welsh -- and bought one of his albums on the spot.

Belle tones

[bearleyport.livejournal.com]

Thanks for sharing this -- makes me wonder if they think he's the best because he plays on a 3.5 million dollar violin, etc.

Why don't they do the reverse, now? Send a bunch of street musicians to Carnegie Hall, dressed in tuxes and playing the most expensive instruments in the world, see if the rich can tell a pauper from the prince.

Re: Belle tones

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

I would love to see that! *ponder* But I think I'd want to run it twice: once with average buskers or music students, and once with the best buskers to be found. It wouldn't be fair to do it without making sure some of the substitutes were mediocre, because I've heard some buskers who were far and agone beyond some of what gets promoted these days.

[vylar-kaftan.livejournal.com]

One woman did actually recognize him, right at the end, and stopped to listen. She had been at his concert the previous week. (I read the full version of this story when it came out.)

[ideealisme.livejournal.com]

Interesting that all the children stopped! Makes me realise that if I'm ever insane enough to become a parent that maybe I should let them absorb life at their pace rather than mine. They have less baggage.

[haikujaguar.livejournal.com]

My kid seems to run at about three times the speed I do. :P

Hmm...

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

Does she run past things that interest her, or stop for those? Some kids are just high-energy and move fast until something snares their attention. Others just run for the joy of running.

Re: Hmm...

[haikujaguar.livejournal.com]

Depends on the time of day. She'll stop to examine things that interest her when she's gotten her must-run-around out. But even then, she tears around at a tremendous speed. My mother-in-law, who has raised four children of her own and helped raise an additional six, says she's never seen a baby with so much energy. :P

Re: Hmm...

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

Then I'd say look for a constructive outlet. That stop-only-after-first-run feature is a characteristic of high-quality racehorses. Or maybe you could get her to chase frisbees, like some people do with big dogs.

Re: Hmm...

[haikujaguar.livejournal.com]

(wearily) I'm working on it.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

When that story came out, there was a lot of discussion of it on my friends list.

And basically, what we felt was that busking is a different skill set than concert music.

And even with that -- if you look at how much money he made at the end of the day, he did damn well for a busker.

The way I put it: let's say that you have a world-famous neurosurgeon. And, in an emergency, he's thrown out onto a battlefield with a basic trauma kit.

How well is he going to do at emergency battlefield medicine? Probably pretty well, actually. But not THAT much better than a "normal" battlefield medic.

And you look at Bell -- he's a world-famous concert musician. And he was playing in a train station. And how did he do?

As well as the best buskers could hope to do on a good day. He made something like $54 in the morning rush alone.

The fact is: if I was given tickets to a Joshua Bell concert for free, and I had to work at that time, I'd have to go to work. So, all these people were given free tickets, but couldn't take advantage of them because of prior commitments.

That's life. If you have commitments, you have to keep them. And even the people rushing past enjoyed a moment of beauty.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

I should have just read comments and agreed with yours. :)

[dulcinbradbury.livejournal.com]

This is precisely what I was going to bring up.

I spent years in choirs where I was singing as music teachers told me to. I took private lessons briefly.

Then I joined the SCA and tried my hand at solo performance there.

Oh my GODS, it is a different beast. People said I had a lovely voice, but, I'd never had to work to grab attention. I'd had solos, but, a solo in a choir is completely different from being a solo performer, an entertainer.

I've watched musicians who've tried their hand at being entertainers, and, my best advice to them has been to watch a good busker. Because you have to do more than sound good, you have to do more than play well.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

I remember that article, and it annoyed me. "Oh, look at those city dwellers, unable to enjoy music because they're living too fast!" was the distinct subtext. Would a concert hall be able to exist outside of the population densities of a city?

Being a busker -- catching people's eyes, smiling as they give you money, playing engaging pieces, knowing the moment -- isn't entirely the same job as being a concert musician where the people came specifically to hear one. Also, the morning commute is not the same as the evening.

I'm a city girl born and bred. I *love* street musicians, and often pause in my evening commute to listen to them. In the morning? I have to get to work.

Hmm...

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

>> Being a busker -- catching people's eyes, smiling as they give you money, playing engaging pieces, knowing the moment -- isn't entirely the same job as being a concert musician where the people came specifically to hear one. Also, the morning commute is not the same as the evening.<<

This is another very insightful observation: different job skills required. I remember being impressed once by the perfect stillness of a singer waiting for her solo ... you can't do that busking, people will ignore you. You have to engage; different buskers have all kinds of ways; and those are learned skills.

[ziactrice.livejournal.com]

I wonder how different it would have been if he'd been set up somewhere people WEREN'T trying to catch a train or get to work to uphold their responsibilities.

If I have a fiver and the time, I've been known to plop directly on the ground to listen to a good musician's entire set.

Does that mean I know world-class from interesting local amateur? Nope. I don't know much about music at all. Does that mean I like to be entertained by live music, any shape? Yep.

[talkstowolves.livejournal.com]

While I think this does have some message, the message is undermined by the fact that they attempted this on the morning commute. I can imagine being in this situation and really wanting to stop-- but knowing that my livelihood would be negatively impacted if I didn't get to work on time and perform well in my job. I wouldn't have been able to linger, but that wouldn't mean that I hadn't deeply appreciated the beauty of the music.

Hmm...

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

That is a very astute point. A busy but less time-locked situation for the test might have produced more honest results.

[haikujaguar.livejournal.com]

Reading the comments to this, I take away two things:

1. Art is still working/communicating even if people don't gratify you by stopping to tell you so or compensating you.

2. If you want to engage an audience on a more intimate level, you have to make it possible for them to come to you, or even better you have to go to them. If you choose not to do that, then you will have to live with the fact that you are excluding potential members of your audience.

The pace of modern life is hectic and only getting more so. You have to be flexible in how you reach your audience and keep switching approaches until you get to the level you want.

[fayanora.livejournal.com]

I saw video of this ages ago.

[je-reviens.livejournal.com]

Well I have to point out a flaw in this article.

I frequently listen to people playing on the street -- I just don;t stand there and watch them. I might be sitting a bit down the platform or behind them but I do enjoy the music (sometimes -- sometimes I wish they would stop!).

If I enjoy it, I do drop money in before leaving. The point is, the musician might not ever SEE me. Because it's not a concert hall, it seems rude to stop and stare at the guy.