Busking: Busking is the practice of performing music, dance, juggling, magic, and similar activities in public places to entertain passersby and solicit tips. People engaging in this practice are called buskers. Busking is a British term used in many areas of the English-speaking world and in former British territories. In the United States, buskers are more often called street performers or street musicians. Some buskers only work part time, while others make a full time living performing on the streets…. Read more on Wikipedia
I had a Sitar gig last night and by the time it ended, it was past midnight and it was also raining. I was standing outside the Queen subway station, waiting for the streetcar (tram) for almost 20 minutes, not quite enjoying the drizzle. My Sitar was tucked away under some large window frame.
2 moderately drunk white boys arrived at the streetcar stop and looked curiously at my Sitar bag. It was past midnight on Friday, I wasn’t surprised.
“Hey, what is that?”
“Its a Sitar”, I said non-enthusiastically. I get this question often.
“Woh! I thought so, but never thought I would see a Sitar for real!”
And then they spent next 5 minutes asking me questions about the instrument. I was surprised that they knew so much already. I promised to show them how it looked like once we were in the streetcar.
“You must play it too”, he said
“HUH ??”, sounded like a crazy idea to me.
“Yea man, and I will pass my hat around. You can get your bus money back!” (he took off his hat to show me how)
So we got into the streetcar, full of sweet party people. The guys couldn’t wait to see how a sitar looked and I showed them rightaway. I am always ready to play and so I did what they wanted me to. After I was done, there was some clapping and the guy took his hat off and passed it around.
Nobody put any money in it.
The guy was disappointed more than me. I guess he didn’t want me to be a musician who doesn’t get tips after he plays. Then the sweetest thing happened. His buddy put in a buck. And they passed the hat to me.
“Here!, Great show!”
And folks, thats how I earned my first dollar on the street playing music.
¶ Blogged by Priyank Thatte | Tags: Music, Personal, Sitar, Stories
Inspired by Krish Ashok’s masterpiece, I attempted playing the same Punjabi music on my Sitar. This is a bhangra song, I don’t remember the name, but if you do then let me know. (I hope it sounds like what it is supposed to.)
Here is the result:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
If you are unable to see the player above, here is the mp3 file:
bhangra_on_sitar.mp3
The piece is played on my Sitar which is dying but still manages to produce some sound. I had a crude mic to record this (and somewhere in the clip you can hear birds chirping.) The clip has 3 sound tracks, mixed in Goldwave.
I think the clip is not great but I enjoyed playing some non-classical stuff for a change and then mixing the tracks 
¶ Blogged by Priyank Thatte | Tags: Music, Sitar
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