Dave, his son and myself went to play some Blues in the streets of Bern yesterday morning. It was the first time I’ve ever busked and because the news has recently been filled with articles about the growing amount of beggars in swiss cities, the fact that many pretended to be street musicians and what the authorities where doing about it, I was a bit worried. Especially since I felt that Dave wasn’t about to be bothered by any official regulations. Not that there is really any risk here, a fine perhaps, but I guess my tendency is play by the rules which means knowing them, which I didn’t.
In any case besides being told that we weren’t allowed to play where we were first placed ourselves, which made us move across the street, nothing eventful happened so my worries were as useless as worries usually are. We lucked out with the weather too since it was warm and sunny which it mostly hasn’t been lately.
Dave is a good musician and has a charisma that quickly gathered a small crowed so all anxieties quickly became rhythmical and focused on making my washboard hopefully sound like it belonged there. It mostly went well and was a nice experience, all the more since lately playing has often been frustrating by the difficulty in acquiring the skills I can now feel but can not really do. I used Dave’s washboard which I enjoy more and more each day, no bells, woodblocks, cymbals or anything. It really seems to help at the moment to removing all of the choices that come with each element that you add on.