Starting is the hardest part

Day 1: May 8th, 2011, 7:30pm-9:00pm (approx), SW Corner of Yonge & Bloor.

I didn't actually intend to busk today, but it's sunny and gorgeous out and I have a new song in my head that I can't stop playing ("Landslide", covered by the Dixie Chicks). As I am heading out, a friend calls asking if I can help him pick flowers for his mom. At the shop, I buy some for my grandmother at the same time and to her hospital downtown. It's 7:30pm by the time I leave her, too late to walk further into the core, so I set up at the Yonge & Bloor intersection.

I've only busked once before in my life and that first time I found that the beginning to be the hardest. Until someone acknowledges you, you feel slightly invisible. I'm not looking forward to that feeling this time and I even have a few coins in my pocket just in case. I choose my spot and quickly set up and see that a little girl and her father have stopped to listen. I start to play Landslide as he presses some change in her hand. She dances and twirls through the whole song as he smiles and at the end, asks where he can find me online.  So much for the uncomfortable feeling.

A man drops some change in and requests "Imagine". I haven't memorized that one yet, but I get through a verse and a chorus as he smiles approvingly. "You're not a real guitar player until you can play that song," he says. I tell him I'll work on it. He points down Bloor Street toward Varsity and told me that John Lennon played right there. He asks if I can play "give peace a chance" and starts singing it, but I don't know that one and can't pick the chords out of his singing.

I get into a longer conversation with a middle-aged man, who introduces himself as Dave.  He tells me that he is only now returning to Toronto from Fort Erie after being born here and living here for less than a year. He loves this city, and I agree with him. A homeless man walks by and asks for change; I give him a dollar.  Several people take a good look at my busker's license and ask I got it (this link is a good start). One man walking by asks me if I give guitar lessons, and I tell him I'm not that good yet. A cab driver waiting for the light to change rolls down the window to listen, and gives me a thumbs up. 

A youngish man walks comes by smoking a cigarette invites me to dinner.  I decline politely, and he asks if I would mind if he hung around to listen while he finished his cigarette.  I tell him I don't mind but warn him he'd start hearing repeats.  I'm secretly glad to be upwind of the smoke.  After another song, he thanks me and starts to walk away before turning around and asking if I was sure about dinner.

I sing Edelweiss, looking up at the moon and thinking about my grandfather (I sang that song at his funeral), smiling big time as a man walking by with a few of his friends joins in for a few bars.  "That is totally my song!"  I tell him it's one of mine too.


Earnings: $24.04
Expenses: $6.00 (TTC fare + change given to homeless man)