I heard it through the grapevine (that Vancouver sucks for busking. $50 in 6 hours?)

Continuing on with the songs that started me on the path to guitar playing, this is 'I heard it through the grapevine' by CCR. I think I liked this even more than Susie Q for jamming. In the late 60's this was my only exposure to extended guitar solos as my dad did not own anything by Jimi Hendrix, or Cream. He had the greatest hits of CCR on 8 track and I heard it all the time. Those two songs of CCR were instrumental in creating a love of guitar solos for me. Another big guitar influence was 'Midnight rambler' off the Stone's 'get your ya ya's out' which my Dad also played a lot, and the surf instrumental 'Torquay' by the Fireballs. (I used to salivate in anticipation of that short solo!)

Tried a new spot because tips are not coming at the waterfront area. I used to play Robson and Granville all the time years ago, but it's not as it once was. Normal summer day in 2019 was $150-$200 day. Yesterday, I played 6 hours and made $50, and $20 of that was from one person. I didn't think it could get worse than waterfront but it did! Took 2 hours to make $4. I had only two strange encounters here. A guy on drugs who stared at my feet for five minutes, and a beggar offering me a bite of his Doner kabab for $3. I'm at the point where I have to consider that busking is no longer a source of even MINOR income or even minimum wage. It used to be that I could make more on the street than any regular band gig that payed $100 a gig. Not anymore. I tell myself to keep busking to 3 hours, but again I overdid it and pushed myself until I ran out of battery after 6 hours.

I'll have to use busking only for making videos and hoping to gain some traction on youtube, where I get some support from viewers. I'll likely start cutting back my live shows to once or twice a week, and do them only when I have new songs to jam. This day was all about playing popular songs, and as I have told people before, it made no difference in tips. There is no magic 'song choice' trick to make money as a busker. What helps is being really young and cute (like 10), or a woman, who is also young and cute and plays acoustic guitar and sings. Otherwise, PITY is what you need to sell yourself.

My theory on why busking no longer works in Vancouver:

1) People are so overrun with constant aggressive beggars/lunatics in this city, on every block, and it gets worse every year, that they are sick of either being asked for money, or seeing anyone, even a busker (who many think are beggars anyway), trying to get tips. Not having cash is not a theory, as even my QR code sign gets no takers.
2) People have ZERO concept of what an actual LIVE musician is anymore, and don't even know what a guitar solo is because they never heard one before. Kids don't hear guitar unless their parents play old music. They have nothing to judge it against. Was it a good solo or a bad solo? They don't have a clue. (This doesn't apply to people over 50)
3) Vancouver is filled to breaking point with 'self involved loner/narcissists' (It's infamous for this) who don't even care if someone next to them is getting stabbed, unless filming it can get them views on tik tok. This was proven last month a couple blocks from here when a guy was knifed at a Starbucks and everyone kept sipping coffee while one guy ran over from across the street to film the guy die in a pool of his own blood next to his screaming toddler. Waterfront location had two violence incidents in the same day a few days ago with weapons and fights in the station.

Patreon support/Jam requests/Guitar lessons:https://www.patreon.com/Shatnershairpiece
2000 original guitar jams on bandcamp: https://thesixmilliondollarguitar.bandcamp.com/
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#busker #guitar #music CCR #live #amazing #instrumental #relaxing #inspiration #guitarsolo #tips #crazy #vancouver #parkerfly #johnfogerty

Видео I heard it through the grapevine (that Vancouver sucks for busking. $50 in 6 hours?) канала shatnershairpiece