Become A Powerful Woman Street Performer

Become A Powerful Woman Street Performer
By Kirsten Anderberg (http://www.kirstenanderberg.com/August 2006)

Being a woman street performer (or busker) is the second most important life choice I ever made, right behind my son as #1. Being a successful solo woman street performer for almost 30 years now, has been a blessing beyond belief. Those learned busker skills have saved my life more than a few times, on more than a few levels (economically, emotionally, artistically, in moot court in law school, etc.). I want to help other women gain the independence and artistic fulfillment I have gotten from busking, perhaps by helping demystify it. That is the purpose of this article, really, to get women thinking about the subtleties of performing on the street.

In my fantasy world of women’s equality and a high artistic bar for street performance, I would probably recommend the following steps for a woman street performer, if my opinion was asked. I write about these things because busking is ridiculously under-documented. I aim to fill some of those missing pages about how, why, where, when, who, etc., regarding busking, especially women buskers. This article is based solely on my own personal observations, of what makes a good, strong woman street performer.

1) MEMORIZE YOUR MUSIC/ACT
There is nothing worse than someone trying to read their act, while performing. It looks *really* pathetic to have to read music for basic guitar chords, for instance. When I first began busking, I sat on the ground with a book of chords and words I read from as I sang. It was a method to avoid interacting with the audience, I think. But my elder busker friends would not let me continue on that path. They ordered me to go home and memorize my music, then come back, and I am *so* glad they did that. From that point on, I just memorized my music, which frees you up to interact with the audience and to give interpretation to music. An obvious exception to this rule is with classical music and instruments. If you are playing some complex violin solo, I understand needing sheet music. But I would add, if you *did* memorize that piece, instead of read it, it would probably be more dynamic and make you more tips. You only have to memorize one hour of good material, really, to play the streets.

2) STAND UP!
I was sitting when I first began street performing as I was shy...but my elder busker buddies would not have that either and bought me a guitar strap and demanded I stand up while I perform. It was scary when I first started standing to perform. It is scary on the street as you are on the same level as the audience. On a stage, you are above and removed from the audience, but on the street, you are among your audience, and it is very intimate. I tried to perform in a hat with a brim when I first stood up so I did not have to have eye contact with the audience, but my elder friends once again, just pulled the hat off while I was singing and demanded I played *looking at* my audience! Agh! I hated them some days, but I am so thankful now that they would not let me slack off at all. Learning to memorize my music and perform standing up, were huge upgrades in performance style, from me sitting with a book of music open in front of me.

3) LEARN HOW TO BE LOUD
If you are some meek quiet person who sings really breathy, or are really quiet, the street probably is not for you. On the other hand, if people always tell you that you are too loud, you may be *borne* to street perform! LOL! I am old school when it comes to voice projection on the street. I believe if you need a microphone on the street, you should not be street performing. When buskers began using portable mics on the street, I really hated it, as it almost made for an unfair playing field...but I learned to just look the other way, as too many of my good friends and people I admire use these mics in their acts, and I guess maybe it would be good to have a mic to save my voice some, but it seems so cheap, and the sound is different than straight acoustics. I just like acoustic music, handmade music, without anything but the instruments and natural voices, not electric amplification...You need to let go of inhibitions and be loud, and this is especially weird for women who have been told to be quiet. My advice to women is you can rarely be *too loud* on the street, so go for it. At this point, I am probably the loudest voice on a woman I have ever heard on a street, I can drown out a 3 piece band next to me, but part of that is learned vocal projection and also how to use buildings and awnings to echo and amplify my voice too. If you do something like play a violin, you may get away with not talking and being quiet. But if you are a singer, forget it, if you are not willing to be *loud.*

4) DON’T BE A LINDA MCCARTNEY!
If you have a solo act, you can always back someone up, but you are not reliant on them for you to perform. If you only know how to be a back up or assistant to an act, you cannot perform when and where you want and are hinged on another. And you cannot just do a solo if you are a backup, but most solos can be backups without effort. So, my advice is to pursue a SOLO ACT FIRST AND FOREMOST. That will be something you can take with you anywhere you go in life.

5) DON’T RESORT TO CHEESEY SIGNS
It has gotten pretty old, seeing young women with very little musical talent, sitting in front of instruments they cannot play, with signs that say “College Support Needed.” If you cannot perform without a cheesy sign about how you need “college tuition,” then go home, is how I feel. You are not making money as a performer or a musician in that capacity, but are really just a yuppie beggar.

6) GROW EMOTIONAL ARMOR
Being a woman street performer is not a job for the weak. Every woman I know who is a long time busker, that I have asked, has said that it takes a certain hard-ass attitude to survive as a woman busker. Mildred Hodittle said that one of the first things that threw her off was when some men yelled “Show us your tits!” in the middle of her street set. She commented that men will attack our *bodies* when women street perform. And I had a lot of male street performers tell me to go home for the first several months I began to regularly go to the Market in Seattle to play music. I am not sure, even today, what their motivation was for telling me my music sucked, I would never be able to do it, etc., but they discouraged me on the whole, except for a small handful who thought I had a strong voice and helped me learn guitar, performance, presentation, etc...So, learn to not listen to what other people say about your act. Someone will always talk badly about what you are doing, so just follow your heart and do what you want to do, not what peer pressure says you should do.

7) EXCEL AT SOMETHING
You need to excel at something to stand out from the crowd. And you need this outstanding talent to keep you, yourself, from getting bored by your own act, too. Avoid overdone formulas for acts, just as you would avoid just copying others’ acts. For women, it seems singing poorly written, weakly presented love songs is the pattern, just as singing the Eagles, flat, is the male pattern. I mean, if all the women were kickin’ out Aretha and Dionne Warwick love songs, I would not have a complaint at all. But it is those boring 3 chord, my man is over the ocean crap, that is just too boring. Anything but that...And if you are still using standard first position chords as a woman guitarist, stop it. You need to learn more complex voicings, look into jazz chords for diversity. The crappy guitarist, with the voice you cannot hear, singing about some loser guy, is really overdone for women buskers, in my opinion. Become good at something before you go onto the street. Don’t be mediocre. That is lazy. You can be dynamic if you rehearse and really learn an art form, and that can mean anything from slack rope walking to juggling to sword swallowing to singing really powerfully in a unique style.

8) LEARN TO PERFORM CLOTHED FIRST
Too often I see women “scantily clad” doing things that barely qualify as an act, and it seems what the tips are about is her being “cute” and “sexy” and sort of sexually available in this weird body way...the problem is within this context, is the act your body or the thing you are supposedly performing? I saw a young gal at Folklife this year, standing on a box, in a very low cut mid-drift top, with a little minishirt, and her face was painted blue and she had dyed blonde dreads, and she was maybe 20, and she had two little wands with scarves attached to them, and she made little circles with them...as she stood on the box. She had some sign and the deal was, when you pay, she moves...so it was ALL MEN paying her and watching her do this, it was more like a porn shop thing, to be honest, than any kind of actual performance skill or art...When I was young, I avoided low-cut shirts and miniskirts when I performed as I wanted to be taken seriously as a musician and comedian, not made into some sex act. The current burlesque rage is sexism, plain and simple. Can-can lines are full of women showing their underwear for cheering crowds of men, NOT VICE VERSA. It is a form of patriarchal entertainment to remind and reinforce who we are here to serve. Do not fall for this crap that it is feminist, etc. Look, MEN do not star in burlesque unless it is to be comedy or sometimes gay men will do it, imitating the women, but on the whole, it is a soft porn show for men and if it was so great and respectful to be in can-can lines, men would be fighting to be in them. I see that crap as a sort of Step’N’Fetch it, or Amos and Andy, act for women. So, this is all just my opinion, but you really don’t have to dress up like an idiot, like Madonna did in the beginning as a “boytoy,” if you want to be respected like Bonnie Raitt. Bonnie Raitt never has performed in can-can lines and yet she is respected as one of the top ten best slide guitarists in the world. That is the shit you want to aim for, not the best underwear flasher in can-can lines! Also, the can-can thing is not a healthy role model for girls, which says a lot about what it is for women.

9) DO NOT LET MEN CHOOSE OR ARRANGE YOUR MATERIAL.
This is a serious problem. If you let men control how you create your set, you will lose a lot of your own confidence and power. You must learn how to trust your OWN judgment regarding your material, you need to be able to figure out what is good, *by yourself* and it is just not good to rely on men, at all, for your act. If you want as much independence and respect as you can get, aim to be your own producer.

10) LEAD, DON’T FOLLOW! CREATE, DON’T IMITATE!
Take risks. I have often said people pay performers to do things they are too embarrassed to do. If an act scares you, it may actually be good! People who make up formula bands based on current trends are not only crippled artistically, but they are always behind the times...You might as well blaze your own path! You might as well learn how to go where *you* want, and how to become reliant on yourself for your art. Don’t follow some guy, make up your own thing. Don’t just copy others’ acts, think of what really stirs your passions and makes your soul wake up, and find a way to pursue such things, creatively.

I am sure I left out a ton of important things, but this is a start. Maybe another woman busker will take it from here and write part two of this article! Good luck and keep creating your solo work and make sure to get it to the public! I am proud to be a part of the solo woman busker movement...and look forward to meeting more amazing women buskers in the future.