Diary Of A Busker Day 111 Monday June 6th Winchester High Street (corner of Marks And Spencer, Time: 12:04-4:50pm.)
A long session – almost 5 hours, playing continuously. I debut a new song – Edelweiss, from The Sound Of Music. Like Henry and Over The Rainbow this song was brought to my attention by one of my regulars – Anthony, the man struggling to learn the guitar (like me). And as before, I’ve stripped it down to the most basic components – just the melody and basic chords, nothing fancy or, (God forbid), jazzy. Faithful to the original, in other words. The first time I play it I panic and mess it up. The second time, an hour later, a woman gives me a £2 coin and as far as I’m concerned this merits the song being given Song Of The Day status. The tune works well, especially with some gentle use of the guitars’ vibrato unit, lending a somewhat psuedo-human voice effect to the longer chords at the end of the phrases. I play it alongside Over The Rainbow. Speaking of which, after playing this (Over The Rainbow) a lady comes up and says, “That’s my favourite song, I’m going to have it played at my funeral!”, to which I reply, “Oh really? And what arrangement will it be?” “Oh, I don’t know that – I won’t care, will I! Anyway my daughter’s looking after all that…” What arrangement. What a stupid question!
My friendly and generous old French lady, Marie-Therese pops by with her sister, Madeleine, who’s over from France and doesn’t speak any English and I’ve forgotten almost all of my “holiday” French. While trying to converse, I have a flashback to August 2004 when during a musical pilgrimage to the centre of France – to the writer George Sands’ house (maison!) – my favourite composer Chopin wrote many of his masterpieces there, I found myself at a bus station in a state of confusion, trying to find the time of my next bus. I tried to communicate to a woman who did her best but couldn’t speak any English – no one does in the middle of France and my “holiday” French didn’t go beyond “Pardon monsieur, je voudrais l’addition, si vous plais?” – can I have the bill, please? (or something near to that) which didn’t really provide for the situation. We English are lucky in our travels throughout the world, apart from in deepest darkest Berry, perhaps. However, I suddenly remember the French greeting, as Marie and her sister are walking off, “Au revoir, um…Enchante, ENCHANTE! …um, Au revoir!”
Sometimes, when I’m playing something not too difficult, my mind wanders. It happened today during Edelweiss, I was thinking to myself (obviously)…what would I have though if 30 years ago when I was living in Canada, learning some Jimmy Page guitar solo off a record, someone said to me “30 years from now you will be sitting on a camping stool on a street corner in England with a pumpkin bucket in front of you, playing a song from The Sound Of Music.”
Earnings: £40.17p.