Oh no I've become a Belieber

[steve mac]

I am seldom surprised at shouted requests it's always the obvious i.e. Beatles or Rod Stewart etc. But if I get stumped by the same one a few times I try to learn at least a chorus of that artists best known hit, especially if it's a younger audience member as I am on a mission to get a younger crowd.

So having had The Beebs shouted at me the requisite amount of times, he, Justin Beiber, being someone who's music I have studiously ignored until now, I started going through YouTube.

The most obvious one was the world wide smash Despasito, which although having his name on it, he seems curiously absent. It has a lovely little acoustic Spanish style intro, which took all of 5 mins to get under my fingers and less than a minute to get the simple 4 chord sequence of the whole song. However it's in flipping Spanish and I guess it would take a month to phonetically learn it. So back to the drawing board.

I then came across Love yourself and discovered it was written by Ed Sheeran, hated Justin's version of it but found a busker doing it and really liked it, despite or maybe because of the unusual and awkward syntax/timing. So instead of just learning a chorus I have put it in my set rotation.

Busking has certainly changed since my day, I will be checking out the net for more ideas from that art form.

[daddymack]

You are dead to me now....

 

j/k...

[GtrGeorge!]

Cool! Never to late to learn new things!!!!!!!

[skmarshall]

Your audience is happy because they got their request

You're happy because you're playing a great Ed Sheeran song

I don't see a downside!

 

Here's Ed Sheeran himself "covering" his own song:

 

[Notes_Norton]

In a way, most of us are busking. We are trying to win an approval of an audience, and doing so, increases the balance in our bank accounts.

 

90% of what we play are either because the song was requested or we think the audience would like it due to the other requests we have had.

 

If we get enough requests for it, or if a frequent audience member requests it, and we can cover it will, we will learn it When the audience is happy, I'm happy.

 

Insights and incites by Notes..