Buskin' the streets of Lucerne
Tuesday morning we hobbled down the hill to the bus stop to meet Urs...our new percussionist friend and kind Swissman. We were going to do some practice on the streets. We were open to receiving the tips too, if they came. The first came at this said bus stop. As we waited for Urs we wondered how we would have enough money to pay for stuff like this. Moments later a man walked by quite cheerfully. He saw our instrument cases and asked in Switzy Duetch 'are you going to play your instruments on the street?' We nodded. He said good luck and left. We go on talking jibberish to each other like normal. He comes back...asks if we are students and digs 20 franks out of his pocket. (that is roughly 20 bucks...which will buy us 2.5 kebabs eventually) What a blessing. We could have just stopped there if we wanted. We never even played our instruments for him. Amazing.
It was challenging to find a place that was acoustically sound enough for us. We wanted to be heard with clarity so that I didnt have to ruin my voice and Timo wouldnt have to strum the life out of Pelle's new guitar. We were at a fountain first. People stopped and listened, but not much. I just sang random mumblings that sounded like foreign words to the music. It was powerful. A few people commented on how they could hear my voice down the road. Our second stop was the wooden bridge. This was the prime place to play. The bridge was a long walk across so they can hear us from their departure and slowly weave around the wooden turns to get to us. If we were in it for money we would come back to this very spot every day. After 20 minutes we had 18 Franks. It was enough to pay Urs our bus ticket debt. Plus we eventually got icecream! We took lunch by the Lucerne Lake (in the photo) and got zero for it...but it was our best playing together. The money has nothing to do with the quality. This I learned. This is tiring to play constantly on the streets....to keep peoples attention. We went back to the bridge ...on the other side this time. we met an American woman named Patience. I thought I was in some sort of story that has been written just for me. We wrote a song for her. She was blessed so much. I love doing that. It was a long and hot day....but 78 Franks later we were okay.
Tuesday morning we hobbled down the hill to the bus stop to meet Urs...our new percussionist friend and kind Swissman. We were going to do some practice on the streets. We were open to receiving the tips too, if they came. The first came at this said bus stop. As we waited for Urs we wondered how we would have enough money to pay for stuff like this. Moments later a man walked by quite cheerfully. He saw our instrument cases and asked in Switzy Duetch 'are you going to play your instruments on the street?' We nodded. He said good luck and left. We go on talking jibberish to each other like normal. He comes back...asks if we are students and digs 20 franks out of his pocket. (that is roughly 20 bucks...which will buy us 2.5 kebabs eventually) What a blessing. We could have just stopped there if we wanted. We never even played our instruments for him. Amazing.
It was challenging to find a place that was acoustically sound enough for us. We wanted to be heard with clarity so that I didnt have to ruin my voice and Timo wouldnt have to strum the life out of Pelle's new guitar. We were at a fountain first. People stopped and listened, but not much. I just sang random mumblings that sounded like foreign words to the music. It was powerful. A few people commented on how they could hear my voice down the road. Our second stop was the wooden bridge. This was the prime place to play. The bridge was a long walk across so they can hear us from their departure and slowly weave around the wooden turns to get to us. If we were in it for money we would come back to this very spot every day. After 20 minutes we had 18 Franks. It was enough to pay Urs our bus ticket debt. Plus we eventually got icecream! We took lunch by the Lucerne Lake (in the photo) and got zero for it...but it was our best playing together. The money has nothing to do with the quality. This I learned. This is tiring to play constantly on the streets....to keep peoples attention. We went back to the bridge ...on the other side this time. we met an American woman named Patience. I thought I was in some sort of story that has been written just for me. We wrote a song for her. She was blessed so much. I love doing that. It was a long and hot day....but 78 Franks later we were okay.
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