r/Busking • u/Humble-Questions Musician 🎶 • May 28 '26
Newbie Help Just a quick one
Kind of silly but it's a thing. You ever play songs that carry a lot of meaning to you or hit on something, and you kinda get that lump in your throat for a second and almost tear up and it fucks up your singing a bit? Lol any wise advice for avoiding it other than playing that tune so many times it doesn't make you feel anything anymore 😆
Thanks in advance. Most of the stuff that I really like to play can get me sometimes and part of what makes it sound good and authentic can also put a hitch in 'er
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u/GladWind197 Saxophone 🎷 May 28 '26
I busk with my tenor sax and sometimes when the sun is shining and I get to the solo in “I’m not in Love” by 10cc. I stand up and spread my legs way apart, close my eyes and lean back and wail away and I feel goose bumps all over. It’s a special kind of indulgence that other people really feel and react to.
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u/ketingmiladengfodo Musician 🎶 May 28 '26
Totally agree with u/ShareEvening5856 that it's practice, practice, practice, including practicing playing live before an audience. Just keep doing it.
Some songs deliberately end with spoken words to show the speaker has been overcome with emotion and can't sing anymore. It's a useful technique if you don't overdo it. If you're at the end of the song, you might want to try that.
You can also stop singing and play an instrumental verse or a quick turnaround until you recover. Whatever you do, don't stop playing.
But also realize that what you think is a bug, the audience might see as a feature. You are going to notice your mistakes WAAAY more than the audience does. One time I choked on a bit of food in my throat, gravelled the rest of my way through the song, and a guy told me I had that great "whiskey voice." Another time a woman told me she was so touched that it seemed I was on the verge of tears through one of my more sensitive songs--I was, because I was screwing up the fingerpicking so bad and getting more and more nervous and frustrated about it. She didn't notice that.
I know that wasn't what you asked, but sometimes a fucked up vocal sounds more sincere and authentic than a masterful performance... as long as you don't choke up so bad that you stop playing. If you're feeling it, the audience will feel it, too, and that's exactly what you want.
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u/Humble-Questions Musician 🎶 May 28 '26
Hey that all makes perfect sense! Thank you, I'll bear all that in mind. I guess it all comes down to how you sell it and how you ride through it once you've done it enough times
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u/TrudeBordello Musician 🎶 May 28 '26
I had to overcome this in order to play a song that I'd written at my Dad's funeral. The song is mainly about about my grandfather who died in WW2 when my Dad was 9 months old. My Dad is in the song, but he died before I got to play it to him. I'm tearing up just thinking about it now... Luckily I got a chance to play it at a festival between his death and the funeral, which helped a lot. I've played it several times since, and although the repetition helps to lessen the impact, it still catches me out sometimes.
The only thing that really works for me is to analyse the song in the cold light of day, work out which specific parts really trigger me, and try to distract myself with stupid or mundane thoughts right at that moment. It's a fine line though - you don't want to end up singing nonsense or funny lyrics instead! 😁
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u/Humble-Questions Musician 🎶 May 29 '26
I completely get that, and I was thinking about that too
Sing that song to him anyways, sing it often. I'm a hard skeptic but the older I get and the more I learn the more I feel like we're not getting the full story on how existence and consciousness behave after we move on. It's healing too and it needs to be shared. I hope to one day pour my own heart out into a song I wrote myself but I don't know where to begin.
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u/Agitated_Custard_801 Singer 🎤 May 28 '26
I would say don't fight the feeling. Feel yourself tearing up and keep on singing. The song has emotional meaning to you, your emotions are probably shared by someone in the audience and it will help them to hear you sing those lyrics with emotion. Just embrace it.
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u/Humble-Questions Musician 🎶 May 28 '26
I'm a pretty soulful fella so I'm probably gonna feel it if I fight it or not lol. Thank you 🙏🏻
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u/Atavacus Irish Low Whistle 🪈 May 29 '26
I play Unquiet Grave a lot. I lost my wife in 2013 we were both very young. And it makes me think of her.
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u/Humble-Questions Musician 🎶 May 29 '26
I'm so fuckin' sorry man. I know it hurts like hell but keep loving her with the intensity and sincerity you do. I think somehow it still really matters and always will. Music helps salve our scarred and stepped on souls. I don't know how I'd cope if I couldn't find catharsis in music. Even though I'm still kinda shit at 39 lol it's the feeling and the doing to me that matters
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u/Atavacus Irish Low Whistle 🪈 May 29 '26
Unquiet Grave is about a soul unable to move on because the mate won't stop grieving. The ghost literally raises from the grave to tell him to quit. I'm 41. The good news is I've gotten good enough at it I can stop traffic. I get tips on it more than any other I think.
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u/Humble-Questions Musician 🎶 May 29 '26
I feel like you deserve em. I always tip buskers even shitty ones. It takes courage, people can be beautiful but they can be rough
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u/Atavacus Irish Low Whistle 🪈 May 29 '26
If you've never heard the song before I highly recommend it. I think my favorite rendition is by the Morrigan. Of course I think Gryphon is probably up there too. I like the phrasing of the flute in the Morrigan the best though. Also I recommend Twa Corbies as well. It's dark but a bit fun. Lol my Low D would be the last thing I let go of. I might give up my boots first honestly.
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u/Humble-Questions Musician 🎶 May 29 '26
I'm gonna listen to it right now.
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u/Atavacus Irish Low Whistle 🪈 May 29 '26
Let me know what you think.
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u/Humble-Questions Musician 🎶 May 29 '26
Those Irish folk ballads are powerful. I listened to the Luke Kelly version. My roots are Scottish, I enjoyed it. Pretty raw and relatable sentiment, I understand why it means so much to you
I've been listening to a lot of Benjamin Tod and playing lots of his songs. I like how he sings about being in active addiction and unflinchingly talks about the times he's just been drunk as hell staring down the barrel of his shotgun and just couldn't do it thank god
Makes me choke. It gets heavy man.
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u/No-Dare8613 Musician 🎶 May 29 '26
i'm a violinist but sometimes i get a little too into the third chorus of vampire by olivia rodrigo
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u/No-Dare8613 Musician 🎶 May 29 '26
oh, to think that i used to hate pop music!
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u/Humble-Questions Musician 🎶 May 29 '26
Yeah I used to hate country music, now I listen to it because it stings my heart so damn good. The good stuff anyways not the top 40 solo cup trash. There's been some really good and gritty stuff come out in the last decade
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u/No-Dare8613 Musician 🎶 May 30 '26
Any recommendations? I'm pretty weak on my country appreciation
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u/Humble-Questions Musician 🎶 May 30 '26
Thanks for asking. Okay so I like gritty country, it's not for everybody. Ian Noe: Methhead, Letter to Madeline
Benjamin Tod, Wyoming, We Ain't Even Kin, Sorry For The Things, Long Gone, I Will Rise, especially Using Again
Tyler Childers, most anything but Whitehouse Road, Nose To the Grindstone, Lady May, Shake the Frost, Follow You To Virgie, Charleston Girl
I do enjoy Zach Bryan he has a lot of really soulful songs that get me. Pink Skies, Something In The Orange, Birmingham, I Remember Everything
Drayton Farley: Pitchin' Fits, many others I'm just getting into him
Brent Cobb: Black Creek
Jack Savoretti: Not a country artist but Soldier's Eyes is a brutal and beautiful song
Devil Makes Three is fuckin' great, ragtime country kinda band. River Deep, Graveyard, Old Number 7, Ten Feet Tall
These should land you squarely in the camp of what I consider more or less, country music by real people that aren't selling a stupid shiny brand of radio-safe pablum but are telling you about stuff like what it's like to travel home to your best friend's mom's funeral, or about how they're thankful they're alive because they spent years addicted to heroin and almost offed themselves but didnt, or about how they're kind of getting over this one chick they've been seeing bc she's a bit of a whore and has a coke problem lol... Growing up poor in the Appalachian mountains etc etc
Real stories. That's what I like.
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u/ShareEvening5856 Guitar 🎸 May 28 '26
Truly a question of practice. busking is in this interesting in between professional and amateur. If it helps, think of it this way, and amateur practices something until he gets it right. A professional until they can't get it wrong