Welcome to our forum. A Message To Our New and Prospective Members . Check out our Forum Rules. Lets keep this forum an enjoyable place to visit.
Private messaging is working again.
Log In
Register
Home
Topic RSS
(1 votes) 
New member
Offline
I work part time and I plan on going back to school for nursing in August leaving little extra time to devote to a second part time job. Working part time means I live paycheck to paycheck and sometimes am unable to cover my meager living expenses, cheap car, cheap rent, etc. As it is, I can't afford food and I rely on my mom to pack me care packages of grocery items. Because of this I am sorely tempted to practice in public for tips. I'm nowhere near good, but songs are recognizable when I play. Is it wrong to keep my case open for tips when I'm not really good enough? Is that too presumptuous? I know that an extra $10 or (on a good day) $20 bucks worth of tips would really put food on my table.
Any one else have experience with this? Ideas? Suggestions?
Thank you for any help!
~Jenn
Offline
I have no experience with this. But I say play to the masses and if they reward you for your performance... Go with it. I wish you ultimate success. I admire you for wanting to earn extra money with your violin.
Vibrato Desperato.... Desperately seeking vibrato
Members
Offline
"Wrong"? I don't know of anything wrong with an artist getting paid or accepting a donation. So long as there aren't any local laws forbidding it, I can't think of anything wrong with it. If it is not an uncommon sight in your area, then you're probably ok on the legal aspect.
"Presumptuous"? Well, if you don't get anything, then maybe you were a little presumptuous, I guess. Won't know until you try, though. Might want to figure on trying more than once, as well.
"This young wine may have a lot of tannins now, but in 5 or 10 years it is going to be spectacular, despite the fact that right now it tastes like crude oil. You know this is how it is supposed to taste at this stage of development." ~ Itzhak Perlman
Offline
Jenn, opening your case for money is definitely more acceptable than people begging for money on the streets without doing anything at all.
No one is forcing anyone to give you anything right? I'd say go for it and see what you get.
"The richest person is not the one who has the most,
but the one who needs the least."
Regulars
Offline
I always give something to buskers and have thought about doing a bit of it myself to get over my fear of playing in front of people. Do it and let us know how it goes!
Opportunity is often missed because it wears suspenders and looks like hard work.
Offline
I am tickled pink that everyone has posted how I feel. Yay.!!
Vibrato Desperato.... Desperately seeking vibrato
Offline
I should bare that in mind and give to buskers as well. 
It's so easy just to walk by them and not give it any thought.
"The richest person is not the one who has the most,
but the one who needs the least."
New member
Offline
Wow! As a new member I really didn't know what kind of responses I would get, but I'm absolutely smiling that I didn't receive any snarky comments or snobby replies. I think I'll be sticking around now. I've been to other violin forums where the tragedy of the day is deciding which $2,000 violin bow to buy. With that said, the positive and helpful encouragement provided gives me the drive to get better and get out there! I hope it'll be fun! When I find my courage I'll come back and let everyone know how my first violin adventure turned out. 
Regulars
Offline
I'd agree with what the others said.
It's not like you are forcing people to give you money. Good on you for giving it a try, hope it all goes well for you Jenn.
And welcome to the forum, it is a good one.
Kiara
Offline
keylime1602 said
Wow! As a new member I really didn't know what kind of responses I would get, but I'm absolutely smiling that I didn't receive any snarky comments or snobby replies. I think I'll be sticking around now. I've been to other violin forums where the tragedy of the day is deciding which $2,000 violin bow to buy. With that said, the positive and helpful encouragement provided gives me the drive to get better and get out there! I hope it'll be fun! When I find my courage I'll come back and let everyone know how my first violin adventure turned out.
You definitely came to the right place and we're real happy to have you here. I don't know how many members on the other forums are snobby but I do know that before I started this forum I used to visit violinist dot com and was ejected from that site. I did post some information about fiddlerman.com but like I said there was no forum and IMAO, no competition. Today, with often over 2000 unique visits per day the situation is obviously different. I would have appreciated a warning or something before they banned me. I have only banned one user who was extremely negative and offensive towards many members and pretty much everything that he wrote about. Many know who I am referring to.
"The richest person is not the one who has the most,
but the one who needs the least."
WOW, how cool. I admire your courage. I've played guitar for almost 60 years. Played in front of thousands over that period of time, sang in Tootsie's Bar in Nashville, TN and played violin recitals when I was a young boy, but I still don't have the courage to busk with violin.... YET, but working on it.
My advice.
You go girl. 
Good luck.
Ken.
Offline
I am so glad that you feel comfy here Keylime. I even tried an adult violinist group on Facebook. Man they got so snarky. ??? I often wonder why people are snarky, or give some big opinion as if it were fact. I am very put off when people start making comments about "playing on anything less than 500." Seriously it puts me off.
I am proud to say that this group here made me so comfortable I posted my first C major scale here.. (with a note missing) and still felt motivated to move on. IT is the worst scratchiest thing you'll ever hear. ha ha.. And I felt the love.
Enjoy..
Vibrato Desperato.... Desperately seeking vibrato
keylime1602 said
.... Is it wrong to keep my case open for tips when I'm not really good enough? ....
No. It's right to keep your case open for tips anyway!
My teacher told me about one guy with a guitar:
He never played it and couldn't play it at all! He just made it look like he was tuning it all the way. He just needed to change his location a bit. So, he tuned it here, tuned it there and at the end of his "recital" had enough money at least for food! I just need also to mention, that he had no idea even how to tune it!
So, if You play something recognizable - You will have much more fair money than this guy does, if that is your concern XD.
1 Guest(s)
ELCBK
Strabo
Mouse
Fiddlerman
