Looking to get into Street Drumming

[drummerboy_c]

Hey everybody! I've done a lot of reading here for the last day or two, and I have yet to see any mention of Street Drumming.

I live in Austin, TX and I'm just wondering what the best way would be to go about getting started. I sent an email to a lady with the city council to ask about permits or if there are any designated areas to do this, but at the same time, I still want to go through with it even if they end up having some pretty poor designated areas that aren't in ideal locations, or if the permits are a pain to maintain. I'm still waiting to hear back from her at the moment.

Being that Street Drumming involves some noise, I would imagine that the choice of location may be a little bit trickier than juggling or something like that, because of the possibility of complaints.

I'm mainly just hoping that because Austin, TX's slogan is "The Music Capital of the World" and another one is "Keep Austin Weird", that they will be accomidating in helping me to do this instead of shooting it down. Then again, I'm not sure how many others are thinking the same thing and trying to do this. I've done all kinds of searching online about Austin Street Drumming, and have found nothing. I would think that because it's such a music oriented city, somebody would have jumped on it, but hopefully I can make my niche doing it!

I'm a really confident stage performer and always tend to turn heads with my drumming, but I must admit that I'm really nervous about trying this out, although I've always wanted to really badly. There's a difference between being on a legitimate stage, and just randomly setting up somewhere and going at it haha.

Thanks for any advice!

--Chris

[Lee Nelson]

yee haw cowboy

If you dont ask they cant say no.

People will often say no just because they dont know. It protects them from taking a risk.

Once you start you are in a stronger position than thinking about it as far as getting permission goes.

[jeep caillouet]

drumming

Your absolutely right Lee, you should never ask you should just do it. If your not allowed to do it you can bet your ass someone's gonna tell you yo get the heck out of here! Austin's a great place to play and I love to stop there for a few days when I'm going across country. You can play on 6th street. It's usually good after 10 at nite. Some times I play at a bar there called Maggie Mays. you can also play on the guada loop area, I usually play at the entrance to the university there for lunch for a couple of hours. There are a lot of really great bucket drummers around too. I've seen some bucket bands around from time to time that are really good too. They use many different size buckets and different size barrels to get a full band sound. Let us know how it works out for you.

[drummerboy_c]

Thanks!

Thanks guys

I figured it was probably one of those "Just jump on in" type of things lol. The lady never got back to me... eh. I'll just go set up on 6th street sometime to start out, considering that it's packed on the weekends and I probably have less of a chance of being harassed by authorities in the same way as if I just found some random spot in the city.

I've still got some planning to do, but I'll let you know how it turns out when I do it

[Isabella]

Something that can help you a lot is to make friends with anyone whose business may be affected by you - that is, if you are playing during the lunch hour and there are cafes nearby, stop in, say hello, let them know you will only be playing for 30 minutes at a time (or whatever) so that they see you as part of the area and not as a nuisance whom they should chase away or complain about.

Businesses get worried when someone loud is near them for a long time. So it's worth it to pick pitches that you can rotate, or play the areas where it's, say, a loud nightclub and not a bookstore.

[Evan Young]

Isabella has a good point. Bucket drums (and other drums) have this sound that carries in a way that can really piss people off. It bounces off buildings and travels way down the street and does not sound nearly as cool from a distance. Being mindful of that is the only way to not make enemies.

Good luck!

[Dan The One Man Band]

I know drumming was banned in Austin in the late '90's. don't know if it's changed. They were pretty uptight on 6th ave. "The King" was the only one who had permission to busk.
It was a bit better along the drag
Austin's a great music town. They should have better street performing policies.

[giant kid]

hey drummerboy, id really like to hear what you find out about the permit situation in Austin, I am looking to move down there and am hoping for a good performing scene,