Originally published at: Passer-by can't believe busker is actually playing the guitar | Boing Boing
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I will say that I have literally seen buskers who were playing ‘air’ violin.
It was hilarious and sad.
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I love that moment when the light comes on. I think he may have inspired someone to learn guitar! Yes, Virginia, people really do play instruments to make music!
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It’s a very uncomfortable situation to be in. It’s only happened to me once. Freshman year of college, when a friend of my roommate sat very close and stared at my hands while I played along with an entire album (not perfectly, mind you). He was definitely on at least one psychedelic, possibly in addition to some narcotics.
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And I was gonna start busking this summer . . .
(Thanks for turning me on to a new guitarist.)
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I witnessed a not-really-playing moment this weekend. I attended a funeral where Taps was played and was surprised to discover that the soldier wasn’t actually playing. Although he had the bugle to his lips, the music was coming from a speaker in a bag near his feet. Considering the circumstances I suppose it would have been inappropriate for me to get in his face and say “You’re not doing that!”
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After careful examination & exhaustive research, he really is playing that guitar.
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There are nowhere near enough soldiers that can play the bugle (or the coronet) for all the veterans entitled to an honor guard. So these days, taps is mostly pre-recorded.
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OK, well, there is a backing track there, the busker is playing the guitar, but he’s not playing the drums and bass live.
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Oh the horror, of reveille at 4:59 AM. We did have a bugler / french horn player, but that was for special events, the morning call was pre recorded, in the way back of my youth.
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Yes, as the officials like to say, the faux bugles that are often used now are not a replacement for a real bugler. They’re a replacement for the boom box that would otherwise be used because there aren’t enough buglers to go around.
Back when I was doing Civil War reenactments, ISTR that “First Call,” (to get the buglers up) was about half an hour before “Reveille.”
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Maybe the shortage of buglers is because nobody wants to be the lucky guy who has to get up even earlier than everyone else, put on their uniform, and then perform the thankless task of waking up everyone else. I imagine they’re about as popular as roosters.
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Oh shitsky, we got a rooster in the neighborhood that is up at 4 AM every friggen day. Dang it…
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It’s not worth the hassle, friend. Sell the six million dollar guitar, invest it and live off the dividends. Hell, I can sell you a replacement guitar for, like five hundred bucks if you just love busking.
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Heh. I used to go to or through The Station several times a week for years. Cordova at the foot of Granville, downtown Vancouver.
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Are you sure it wasn’t a theremin? 
It’s shatnershairpiece! I didn’t know he was back out playing on the street. Dude had a brain aneurysm about a year ago.
The Army honor guard at my grandfather’s funeral had a regulation “digital bugle”:
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Isn’t the whole point of military discipline that you can just tell people what to do? Just teach the one melody to the people who have to go to these things anyway and stand there with a fake bugle and a bag full of loudspeakers.
