What are my prospects re. busking in Spain at this time of year? Which would be the best places to try it? Whats the Costa del Sol like over the winter?

not to sound totally foolish, but what is busking??

Yeah! It sounds :o ....errr .... unknown! :p

oh you know busking,
a little music, a little singing and hopefully the tinkling sound of euros in your hat when passed round.

BUSKING - think it stems from meaning making up as you go along, improvising.

But in this case I think what James means is playing music (outside, in Metro etc) in the hopes of making tips because what he does makes people feel good and happy, and they want to show their appreciation.

miche! I should have thought - that's how we can finance our next visit.

Only prob is between us we can't sing or play anything . Erm, what about miming Larios drinking? Or just pointing out the beautiful stars to everyone. Or maybe we could take a small pet with us? We could train it beforehand.

Hmm, no, think perhaps we'd better just save up .

Jo

I wonder how good a musician you are--in Spain you need to be really good. All the street musicians I have ever heard in Spain are superb. If you're really great, go for it. Let us know how it turns out. Good Luck.

Nice one Jo!!
James, I hope you give it a try, that's the beauty of busking, though I'm sure you're good, a busker does not have to be brilliant. A clip of music whatever music it is lifts the soul, and makes me - that's the point-
What is good? What I believe people appreciate about buskers is that they go out there and DO it, they change the way space is used when we travel from point A to B, they are like a (nice) blot on the landscape and brake the hum drum mundane rhythm of a city's movement.
There was this Spanish couple in Navarra singing and playing Brit stuff on their guitars, one of them sang out of key and the other couldn't quite get the chords together, add to that the heavy Spanish accents but what the f***- everyone loved them - if it's British stuff you're gonna strum, they'll love it mate.

Jo,....there's an art to pointing out beautiful stars and drinking Jarras of Sangria!!!! and how about offering a 'podiatry' service, we got pretty good at blasting those blisters huh!
Guuuaaayyyy idea!! |||||x||||Michelle.

So "Busking" is a street entertaining?? Imagine MY surprise over Semana Santa last in Santiago de Compostela when my ladyfriend and I were walking back to our hotel at around midnight from a beautifully illuminated Cathedral and a near-full moon (mmm... so romantic) and after listening to some tunas singing... we left the square and there was a man, in his 30s, leaning up against the cathedral walls playing the guitar and singing an old Simon & Garfunkel song in PERFECT English.. We stood and listened for a while, dropped in a couple Euro coins, to which he kept playing, stopped singing, and said, "Hey, thanks man." The guy sounded like a Californian or something! I was a bit suprised! We saw him there a couple times during the day too and had a beautiful voice and played quite well too.

Soooo.. HE was "busking"??

Saludos, MadridMan

wow... so this is busking...!
well, they do a lot of that at plaza mayor, huh?

Good luck busking - as long as you don't do it outside my window. I've been going insane this summer listening to the accordion orchestras which gather in the plaza outside my window and play Besame mucho, Why Why Why Delilah and Those were the days my friend. It seems every group of buskers has a repertoire of just five songs, so I hear them all about 50 times a day every day! It's maddening. The only one who does anything different is one poor chap who tries to play The Flight Of The Bumblebee for 20 minutes on the saxophone. It's just excruciating. So, please remember us poor residents, who might not like your music or might the first time round but not the 1001st!
Phew. It was nice to get that off my chest!