Tales
Busking
Terren asked Mom ways that she could earn money. Mom suggested Terren try busking (Playing music in public to earn cash). Tapping Terren's desire to earn money might help her overcome her fear of performing. Mom thought people might give some cash to a 10 year old who could play Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, and Grieg.
Terren didn’t think it was a great idea. She resisted, even with all of Mom's coaxing of "Whatever you earn will be yours to do whatever you will, you have a small window when you're young, etc."
Then - serendipity. Sometimes, Terren and Koda have to practice music in crazy places: hanging out of the car, standing on as sidewalk, some random hotel piano, a church piano. On one of these days when we toted the euphonium to our favorite Japanese restaurant Kirala where we know we have a 20 minute wait for the first seating, Terren pulls out on a side street to practice. A few minutes later, the older man behind us in line asked Justin, “Is that your daughter? Is she busking?” Justin told him that she was just practicing.
The man continued, “Well, she’s got her case open," turns to the woman with him, and says, "Honey, give me some cash.” He walked down to Terren and asked if she could play a piece rather than warm-up exercises. She did, and he dropped $5 in her case.
Terren came back astonished. “$5!!” At dinner, she said, "Mama, I want to busk." She's been busking ever since.
