That is some *great* advice from Marion.

It's been 30 years since my streetsinging heyday, but I don't imagine things are much different now than they were then. I had "stage fright" briefly, the first couple of days I went out, but I managed to form the right attitude fairly quickly: Those who aren't interested will walk on by, while those who want to listen will (sometimes) stop, or at least slow down for a while. There's much less pressure to please an audience than with any "real" indoor gig, where people have expectations. Out on the street, no one is going to worry over how well you perform, so neither should you.

Depending upon the audio environment (how loud the street is), and also upon the nature of other busking acts in your vicinity, a solo act can be more difficult to pull off than a group. I always worked alone (guitar & vocal), and always made much more money in San Francisco in the summer than I could in New Orleans in the winter -- largely (I always assumed) because the tourists and locals in N.O. were accustomed to louder, more in-your-face group performances. In SF, I probably managed to fulfill tourist expectations of seeing real live hippies even though they were a couple of years late (this was 1971-73).

I don't know whether a sign in the instrument case is really necessary; it should be obvious what you're up to. "Salting" the case (or hat, or box) with some bills and/or coins is a better and more basic way to get the message across. I kept a handlettered sign saying "Only In It For The Money"; I hope most people realized I was being ironic, but maybe not.