Jeez, Dermod, you must really have your head in the clouds if Marion's thorough, articulate, and very helpful message "depressed you a bit."

For anyone who has actually gone out there in public and done it -- or for anyone who seriously plans to begin doing so -- strategies for being *effective* are equally as important as one's musicality or artistic talent or whatever.

Many of Marion's points -- like her advice to interact with little children, to be willing to take requests even by "winging it" by ear, etc. -- have as much to do with providing pleasure and entertainment to the folks on the street as they do with "marketing" or profiteering. Indeed, just about every piece of advice offered by any of us here has been intended as a way to reach an audience and "brighten their day." Indeed, the *only* way a busker can hope to maximize his/her "take" is to please the listeners and thus induce some of them to make voluntary contributions.

Your own analogy to hitchhiking is pretty apt. If one if going to stand at the roadside in hopes of catching a lift, one can hardly be faulted for seeking advice for ways to actually induce a driver to stop. Similarly, if one if going to perform in public, what's wrong with trying to find ways to reach an audience and provoke a response?