A NYC subway musician and musical saw player tells what happens when she plays in the subway

• Snakes Don’t Like Vibrations
• Video From Union Square
• Where Do You Place Your Voice?
• How Many Grandchildren
• One Good Deed Deserves Another

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• 59th street & Lexington
• busking
• Herald Square
• Music Under New York
• musical saw
• Shuttle
• St. George Ferry Terminal
• Times Square
• Uncategorized
• Union Square
• Whitehall Ferry Terminal

There were a lot of people waiting for the Staten Island ferry on the Manhattan side. A policeman with a dog checked out my busking gear. “Are you playing at this side today?” the cop asked me. “No”, I answered, “on the other side”. I was happy that he recognized me.
I boarded the boat named ‘Spirit of America’ to head for my busking spot of the day at the St. George ferry terminal in Staten Island.

As I was setting up a number of people were wheeled into the terminal in wheel chairs. They were my first audience of the day. I was happy they were, because they were very enthusiastic about my playing, and it “broke the ice”. The first song of the day is always the hardest to play.

Photographer: © Rosa Naparstekjan

A Music Under New York guitar player who lives on Staten Island said ‘hi’ to me. He will be playing at the Whitehall ferry terminal tomorrow, but today he is just freelancing in the subway. He told me that he learned to smile while busking from me “It helps”, we both agreed.

A guy was on top of the aquarium in the center of the terminal. I guess maybe he was feeding the fish.

A guy bought my CD and then asked me to play ‘Ave Maria’. He told me that this piece was played when his grandmother died.

A lady asked me what was the note I played at the end of a song - a high note. I told her the range of the musical saw is similar to that of a flute. The musical saw only has three and a half octaves. This lady used to play violin and flute. She told me that the flute has 5 octaves but the sound of the musical saw did remind her of the flute. “Well, the flute was designed for music, so it makes sense it would have more octaves then the saw”, I said, and she agreed with me.

A kid asked me if there is vibrations when I play. He told me that he has a snake in his pocket and the snake doesn’t like vibrations. He said most snakes of this kind are yellow but this one is brown. He catches crickets to feed the snake, but one cricket lasts as food for 30 days for the snake. I’m not sure if any of what he told me is true… I asked him to show me the snake (which he said was in his pocket) but he didn’t…

I boarded the ‘Spirit of America’ ferry boat back to Manhattan.

On the train back home a blind man sang ‘Sweet Chariot”. When I changed trains, another singer (with lots of energy) was making the rounds of that train.

This video was taken last month while I was busking at the Union Square subway station in Manhattan: (turn off the music player on the right hand side bar before viewing the video)

Thank you Jennie Block for the video!

Remi, the Haitian singer/guitar player, was at the Music Under New York busking spot at the 14th street subway station when I got there. He has been there for an hour, he said. He likes to play at St. Marks Place, near where he lives. He has been there for 10 years now and has a great small apartment where he pays only $600 a month!
Since the earthquake at Haiti I have been thinking about Remi, wondering if he might have family he is worried about. It turns out that Remi doesn’t have any family in Haiti any more.

Two people remarked to me on how few musicians there are in the subway. A couple of tourists from Berlin said: “There is nothing in the subway”. I explained that it’s because it’s a Monday. Most buskers take Monday off. I take the weekend off, even though these are good days to busk, and I don’t mind busking on Mondays, even though it is very slow.

A lady told me that she is a classical singer and asked me where I place my voice. I explained that I am not singing - it’s the sound of the musical saw that sounds similar to a woman’s voice. I demonstrated to her how I play, keeping my mouth tightly shut, or talking to her while playing, so that she will see that I am not singing. The lady said that she is amazed, because the placement of the voice is perfect with the musical saw. She said that I would be a good teacher for singers - singers could learn from listening to the musical saw about how the voice should be placed.
I guess that’s why some call the musical saw a ’singing saw’

Two men changed the inside of one of the public phones in the station. How nice that there are still public phones!

At 3:10pm Don Witter, the guitar player, showed up for his permitted time slot at the spot. He said that he doesn’t mind playing on Mondays, either.

At the Music Under New York busking spot at the 14th street subway station Raices Group were performing: Edgar on flute and Geo on guitar.
While I was waiting for them to be finished, a group of MTA construction workers wearing yellow/orange vests walked by. One of them said to his friend: “Hey, it’s the Saw Lady!” Then he said to me: “I saw the Saw Lady”

Geo told me that while he was playing, a guy told him that he applied to audition for Music Under New York but didn’t pass the preliminary audition because he wanted his 12 year old son to perform, and that’s against child labor rules. He asked Geo to let him copy the MUNY banner, so that he could pretend he has a permit. Geo refused, of course (it would have been a federal offense to aid in crime). The guy said: “Come on, nobody would know”. Geo pointed out that the banner has the performer’s name on it, and its no good without the paper permit that gets sent to each musician twice a month with the specific locations where the musician is scheduled to perform.

Edgar just returned from Peru where he spent a whole month performing. He will take his band there next year to celebrate his band’s 25th anniversary.

A guy wearing a badge took photos of the ads on the walls of the subway station. The ads were anti-smoking ones.

A lady placed a ‘Sephora’ bag next to my donations box. It had many pennies in it.

A guy told me that he can say ‘hello’, ‘thank you’ and ‘good bye’ in ten languages. He asked me where I was from and told me that he has a friend who lives in Israel for 40 years. He has five children and many grandchildren. The friend doesn’t want to say how many grandchildren he has because it’s bad luck, but his wife said it’s 21 grandchildren.

A girl gave me a promotional pass to the AMC movie theater.
I also got Canadian and Norwegian coins in my donations bucket.

At 3pm Edgar and Geo returned. Edgar heard me playing the theme from ‘Titanic’, ‘My Heart Will Go On’. While I was packing up we played it together a little bit, Edgar on the pan flute and me on the musical saw.

On the train back home a guy was singing and playing guitar and harmonica.

A young guy helped me bring my busking gear up the subway stairs. When we reached the platform there was an unusually large number of people there, because the train wasn’t working. I forged my way through the thick crowd and the guy who helped me before followed behind me. When we got to the end of the platform, where it was a little bit less crowded, I turned back to the guy and said: “I’m forging the way for you”. He replied: “One good deed deserves another”.

A few train stops later, even more people got on the train and it was extremely crowded. A guy in a blue ball cap said to me: “It’s like in my country”. I asked him what country he was from and he said: “In Puerto Rico cars don’t move until they are full”.
I was lucky to get a seat on the train. When I was about to get off, I asked the Puerto Rican guy if he wants to exchange places with me, so that I could get off. He was happy to get a seat, as he was traveling all the way to Coney Island - the end of the line.

My busking spot was at the 59th street & Lex subway station.
After I played ‘Evergreen’ (the Barbra Streisand song), a guy told me that this was his mother’s favorite song. In fact, she is buried in ‘Evergreen Cemetery’. Many years ago there was a booth where people could go and record a song to pre-recorded playback. His mother recorded this song. The guy is sad he can’t find that cassette of his mother’s recording now. “She sounded just like Barbra Streisand, too”, he said, “very natural”.

Somebody put a wooden souvenir from Bulgaria in my donations box. It looks like a 3.5″ tall chess pawn, decorated with colorful hand painted motifs, and the word ‘Bulgaria’. The top screws off and inside there is a flask of rose oil that says ‘From Bulgaria Land of Roses’. It smells nice.

At 4pm Sesoko, the Kora player, came for his permitted busking spot.

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"Natalia Paruz not only plays the musical saw beautifully, she’s also a terrific musician."
Peter Schickele (aka PDQ Bach)

ALSO.... Please check out my MP3 page where you can listen to me playing the musical saw. You can also download my music there.
Also please check out my website www.SawLady.com

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