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Somebody forwarded this to me and I thought you folks might find it interesting.Violinist in the Metro A man sat at a metro station in Washington DC and started to play the violin. It was a cold January morning. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, it was calculated that thousands of people went through the station, most of them on their way to work. Three minutes went by and a middle aged man noticed there was musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried up to meet his schedule. A minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a woman threw the money in the till and without stopping, continued to walk. A few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to listen to him, but the man looked at his watch and started to walk again. Clearly he was late for work. The one who paid the most attention was a 3 year old boy. His mother tagged him along, hurried but the kid stopped to look at the violinist. Finally the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children . All the parents, without exception, forced them to move on. In the 45 minutes the musician played, only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money but continued to walk their normal pace. He collected $32. When he finished playing and silence took over, no one noticed it. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition. No one knew this but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the best musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written with a violin worth 3.5 million dollars. Two days before his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out at a theatre in Boston and the seats averaged $100.00. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of an social experiment about perception, taste and priorities of people. The outlines were: in a commonplace environment at an inappropriate hour: Do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize the talent in an unexpected context?

Not too many stop to smell the roses.Thanks

Yup. This incident explains most why the music business is what it is. And why fame is so elusive, and fleeting.That said, I am certain there are folks who would hear that intricate piece and, not having an ear for classical music, would declare that the guitar player from, say, the Red Hot Chili Peppers is actually a much better musician!

You can find the complete Washington Post story here:http://taxi.proboards27.com/index.cgi?b ... 11824along with some comments....

damn billy, if you are not passing on some gems lately...truly.the best,warren

Hey billg Thanks for sharing that. It was pretty cool. There's a guy here in Miami who plays the violin on the Metro (he's no Joshua Bell), but what's funny is that he can't play in the station or on the platform so he has to play on the train and only in between stops.When the train leaves the station he looks down the aisle and into the other cars to see if there are any cops and if it is clear, he continues to play. Unfortunately most folks on the train are listening to their ipods with earbuds shoved in so they miss out on a pretty descent player.

Feb 8, 2009, 3:33pm, ggalen wrote:Yup. This incident explains most why the music business is what it is. And why fame is so elusive, and fleeting.That said, I am certain there are folks who would hear that intricate piece and, not having an ear for classical music, would declare that the guitar player from, say, the Red Hot Chili Peppers is actually a much better musician! I think it's sad that in your musical world John Frusciante (Guitarist for RHCP) can't reside on the same musical plain as Joshua Bell. I bet Joshua Bell doesn't feel that way.

Diogenes,I am not sure how that fits in with the topic I was addressing: Bell's skillful playing of the amazingly intricate Bach piece, and someone thinking a popular guitarist was the more skillful musician because they don't "get" classical music.

I was being devil's advocate because it seemed to me that you were saying Joshua Bell is a better musician just because he play's classical. My bad. But what if someone "got it" but still preferred John Frusciante?

Diogenes,I think that's valid. There are a lot of people who have great technical dexterity, but I don't enjoy the difficult music they play.In my case, heavy metal shredding. I know it takes a lot of dexterity, but it doesn't move me.And yes, simple and repetitive music can be enjoyable: Satisfaction by the Rolling Stones has always been fun for me. It doesn't get much more simple and repetitive that that.