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Huge Unknown World
Articles about notable places, phenomena, events, adventures, meetings, activities, travels
№7


How I looked for a job



Street accordionist  Street musician
Additional income  Concert in the underpass
Street musicians  Stary Arbat

Drivingidea.ru LogoArrow I thought for a long time about what to do. Studying at the institute did not fully satisfy my creative ambitions, and there was so much energy that it urgently needed an outlet.

I had to work at work

All my classmates were doing something. Some worked at my dad's mobile phone company, and some washed floors in the dorm for one and a half thousand a month. I wanted to earn good money and "a job so I wouldn't have to work." I started looking: I bought a bunch of magazines, literally surrounded myself with newspapers and, confident in the result, lazily flipped through the pages. After about two hours, I realized that everything that was offered there required good preparation, at least minimal experience, and in most cases - professionalism. I didn't have any of this, because I had lived my entire life in parental care. I was disappointed, but I wasn't going to give up.

I tried searching the ad again and again. The job was supposed to be found sooner or later, but it just didn't happen. I was about to give up completely and stop looking, but then an opportunity presented itself to work part-time as a topical journalist. I was delighted, and immediately "celebrated" the new position with my friends, but after running around Moscow social events for a couple of days, wearing out my heels at modern disco parties, interviewing everyone in a row, I realized that this job was not for me either, because it really is a job that makes you tired and to which you give almost all your strength.

Solfeggio is torture, but it's worth it

And then my close friend found out about my problems (and I shouted about them from every corner). She didn't suffer from it, she lived as she wanted, and at the same time she always had money. How she earned it always remained a mystery to me. And I wasn't particularly interested, because I never borrowed from her and didn't think about work at all. But now the way she got the bills became vital for me. She volunteered to help me.

As a child, I went to a music school, where I learned to play the piano, like all smart and exemplary children. Like all normal children, I hated solfeggio and my teachers with a black hatred, sweated with excitement during exams and tried to get rid of this school as soon as possible, but, as luck would have it, they considered me a talented child and instead of expelling me, they tortured me more than all the others put together. Because of the music school, I was deprived of childhood joys like messing around with peers, walks in the yard and everything else. Music school was hell, I did not see any prospects in it, but now, years later, I realized that it could be useful. A friend suggested that I work part-time on Arbat.

I found myself in the thick of
the capital's youth community

"But I only play the piano! I don't think it can be easily incorporated there" - I really couldn't imagine how it was possible to use this skill in practice while playing such a huge instrument, and even working on the street. But I was explained how useful this skill was. In short, a few days later I was playing keyboards in a newly created "hippie" group.

At first I was very afraid, then I just started to worry, then I became interested, and then an extraordinary feeling of satisfaction came. I was earning money myself, and in a rather pleasant way. Playing on Arbat, I got used to people's attention. Arbat parties are very diverse. Their color is explained by the merging of many different people into one big pile. Young people prefer to stick together, and on the street it doesn't matter who your father is and how much he earns. Everyone just hangs out, trying not to interfere with each other, although this does not always work out. Sometimes big fights start, and even the police prefer not to interfere. But this happens extremely rarely.

I wanted not only to earn money, but also to create

So, I was standing in the company of street musicians and playing. To be honest, no one really needed our music, because the passers-by were mostly engrossed in conversations, and they didn’t pay attention to us, especially since there were other guys standing next to us and also playing and singing. To stand out on Arbat, you have to try really hard. But I was always amazed by the solidarity of the youth: they threw coins at us regardless of whether they listened or not. Seeing that we, not paying attention to the seasons and weather conditions, still stood and played, the guys appreciated our diligence and paid us for the background that we created with our music.

And we tried our best. Rain and snow were not a problem for us. The problem was something else: how to attract, truly interest listeners, make them pay not for the background, but for the pleasure. It was almost impossible, because there are a lot of people and you can't please everyone. But we did it. One day, our soloist decided to radically change the program. Everyone was used to hearing melodies in the style of the seventies from us (this was appropriate for our "hippie" status), but he stuffed shades of different eras into our new songs and got the most unexpected result.

The musical experiment was a success

At first, everyone else, including me, who after a long service had received the right to vote, were categorically against it, but when he used his indisputable right to insist on his own and try to do it his way, they agreed, grumbling discontentedly. We rehearsed new songs and went to our usual evening work.

For the first few minutes, everything was disgusting, people passing by wrinkled their noses and turned away, tried to pass faster, but then we got angry and played so furiously that people liked it! In the end, we created a furor. They made us play again and again. From then on, we were the center of attention.

I finally found a job to my liking. Arbat is a whole world, and it accepted me. I don't make a lot of money, but I have the most important thing - the joy of communication. Drivingidea.ru LogoArrow

Yakhan Izyan

Street Musicians  Street MusiciansStreet Musicians  Street musiciansStreet pianist  Street musiciansStreet musicians


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