Structures: Osgoode Station

Even though subway busking has an improvisational quality, I find myself creating patterns and structures which help me succeed at it.

Although I never start out with a set list, I often play songs in groups. "Sympathy Card" is played with a capo on the fourth fret and so is "Tall Trees", so I usually play them one after another, followed by "Smooth Stones" which echoes lyric content in "Tall Trees". They're individual songs created from different motivations, at different times, with different chord structures and melodies. But when I string them together they form a reassuring pattern, which I seem to need--especially in a space which is ever-changing and unpredictable.

Over a lifetime, all of the songs and notes and words and verses hook together in patterns like beads on a string, making up a body of work that has its own form and impact. Often I'm too close to the work itself--or to the particular details of a particular day--to see that the individual choices I choose to repeat are creating a larger whole.

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Although we have an official schedule of stations that we can follow if we choose, the route taken by most subway musicians is more individualistic. We can decide, on a whim, to go to the farthest station westward (Islington) or stay close to home (Broadview) as the mood strikes us.

Yesterday, when I found myself with a free day and therefore more time to sing, I spontaneously went to Osgoode subway station, "forgetting" (since I hadn't been there for awhile) that just like Pape and Broadview it's a station under construction.

For some reason, I've been drawn to the stations currently marked by barriers and obstacles...works-in-projects with results yet-to-be-revealed...and places where structures are being built or strengthened.

On Friday afternoon, a large part of Osgoode station was hidden so that an elevator could be installed. One of the exit corridors was fenced off for another project, but the performance area was clear.

Although this corridor was damp and drafty as always, the shower-style tiled wall acoustics sounded better than I remembered.

It sounded so good, I wondered if somehow the new walls created by the construction had improved the sound.