Musical pluses and minuses of Covid restrictions

When I call members of our ukulele club, it's clear that a number have "given up". They no longer play their uke and practice playing/singing songs. They seem to have retracted into their shell since being in lockdown (self-imposed or mandatory).

Meanwhile, our creative Music Director has routinely published audio & audio/video recordings that allow folks to play/sing along with the root file. They email their audio/video files which get merged/sync'd with the root file to create a composite audio or audio/video file. The videos get uploaded to a private area on You Tube for the pleasure of all members.

On the flip side, yesterday I called the owner of my favorite music store in Lafayette, CA and was pleasantly surprised to hear that they have seen an increase in customers buying an instrument to play at home during the lockdown.

I got a newsletter yesterday from the director telling us that the Winter Park Christmas parade was going to happen this year but he decided not to participate. I applaud his decision. I would not have participated if they did march. I think it is stupid that they would hold the parade. Too many people watching, it would not be safe.

Pre Covid I played reeds in three groups: a 13 piece Glen Miller style big band, and 2 community bands. All practices and gigs have dried up. I haven?t played since March.

Took up wood turning and continue with outdoor rifle competition. No boredom here.

Great News! Pfizer has their vacine finished which is 95% effective, they just need final government approval and millions of doses will be available within weeks. Thank goodness, I'm so tired of this virus stuff. I just want life to go back to normal.

Tom55555 said:

Great News! Pfizer has their vacine finished which is 95% effective, they just need final government approval and millions of doses will be available within weeks. Thank goodness, I'm so tired of this virus stuff. I just want life to go back to normal.

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That is good news. But don?t get too excited. We will not be back to normal for at least a year. We have 350 million folks to inoculate. The outgoing administration refuses to share any information on deployment of a vaccine to the incoming administration so things may go a bit slow in the beginning.

Oldgator73 said:

That is good news. But don?t get too excited. We will not be back to normal for at least a year. We have 350 million folks to inoculate. The outgoing administration refuses to share any information on deployment of a vaccine to the incoming administration so things may go a bit slow in the beginning.

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The vaccine requires two doses in order to be fully effective.  So that's >600 million doses needed

According to one "schedule" that I saw, it looks as if senior citizens should be able to obtain shots in the March-April timeframe.  And that assumes that everything goes smoothly which Murphy's Law says it won't.

My church choir hasn?t met since March. My director tried to do a virtual choir with each of us singing in our own homes and then she would combine the results, but it didn?t work well. A number of our members are technologically challenged, and a number didn?t feel comfortable being virtual soloists, even though no one but the director would hear them solo. She has also started virtual hymn sings once every couple of weeks where we can request songs, she plays, and we can sing along at home. The first time I tried to sing again was after 3-4 months of not singing, and my voice was awful! Since then I have concentrated on singing along with songs I hear, just to keep my voice in shape. Someday we will be able to do congregate singing again!

I'm just an old guitar hacker that started playing and signing Dylan in 64 for my own amusement. Since then I've never gotten (much) better, had played in a couple of teenage bands until life got in the way... but I'm happy.


Covid isolation gave me the time to properly set up my year old Cort 6-string just Yesterday. Pulled out some tools and worked on the picnic table at our campsite in Manatee Lake State Campground in Florida.


With great success, I set the relief on the neck, verified nut height and sanded the saddle down to get proper string height at the 12th fret. Magically, the bad intonation that I used to have over the upper 2/3 of the neck went away! And, it plays much easier! Now I can caterwaul for longer!


So, now is the time to set up, sand, stain, finish, polish any of your old instruments and sit back and play to the heavens - we're all listening!

[quote author=UTTransplant]My director tried to do a virtual choir with each of us singing in our own homes and then she would combine the results, but it didn?t work well.[/quote]

There's a latency that screws things up. Works best if members have a root file they can play through eardphones/earbuds as they sing along, and record themselves on e.g. their phone. Also, as you experienced:

A number of our members are technologically challenged, and a number didn?t feel comfortable being virtual soloists, even though no one but the director would hear them solo.

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She has also started virtual hymn sings once every couple of weeks where we can request songs, she plays, and we can sing along at home.

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Like us, you have a very dedicated Director.

Someday we will be able to do congregate singing again!

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Amen to that!

Domo said:

So, now is the time to set up, sand, stain, finish, polish any of your old instruments and sit back and play to the heavens - we're all listening!

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Great idea however all my instruments are already in perfect shape.

Tom said:

There's a latency that screws things up. Works best if members have a root file they can play through eardphones/earbuds as they sing along, and record themselves on e.g. their phone. Also, as you experienced:

Like us, you have a very dedicated Director.
Amen to that!

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She did all the right things. There was even a sound she added to help the sync. And yes, she is a dedicated director. She is going to try it again. Hopefully the bugs get worked out. Singing has been shown to be very contagious in the bad way so it will probably not be until next fall until we can meet again.

Aye, sync'ing can be a challenge, virtually impossible if folks aren't all staying on the beat. The challenge increases with video. We had a bit of a learning curve  :-[

Good luck with the next attempt.

Silver lining or curse?  I've written more original music in the last 8 months than in the previous 5 years.  Enough that I messed up my back sitting hunched over a guitar for too many hours a day.

I can't imagine what something recorded on multiple cell phones would sound like.  Nor how difficult it would be to sync them all to the master track.  That's patience!