[MartinMusicMan]

This is a thread topic on the keyboard forum. Lots of different perspectives from gigging and rehearsing to no way.

The OP said " ... curious what the forum folks are doing since we are still in a pandemic, with lots of ongoing warnings to stay home, socially distance, wear masks, etc. None of my local venues are doing anything more than maybe an occasional 1-2 piece acoustic act. No bands. Last fall, I was fortunate enough to do three outdoor gigs. My bands have paused everything for the time being, with there being no indoor venues in the winter. We may get some outdoor shows in the spring/summer and we'll see what the latter half of the year has to bring. We've been grappling with what to do about rehearsing...many people have different risk factors and exposures, so pausing has felt like the safest route. However, as we round out February and realize there has been no music performed as a group since maybe November, it's tough! We've talked about an extra cautious and masked rehearsal, which still seems like it could be uncomfortable. What are others doing with gigs and rehearsals these days?"

I posted: I've also been wondering if my gigging days are over. It's an awful prospect for me to consider and I resist it. Fortunately, my main band very much wants to gig. We've booked an outdoor gig for mid-March (northern California so weather will probably be ok). We lost our drummer to Covid (she's fine, she just moved back to Denmark) so we'll use a sub drummer -- there are several since most musos are desperate to play. I will have had my 2nd shot 2 weeks before that gig so I'll be less anxious. However, a couple band members may not even have had their first dose by then. Still, they want to play. Band is still not rehearsing in the guitar player's studio. We can rehearse in my garage where we can be 6' apart and have doors and windows open. If weather is good, we can rehearse in my back yard.

Another band that I used to gig with on keys has an outdoor gig booked for mid-April. The leader/vocalist invited me to join in on sax on a few tunes,. Things may gradually be coming back, but indoor music venues aren't open and it may be a loooong time before that happens.

 

[ZootTheSim]

Nope. But I did take in an online jazz jam last night, with the musicians all performing from their respective homes in real time, broadcast over Youtube. The timing was perfect, with no discernible latency--though the tenor sax had audio issues, apparently from the software platform's compression algorithms.

 

[soybean]

Zoot. Do you know what software they were using?

 

[GaSax]

Our local community band just started back this past Monday (2/15/21). The last time we met was in December.

There's no lock downs or special restrictions where I'm at. But some of the business requires employees to wear masks and limit their capacity.

 

[timboniface]

No I had a few gigs (outside or filmed) before Christmas but nothing since - pretty strict Lockdown here in the UK. I have a couple of bookings for the summer- outdoors or hopeful-indoors (Sept onwards). For live music, I've been lucky to be able to hear small groups of (really good!) university singers in the chapel services I lead here in Cambridge.

But I haven't made music in the room with another jazz musician or with an audience since November and it's really painful! I'm doing a bit of online collaboration, but it's very much a case of filling the gap rather than something I want to continue in ernest.

 

[milandro]

we haven’t had any rehearsal since end of November , and there are no rehearsal spaces open anywhere , only one person a day is allowed to visit at home and making music indoors in a group is practically impossible (and outdoors since no more than two people are supposes to congregate outside) restaurants and bars are all closed and all of this will go on at least until March but most probably May.

Despite the recent drop in cases ( which is always a relative indicator, since some people don’t report themselves as sick and because the real indicator is the amount of people in Hospital and hoe crowded ICUs are ) here the responsible people fear the new mutations which are replacing what some people call “ classic” Covid (a one year old classic).

Vaccinations are slow, here both in production and even more in administration, mutations are faster.

I am not so sure there will ever be anything old normal to go back to. The new normal won’t look like the old one. Many places which were hosting jam sessions are gone forever. I am suffering a lot under the stress.

 

[JacobMW]

Got a gig on Wednesday and are rehearsing a bit.

We are very lucky here in Australia as weve managed to get on top of the virus, weve been slowly building up with rehearsals with occasional shut downs whenever we have had the bug escape from quarantine

venues are a little reticent on booking, but its been great to get started started again, though we are all beimg very careful about not standing too close - a little tricky when youve got a 4 piece horn section and 7 other musos.

 

[Nobby Keys]

No gigs yet. One of the bands I am in have been rehearsing using Jamkazam, some mixed results but yesterdays get together worked well as long as we didn't use video.

 

[Sacks Of Phones]

Gig? What's a gig? I can't remember what that is.

 

[BrianMitchellBrody]

Not yet although I've been called a few times because clubs and restaurants are starting to book. I haven't been vaccinated yet so I'm waiting until after the booster.

 

[ZootTheSim]

Zoot. Do you know what software they were using?

A new Canadian platform called SyncSpace.live, developed by Adrian Cho, formerly of Shopify and Director of the Ottawa Jazz Orchestra. It leverages Jamulus and JackTrip, but runs only as a proprietary SAS, unfortunately.

'Incredible feat': Ottawa man creates site allowing long-distance musicians to play online in real time

Like most musicians the world over, bassist and bandleader Adrian Cho looked for new ways to perform for people after the pandemic last year effectively killed…

ottawacitizen.com

 

[Berg-Man]

The pandemic is going to give the clubs/restaurants another excuse to low ball musicians when it comes back IMO.

 

[Grumps]

Our brass band is getting Spring gigs, but we played through the pandemic last year and really only took a break during the cold of Winter. We can play outside and spread out without amplification however. It's just a matter of the allowable size of crowds for outdoor gatherings..

 

[1saxman]

Its coming - going to the first practice on Thursday and the first gig with one of my bands is 5/15.

 

[notes_norton]

Rehearsals yes. Easy because my beautiful wife is my duo partner, so we have the guitars, synths, sax, mics and small PA set up in the living room. We do an hour or two at least 3 times a week.

We are learning new songs too. I make my own backing tracks (I play sax, flute, wind synth, guitar, bass, drums and keys) so that they can be done in our key and our arrangement (usually saving a spot for me - the solo hog - to improvise a solo). We also save the most fun parts to play live over the tracks.

Leilani plays guitar, synth and is an excellent singer. On stage in the duo I play sax, flute, wind synth and guitar. I'm an adequate singer.

We gig for a living. When COVID-19 hit all our gigs for this winter in Florida were canceled. I gave all my clients the choice of either getting their deposit back, or letting it ride for a future date when the pandemic is over. Only one person asked for the deposit back, since she was resigning as entertainment chairperson. Two have been rescheduled for early in 2022, and I suspect the others will when they think it's safe.

But for now it's been 1-year and 5-days since we gigged. We dearly miss it. But we're vaccinated, keeping our chops up, and when the gigs come back, we'll be ready and have new songs to play for our audience as well.

When we do gig, it'll be good knowing my sax is not a Corona broadcasting device

Insights and incites by Notes

 

[JohnInDenver]

I am not so sure there will ever be anything old normal to go back to. The new normal won’t look like the old one. Many places which were hosting jam sessions are gone forever. I am suffering a lot under the stress.

Yes, this is the point many of us have reached. We are all together in this, but also alone! For me, given the current information, I plan to resume some relatively-safe normal activities once I have been fully vaccinated. So many of these things, which I formerly took for granted, seem special now...something to look forward to, Milandro!

 

[whaler]

I played a gig Wednesday but a snowstorm on top of the hesitancy of people not wanting to come out kept the numbers in the audience down.
I’m just now getting where I’ve missed playing.
If the pandemic and shutdown hadn’t happened I’d be working steady Monday through Thursday restaurant gigs I had lined up. I had a steady Monday for years and now the restaurant had to close. Supposedly the original owner is going to reopen since he owns the building and I’m hoping I’ll be back. My Thursday night spot is owned by Brown Forman liquor company so they can afford to stay open even when it’s slow but my trio isn’t playing.
if things don’t reopen at 100% soon I’m afraid more will close.

 

[JayeLID]

NM went into quasi-lockdown again at Thanksgiving, and just last week our County moved from Red to Yellow status, Red was no interior dining/service, 25% exterior dining/service....and while winter in the High Desert may be nothing compared to what is going on in Northeasy and northern Midwest, it still basically translated into venues being closed, or if open, certainly NOT booking entertainment.
I hav re-connected with venue managers and now they are entertaning booking music again, as the Yellow regs are 25% indoor seating, 75% outdoor seating allowed, masking while not seated at tables, and the worst of the winter cold is passing....

The few nightclubs/bar nitespots here (which don't serve food, just booze and music) remain shuttered, there is little point in them operating if only 25% capacity is allowed.

Texas, a mere 15 miles south, of course, was being Texas - so their venues began opening in January and from what I hear gigging is actually in semi-full swing down there in Paso. I believe bars are allowed 50% capacity down there, which apparently is good enough for most venue owners.
We have not gigged in Paso nor have we plans to solicit until maybe April.

But we did play 3 gigs between Dec-now at a winery just across the border, in TX...outdoor, max capacity 50% indoor -50% outdoor, masking required when not seated at tables, big open green with patio heaters and fire pits everywhere...and each time we played the weather was around 60 degrees (afternoon gig) and the place was well-attended.

We have rehearsed 3x since the new year....

So the band has gotten together 6x since Dec. 27....and we will have a half dozen gigs booked for March....

 

[dogsterooni]

This is a thread topic on the keyboard forum. Lots of different perspectives from gigging and rehearsing to no way.

The OP said " ... curious what the forum folks are doing since we are still in a pandemic, with lots of ongoing warnings to stay home, socially distance, wear masks, etc. None of my local venues are doing anything more than maybe an occasional 1-2 piece acoustic act. No bands. Last fall, I was fortunate enough to do three outdoor gigs. My bands have paused everything for the time being, with there being no indoor venues in the winter. We may get some outdoor shows in the spring/summer and we'll see what the latter half of the year has to bring. We've been grappling with what to do about rehearsing...many people have different risk factors and exposures, so pausing has felt like the safest route. However, as we round out February and realize there has been no music performed as a group since maybe November, it's tough! We've talked about an extra cautious and masked rehearsal, which still seems like it could be uncomfortable. What are others doing with gigs and rehearsals these days?"

I posted: I've also been wondering if my gigging days are over. It's an awful prospect for me to consider and I resist it. Fortunately, my main band very much wants to gig. We've booked an outdoor gig for mid-March (northern California so weather will probably be ok). We lost our drummer to Covid (she's fine, she just moved back to Denmark) so we'll use a sub drummer -- there are several since most musos are desperate to play. I will have had my 2nd shot 2 weeks before that gig so I'll be less anxious. However, a couple band members may not even have had their first dose by then. Still, they want to play. Band is still not rehearsing in the guitar player's studio. We can rehearse in my garage where we can be 6' apart and have doors and windows open. If weather is good, we can rehearse in my back yard.

Another band that I used to gig with on keys has an outdoor gig booked for mid-April. The leader/vocalist invited me to join in on sax on a few tunes,. Things may gradually be coming back, but indoor music venues aren't open and it may be a loooong time before that happens.

Yes I live I Florida getting busier and most are outdoor events because of the great weather and to keep it safe

 

[saxfax]

No gigs and no rehearsals since October. And uncertain when we can start again. However, my teacher is giving online lessons. That's pretty good, better than nothing.