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One year almost to the day


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Ok, not exactly apples to apples, but March 10 last year was my last gig, and one of the last times I was out in public and indoors around other humans. Out of the freaking blue today the college where I work has gotten word that all higher ed employees are eligible for the vaccine. I have an appt for tomorrow--I woke up today feeling that, hey maybe I'll get one by end of summer.

 

So it will be longer than a year before I'm actually at a gig. Close enough.

 

I'm so incredibly rusty, especially singing. We have gigs that have never stopped (I am the only one who stopped, the singer only does outdoor ones). Needless to say any keyboard songs have either been dropped or new guitar versions now exist LOL!

 

I honestly think it's going to be rough getting "back out there." I have dreams where I'm stressed out because other people are around me. Watching movies with people hugging or walking through big crowds just looks wrong to me now.

 

But man, oh man, I hope the one actually-good thing that covid brought will continue--that I don't have to go work in our crappy open office again. I LOVE working from home....

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Certainly wishing you good luck and the best! (And the same to all in your similar situation.) I'm sure your chops will return, maybe better than ever!

Ludwig van Beethoven:  “To play a wrong note is insignificant; to play without passion is inexcusable.”

My Rig: Yamaha MOXF8 (used mostly for acoustic piano voices); Motion Sound KP-612SX & SL-512.

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My last gig was March 14. I've REALLY tried to keep some sort of practice schedule, and I guess I've been (semi) successful. I hit a little bit of piano and sax 6 days a week, usually not more than an hour or so though....haven't practiced my flute in nearly a year, except for tooting a note here or there, and I haven't been singing at all.....I'm expecting those first few gigs back to be a bit rough....
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I think you're right to assume it'll be a little anxiety producing getting back out there. I've played three gigs since COVID and first two in particular I felt quite antsy. And we have substantially lower cases than a lot of other countries.
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My last gig was in late August last year. I think I played 4 gigs from May until last Saturday - March 6, 2021.

Those were all outdoors and very well distanced.

Saturday was fun, a HUGE room with only 30 tables spread far and wide, only 17 tables were "sold" so a small but very appreciative crowd.

We turned off all reverb and delay on everything and it was still a ghastly ambient wash, I had to watch the singer's strum arm to stay in time, we all did.

 

At 65, I've had both rounds of the Moderna vaccine. I LOVE working from home too!!!!

And I wear a mask and (usually) gloves in public. Even if I am totally immune (skeptical), I still don't want to be a bad example. It's going to be a while still, more people need to be vaccinated.

It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is.
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Today is exactly 1 year since our Top 40 band had our last gig and the calendar crumbled to dust. We have had 3 or 4 gigs in the 12 months since. But it's a far cry from the 100+ a year with them. But I'm optimistic for the second half of this year.

Kawai C-60 Grand Piano : Hammond A-100 : Hammond SK2 : Yamaha CP4 : Yamaha Montage 7 : Moog Sub 37

 

My latest album: Funky organ, huge horn section

https://bobbycressey.bandcamp.com/album/cali-native

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Certainly wishing you good luck and the best! (And the same to all in your similar situation.) I'm sure your chops will return, maybe better than ever!

 

Well, it's like I told my buddy who I play basketball with--I've still got most of my vertical leap I had 3-4 decades go, mostly because I never had much of one to begin with :)

 

I can tell the singing is going to take much longer than the playing to come back just from a physical standpoint, I get out of breath quickly right now and don't have quite the range.

 

Our singer got hers yesterday I think, she also works at a college so she headed over to a site immediately upon hearing that she was eligible. We could have the "band back together" blues brother style in a few weeks.

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It's so close I can taste it, but not close enough. My wife gets vaccination round one this weekend. My employer is making it sound like I might be eligible by next month (as a 31 year old with no underlying conditions or medications I'm near the end of the vaccine line).

 

I am starting to not know who I am anymore. I need to perform. And hug people.

Samuel B. Lupowitz

Musician. Songwriter. Food Enthusiast. Bad Pun Aficionado.

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My wife and I went out to see Steve Hackett perform on Friday, March 6th, and that was the last normal outing for us. Fortunately, it was a great show, and a great night.

 

We had tickets to Summer shows that were cancelled, my bandmate and I missed out on all the shows that we had lined up, much the same as happened to everyone else in here. A few local friends got sick with the virus, but also got over it. Not everyone was nearly as fortunate.

 

Got my first dose of vaccine last Monday, thanks to CVS, while the state and county vaccination programs are running WAY behind the pharmacies. No after-effects, other than a sore arm.

 

I've had nightmares where I'm somewhere out among people, and suddenly realize I don't have a mask on. I guess that's the modern version of the classic where you're naked in public. More than that, I've gotten kind of used to the idea of not seeing people, not going anywhere, or having anyone come by. OTOH, I'm a gardener with a big back yard, and a Musician with a nice Music Room in my home - it would be hubris to call it a Studio - so its easier for me than say, someone stuck in small apartment.

 

May this pass soon, for all of us . . .

"Monsters are real, and Ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win." Stephen King

 

http://www.novparolo.com

 

https://thewinstonpsmithproject.bandcamp.com

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My last gig was this past Friday. Outdoor, but there were a LOT of people there. So far I've had 1 Moderna shot, the next is scheduled March 29.I got an email from the local health care organization, that has 4 hospitals, and numerous doctors. All my doctors are members of that organization. They said that since I'm 64 and have serious health issues, they wanted to make sure I got vaccinated. My appointment was 820 AM on March 1. By 830 AM I was in the observation chair.

 

This band has had to make some changes. The bass player and guitar player quit. Guitar player for safety reasons, the bass player because he needed to get away from our drummer.

 

So, we changed bass players. So now we have a rhythm section that is one measure away from train wreck at all times. We have a good guitarist helping out. (We went into Moving Out by Billy Joel, and the drummer was so far off, the song was unplayable)

 

I have a couple gigs coming up at the end of the month. March 26 indoors with a really fun band, March 28 with the potential train wreck - outdoors. I commented to them that if we ever sound that bad again, I'm done

 

I've actually gotten where I like NOT having a gig on the weekend. I like not having to leave my house. Since I work from home, I will sometimes go 3-4 days without leaving my house. I like it.

"In the beginning, Adam had the blues, 'cause he was lonesome.

So God helped him and created woman.

 

Now everybody's got the blues."

 

Willie Dixon

 

 

 

 

 

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My last gig of the old era was on Valentines Day 2020. Three weeks later we went in lockdown, and nothing has been the same since.

 

The band of the Valentines' gig doesn't exist anymore, and it was my longest-ever running project. We split during lockdown and never met again after that gig.

 

With my other longtime project, a swing band which used to gig at least twice a month, we've done one (1) summer gig, and haven't met since october.

 

I joined "in remote" a new band in lockdown, and we even managed to squeeze in a few rehearsals and a debut gig in the summer.

Hey, so that's TWO gigs for the summer, 3 total in 2020! Hooray!

 

Now in our prolonged second lockdown, I just "joined" another band. I never met them yet.

 

I've also been quite busy expanding and rationalizing my home studio, and did a lot of writing, transcribing and recording tracks and keyboard parts, for me and other producers/musicians. All remote collaborations, some with people I literally have no idea who they are.

 

So...a VERY weird year. Only three gigs in 365 days (the least I've played in the last 25 years). One band lost, one in standby, but surprisingly two new ones. Lots of musical work of a different kind. Lots of tough times, but tons of learning experiences.

In a way, it's been the most musically active year of my life - only, in some very unusual and unforeseen way.

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The next big Covid question will be how comfortable you are going into public with the vaccine in you, but knowing a lot of people don't have it and never will. Something like 25-30% of people will choose not to get it. It will take a while before there are studies on what risk this poses to the vaxxed.

 

Speaking for myself, I'd go for it, but the risk would still be in the back of my mind. The virus isn't going to go away entirely. Just like with the flu, your vaccine will be less effective as the virus evolves, and we know that at this point in time it evolves quickly and continuously. There will always be reports of people getting sick and some small (relative to the past year) number dying. There will be reports of vaccinated people getting sick. And it will always be true that bars and nightclubs are among the places of highest risk, where the least socially responsible people gather to drink alcohol and further impair their already-impaired judgment. For most of us in a forum like this, doing our thing means being in close quarters with the people most likely to infect you.

Gigging: Crumar Mojo 61, Hammond SKPro

Home: Vintage Vibe 64

 

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Good luck with the injection.

 

I had the Pfizer vaccine 6 weeks ago and the only reaction was a slight numbness of the arm for a couple of days.

 

Remember the first injection is only partly effective and it will take about three weeks after the second injection before max immunity is reached.

 

Effectiveness against other variants seems to vary but initial results does look like milder symptoms result if a variant is contracted

Col

 

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A few observations about newly reopened clubs from my perspective: Things are really busy. Clubgoers are not known to be risk averse, and are showing up big time. Don't worry about being rusty... they don't care! They're just happy to be out again.

 

So enjoy yourselves guys! :thu:

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The next big Covid question will be how comfortable you are going into public with the vaccine in you, but knowing a lot of people don't have it and never will. Something like 25-30% of people will choose not to get it. It will take a while before there are studies on what risk this poses to the vaxxed.

 

Speaking for myself, I'd go for it, but the risk would still be in the back of my mind. The virus isn't going to go away entirely. Just like with the flu, your vaccine will be less effective as the virus evolves, and we know that at this point in time it evolves quickly and continuously. There will always be reports of people getting sick and some small (relative to the past year) number dying. There will be reports of vaccinated people getting sick. And it will always be true that bars and nightclubs are among the places of highest risk, where the least socially responsible people gather to drink alcohol and further impair their already-impaired judgment. For most of us in a forum like this, doing our thing means being in close quarters with the people most likely to infect you.

 

I'll be out pretty much like normal times after the 2nd injection has had time. I'm not sure I'll return to the gym, I have a walking routine and we bought a set of nice dumbbells. So far (unless I'm mistaken), any and all of the vaccines are showing an incredible record in the most important stat: keeping people from being hospitalized and/or killed. I realize that I might still get covid even though I've had the vaccine. I realize also that I could still spread it (though studies look promising for that being much reduced, depending on the vaccine) so I will be mindful of that. I'm not much of a hugger like my bandmates anyway :) I tend not to be in close quarters with people at gigs, of course just being inside a joint might qualify to some degree. I keep a fan on me and that will definitely continue, air currents can help disperse the virus and dose matters.

 

I was fretting over the anti-vaxxers in this country, but it was pointed out to me that considering much of the world hasn't even sniffed the virus--and travel continues--it's not worth fretting over. Some countries won't even take the virus (Tanzania's health minister says that steam baths are more effective...). There is going to be large numbers of unvaccinated people in the world, that's just the reality, and knowing that an endemic virus may mutate in a large population isn't going to change it, unfortunately.

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