So, here we all are, living in splendid isolation while we strive to reduce the number of Corona-virus cases across the country and give our medical system a chance to be able to cope with those affected by the virus. It's certainly a challenging time, but well done us for meeting these challenges with a smile!
So, life has certainly been interesting for this musical educator! Once the COVID-19 situation began to develop, I joined the ranks of musical professionals who's income streams were stopping overnight. I had to immediately stop all face to face private music tuition and choir work - at a cost of about $650 per week. Ouch!
I then got straight onto investigating Zoom as a means of conducting my business online. I tried an online class with my choir Men Wot Sing and we managed a successful rehearsal ... despite the frustration around the annoying time lag that the online platform seems to give. At the end of the session, we all agreed it was great to have a sing, and hang out online together. At the conclusion of the session, I felt a glimmer of hope in the financial department - maybe I wouldn't lose ALL my sole-trader income after all.
So, life has certainly been interesting for this musical educator! Once the COVID-19 situation began to develop, I joined the ranks of musical professionals who's income streams were stopping overnight. I had to immediately stop all face to face private music tuition and choir work - at a cost of about $650 per week. Ouch!
I then got straight onto investigating Zoom as a means of conducting my business online. I tried an online class with my choir Men Wot Sing and we managed a successful rehearsal ... despite the frustration around the annoying time lag that the online platform seems to give. At the end of the session, we all agreed it was great to have a sing, and hang out online together. At the conclusion of the session, I felt a glimmer of hope in the financial department - maybe I wouldn't lose ALL my sole-trader income after all.
After a couple of successful sessions with Men Wot Sing, I then contacted my Alstonville Choir Awesome Voices and ask them if they might be interested in giving it a shot? For the most part, they all thought it would be a great idea and agreed to meet up during our regular Tuesday night slot. It was great to see everybody. We then went through a bunch of warmups tried a few more simple warmup songs and then we ran through our catalogue, with a little bit of my help on one or two of our more recent songs.
When we sing together, I need to mute everybody so that we can all sing along to the previously recorded audio track without the terrible lag that the online platform provides. If I don't mute everybody, we end up sounding like a barn full of farm animals … And we are not used to sounding like that! So ... Awesome Voices seems to be hanging in there as well!
Sadly, my newest choir, Awesome Voices - Evans Head, has not had enough momentum to continue running. The group was very new - only about 6 weeks old - and didn't have enough singers on board to keep going through this time. I will contact everyone again when it looks like we might be able to start singing together again and see how we're all placed ... until then, I wish all my Awesome Voices Evans Head crew safety and excellent health! see how
When we sing together, I need to mute everybody so that we can all sing along to the previously recorded audio track without the terrible lag that the online platform provides. If I don't mute everybody, we end up sounding like a barn full of farm animals … And we are not used to sounding like that! So ... Awesome Voices seems to be hanging in there as well!
Sadly, my newest choir, Awesome Voices - Evans Head, has not had enough momentum to continue running. The group was very new - only about 6 weeks old - and didn't have enough singers on board to keep going through this time. I will contact everyone again when it looks like we might be able to start singing together again and see how we're all placed ... until then, I wish all my Awesome Voices Evans Head crew safety and excellent health! see how
I then decided to try an few Zoom lessons with my private guitar students. This platform worked really well with these one on one sessions as there was more scope for rhythmic fluidity and less need for strict "In time with me"-ness. So ... guitar & bass lessons still going ok. I plan to try a Zoom vocal lesson with a student this week, so fingers crossed that should work alright as well.
The Bucket List is no more!
One very sad development in my musical world within the last few months is that my Bucket List buddy, Leigh and I have had to go our separate ways. Leigh has found work three hours North of Brisbane and has moved away from the Northern Rivers. While I do celebrate Leigh's new job, I'm also really sad that we are now too geographically distant to be able to make The Bucket List work. Six hours physical separation is just too far! So, for now at least, The Bucket List is now more! Here's a short pictorial tribute to our awesome duo!
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