Feeling good in a lockdown online open mic

The pandemic lockdown has made live music a difficult proposition. I do not play big gigs, but my weekly pub sessions were a big part of my social life. A group of us would gather to play each other songs with some degree of joining in. Each month we would stage an open mic with a PA system where people could put on more of a performance to a larger audience. People have really been missing that.

To keep us going we have been running online open mic sessions. We have two ways we do that. One is a Facebook watch party where people record videos beforehand and we watch them together with a constant text chat going on. The other is in a Zoom conference call where we get to perform live. The latter can suffer from variable audio quality with sound cutting out at times. I seem to have found a set-up that works pretty well. I was playing my Benford Telecasters into some effects and then to a mixer which also has the microphone plugged in. The mix feeds my M-Audio interface. I think having a fairly consistent level helps as Zoom is made for speech. You can disable the features that try to block background sound and set the level automatically.

This recording was made by the call host, so this is what people on the call heard. Feeling Good is a song I like performing despite struggling with the high notes. I also messed up the penultimate chord. That is part of the live experience.

These Zoom calls are not a public thing. It is just for our group to stay in touch and lift spirits in difficult times. Some of them live alone and so any human contact is welcome. Having to prepare performances gives us something to do.

I have done a couple of jams with my @swing47 collaborator in a public park recently. I think people appreciated hearing some live music. It is hard to imagine when we will have those sweaty pub gigs again. If people need lots of space around them it will just not be viable to stage gigs. We were watching the streamed archive performances of the Download festival over the weekend. My daughter has been a couple of times. It may be a while before such events can happen again.

If you know musicians who are struggling due to lack of gigs then please encourage them to consider using Hive where they may earn something. I can create accounts if necessary and will delegate to some. Let me know if anyone joins up and I can feature them in my Follow Friday posts. Music needs to be heard and we need entertainment.

Rock on!