I don’t think I realized, until this Covid-19 pandemic, what an intensely social thing music was in my life. It became abundantly clear when my busy calendar of gigs and rehearsals suddenly got wiped out for at least 2 months.
But along with those went the regular jams I also attend, and I realized that playing music with people is a huge part of the way I live.
Like most of us, my friends, family and I quickly adapted to online tools to have live interactions (like Zoom), and that helped fight the feeling of isolation a great deal.
But there’s nothing like picking with friends (and friends-to-be) – the down-to-the-millisecond spontaneity was more important than I realized!
We’ll get through this, of course, and it’ll be a great day indeed when I can start the cycle of jams, rehearsals and gigs again.
It’s so frustrating to try to be patient. This virus is new – why won’t it hew to our modern sensibilities and abbreviated attention spans?
But we, as a society, have weathered difficult times before. While they will change us, forever, we will emerge over time – it probably won’t be abrupt – and we’ll work out our new “normal” and put this crisis in our rear-view mirror.
In the meantime, keep practicing. Learn a new instrument or learn some new songs on the instruments you already can play. Keep vigorous, confident and optimistic, that you will have a chance to play music with your fellow pickers some day, soon!
