Rehearsals during Covid-19

firepaulmusic

Is anyone looking at getting the band together for a rehearsal as restrictions are slowly being lifted? It occurred to me that my 3-piece could easily keep social distance in our usual practice space. I thought I could set up the PA and be the only one who touched any of the leads etc...

markslade07

Yep, we're hoping to get together this weekend in a large barn, rather than crappy rehearsal room. Usually a 4 piece, but probably just 3 of us this time. We'll be combining a rehearsal with a recording as we've been asked to do a 'virtual festival'. Be interesting to see how it goes, though think there should be plenty of room to 'social distance'

firepaulmusic

markslade07 said:

Yep, we're hoping to get together this weekend in a large barn, rather than crappy rehearsal room. Usually a 4 piece, but probably just 3 of us this time. We'll be combining a rehearsal with a recording as we've been asked to do a 'virtual festival'. Be interesting to see how it goes, though think there should be plenty of room to 'social distance'

That’s kind of the idea we had as well. A virtual gig for Youtube maybe. Are you pretty happy that this doesn’t breach the government rules, it’s difficult to be sure?

markslade07

firepaulmusic said:

markslade07 said:

Yep, we're hoping to get together this weekend in a large barn, rather than crappy rehearsal room. Usually a 4 piece, but probably just 3 of us this time. We'll be combining a rehearsal with a recording as we've been asked to do a 'virtual festival'. Be interesting to see how it goes, though think there should be plenty of room to 'social distance'

That’s kind of the idea we had as well. A virtual gig for Youtube maybe. Are you pretty happy that this doesn’t breach the government rules, it’s difficult to be sure?

I don’t think it breaks any rules, but it’s hard to be sure these days! There are less than 6 of us, meeting outside, will observe social distancing and only touch our own stuff. I suspect that if someone was inclined, and didn’t like our songs, they’d probably have a whinge, but as far as we can tell, it’s within the ‘rules’

Cols

We had our first rehearsal since March yesterday.  Great to play as a band together again and blow the cobwebs off.

The new rules are: “From Monday, people in England can meet in groups of up to six people in outdoor spaces like parks or private gardens - as long as you remain two metres apart”

Fortunately our bass player lives out in the countryside and has a nice big back garden.  Even so, we kept everything turned down (used an electronic drum kit, no mics for vocals) to avoid annoying his neighbours.

Other things to bear in mind; no handling of other people’s kit, bring own food and drink, don’t turn up if you feel a bit ropy, hand sanitizer after touching anything anyone else might have touched, etc etc.

A large barn may be technically “indoors”, but in terms of what makes the difference in risk control compared to outdoors the only difference would be touching door handles.  There shouldn’t be any breathing of each other’s air.

It might be an idea to let any neighbours who might otherwise be inclined to moan know about the practice beforehand - when you’ll start, when you’ll finish, and so on. This allows you to address any problems upfront and avoids the possibility of them creating trouble during practice.

Legionreturns

firepaulmusic said:
Are you pretty happy that this doesn’t breach the government rules, it’s difficult to be sure?

As far as I can tell, the rules are completely optional if you have kids. 

If challenged, just state that your parental instincts didn't want your band to get rusty.

pmbomb

I think it's fine if you're outdoors and distanced. I was at the evening Cols mentions, not perfect but much better than doing nothing. Also we all get along and it was nice to catch up for a bit of banter. Main hazard is I've been off on a musical tangent during lockdown and forgotten half our riffs (Brown Sugar cough). Oops.

Stratavarious

We have...  large covered garden area... there was a big audience in nearby gardens all cheering and singing along who set up their dinners outside..  so it has been more gig than practice.

All kept nicely in our zones... no touching other’s kit or the mixer.  No entry to house or through it.  5 of usl.  So all in the rules.

markslade07

We did ours yesterday afternoon. Huge farmer barns which was great for social distancing, not so clever for acoustics! Trying again next week too

andy_k

Did our first rehearsal for 4 months this tuesday, the only thing that has changed is I forgot half the songs, so actually nothing has changed.
They did have a bottle of hand gel and a packet of wet wipes out.
Very surreal meeting people for first time in 4 months, a few hairstyles have changed, but not much else.
We were probably breaking the rules, as there are 5 of us, from different households, in a small room with no ventilation.
No attempt at contact tracing, we don't know who is in the room before or after us, or how long between bookings, we are an evening session.
It did feel good to crank it up though.

4string

About to rehearse for the first time since March. We have booked the biggest room we could get, and all but the singer will be wearing masks. I expect to sound like the rank amateurs that we are... 

Musicwolf

First practice this afternoon.  Good to see the guys and to blow away the cobwebs.

roberty

Honestly it has been such a relief. Just good to get out and chat shit with people for a bit, although the music is obviously a bonus