As we head towards our 2nd Lockdown or at least the curtailment of activities we used to take for granted our world continues to take on a surreal feeling of disbelief that this is happening to us. I am sure we each have our own views on the situation we find ourselves in but really all we can do is help each other and our loved ones to cope. There is no doubt that some are suffering far more than others. As we reflect, we are probably personally in a position of simply dealing with our inability to socialise. Yet we will all have personal circumstances that make us all to aware of the impact, financially, mentally and physical health the situation is having on Loved ones and friends. We are in the privileged position of having our music and each other.
Hugukuletv123, thanks to those who joined in last Friday. We had a spookily enjoyable time playing some Halloween type songs (well some were a bit of a stretch but certainly scared me). Everything was going fine until the Werewolf took over! It was fun to try out some songs like Monster Mash, Time Warp and Love Potion No. 9. So much so that I have added them to our song list. More on this later.
It was good to also feature more Poems and thanks to Claud for also including visuals for his Poem. Also appropriately, All Hallows - by Brian Wilbraham.
Keep the poems coming if you are suitably inspired.
I will continue to feature new for us songs and it was good to include our newest song Dancing In The Dark, by Bruce Springsteen. Thanks to Geoff and Sheila for learning the song so that we have a reference point to learn from.
Open Mike, disappointingly apart from some of the usual contributors, I have not received any other notification that people have videoed a contribution. I am now able to convert video formats so you don't have to concern yourself on what format you are recording in. Once you have a video, let me know and I will send you a link to upload your video to me. As I have said before video files are too big to go as attachments to emails.
Now I realise that making a video is not for everyone and some may not feel confident performing and playing on their own but I would encourage you to have a go. I have videod myself performing a song as I can hardly ask you to do something unless I have made a contribution, at least it will make you laugh! One other option, if you want to use Audio, is to make an audio recording and then video yourself miming along and pretend playing. Go on have a bit of fun, it can be as outrageous or funny as you like or dare! Just ensure the volume is up on the recordings but obviously don't actually sing or hit the strings on the video!
If you want to see this in action watch the newest version of Three Little Birds because in fact the closeups of Geoff and Sheila are them miming along to the first recording. I simply videoed them twice! They will vouch it was a lot of fun and allowed them to perform!
The two videos were then edited together.
I will start to feature Open Mike Contributions next week.
HUG SOCIAL, thanks again to those who are joining us. I will continue to vary things at the Social and this for instance, is where we premier things, be it contributions or new songs to try out. As well as some stable items. This week we were able to premier the newest version of Three Little Birds showing some glorious close ups of our Geoff and Sheila. Very appropriately we featured Birthday boy Geoff and celebrated all that he and of course Sheila have been doing for us. Happy Birthday Geoff!
It will be at the Social that I will premier Open Mike Songs.
Quick Lessons, I hope those of you joining us for Quick Lessons are taking something away that you feel you can build in to your playing. I will introduce a new topic this Friday.
I have started to record straight from the Lesson so if you missed the Lesson but want to catch up then it will be as it was warts and all! I am trying to cut down on things so I don't need to spend time producing a separate video.
Introduction to the Blues, I am hoping to now get things moving for those who have expressed interest. Until I know how many will move from an expression of interest to actual commitment I cannot take any more. The course will need to be to a few so that I can ensure things are clear. It will not be streamed. I will be in touch with those who are on the list soon.
Test Stream to Heswall U3a committee members. After highlighting to Karen Reece Group Organiser, what we have been doing I was invited to do a test Stream for them to demonstrate how we meet virtually. Thanks go to those of you who tuned in on Saturday morning and made the event a success. The feedback was very positive and they were suitably impressed by what we are doing and how we do it. I will now be inivited to do a live stream to the Heswall U3a membership that is about 750 people. I am going to do a presentation featuring the Original Songs with introductions from myself. I am confident that it will be completely different to the usual presentations. Most importantly though it will deservedly highlight the talent in HUG.
Selfies, please do take a selfie of you joining in the stream and forward it to me. I would like to build up a gallery of members of HUG in order to record for our History this exceptional time.
Well for me its back to learning new skills I never ever dreamed I would be learning, like video editing, file management, and file conversion! Welcome to the world of streaming!
So stay safe, stay positive and most of all stay strumming.
Dave
It doesn’t surprise me that the U3A group were impressed, all the members contributions and your drive showcase the HUG group most professionally but with charm, so glad I joined this group.