ambient

I believe it’s a Flaming lips concert - who they are I have no idea - a friend shared it on Facebook.

I do most of my work using headphones, upwards of 10 hours a day some days. Don't have the volume too high, you only need to hear yourself - closed back headphones are probably best in this respect, they help cut down on ambient noise intrusion. If you do use open-backed phones, then try to practice somewhere quiet. Take regular breaks. Get a comfortable pair. My one pair sound fantastic but they’re very uncomfortable. I get around this by wearing a thick beanie hat that forces the headphones wider and away from my ears - just a touch of space.

Here’s a smashing idea that might just get this off the ground. I don’t know where you’d put your drink though.

He does indeed, though I’ve no idea how he manages to fit it in.

Add Victor Wooten, Michael League and Laurence Cottle to my list. I’m pretty certain most top players do. A lot of them teach privately or at various institutions anyway. If there’s someone you want to study with, just look them up on social media and contact them.

Phil Mann does, he was one of my tutors at ICMP, I know someone who’s been taught by him now. So do I believe the following: Anthony Wellington Steve Lawson Janek Gwizdala John Patitucci Gary Willis Matt Garrison

What are these ‘sets’ and ‘gigs’ of which you speak?

Perfect example is France unilaterally shutting its borders to us just before Christmas.

Feel free to message me if you need any help with Reaper. I’m not an expert by any stretch of the imagination, I do use it a lot though, all my PhD stuff is done using it.

I love that! I went to a talk by a Canadian composer and zoomusicologist called - very aptly - Emily Doolittle a few years ago. She’s transcribed bird calls and used them as a starting point for her own composition.

I had a 6 string Mayones a few years ago. I loved it. They’re extremely well made.

Hohner make - or made - Steinberger copy.

If you’ve already recorded the bass and guitars, are they to a click? Adding to a prerecorded track is doable in something like Logic Pro, where you can beat map a track, I think it might be more problematic in audacity - though to be honest I’ve only ever used Audacity’s Paulstretch feature, I’ve never used it for recording, it’s just something that occurred to me.

Something like this maybe? https://drumbit.app/about/

Something possibly overlooked when these things are cancelled is the affect it has on other businesses in the local community. https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/jan/24/when-the-music-stops-glastonbury-businesses-fear-for-future

I don’t think so. I’ve seen quite a few adverts for various things, where they’re make similar stipulations. There was one advert mentioned in the press recently, where it was a film advertising for an actor. This might give some explanation as to why. https://m.facebook.com/derek.Richard/photos/a.431433313586/10157827678568587/?type=3&source=57&ref=m_notif&notif_t=feedback_reaction_generic

They have to be careful with the various tubes and lines, to make sure they don’t get twisted or pulled out, there’s also someone watching the patient’s monitors. That’s why it takes so many.

On a much lighter note, here’s my cat seeing snow for the first time - she’s only 7 months old. She hated it, she howled until I picked her up and took her back inside.

They are thinking about banning non-Dutch nationals from the coffee shops. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/11/foreigners-face-ban-from-amsterdams-cannabis-cafes

I had flu in January 2018 - in fact according to my Facebook memories, today is the second anniversary of me returning to uni after recovering from it. I don’t ever remember feeling so ill. I’m fairly young, very fit and extremely healthy, it was weeks later though until I felt anything like normal. I should imagine if you had flu, then contracted Covid at the same time, or immediately after, then even for a young heathy person, it would be extremely serious.

Yes, they also need to be sensible, and stick to the advice regarding hand washing, face coverings and social distancing if they go out - but really they should stay in as much as possible.

Flu doesn’t kill nearly 100,000 people in ten months in the UK. The 2017/18 flu season deaths were 1,700. Flu also doesn’t tie up virtually the entire NHS acute care beds - bear in mind that most elective and regular treatment has stopped.

It’s neither misleading nor scaremongering. They’re telling people the facts - I had to tell a relative of mine that just because he’s had the vaccination, that doesn’t mean he’s immune. I’m aware of other people having the same conversation with their relatives. This is mainly I suspect due to some of the newspaper headlines. If you look at everything the health minister said in my quote, he mentioned that protection might only be in the low to mid 30% range, which is far lower than the low to mid 50% range, originally reported. I don’t see how stating researched figures can be construed as misleading?

The Israelis are reporting that the vaccine doesn’t appear to be as effective as claimed, certainly not with just one dose. They’re also reporting people catching it despite having been vaccinated - not surprising given that it only offers between 30 and 50% protection. This is from their health minister on the Andrew Marr show earlier: ‘First dose of Pfizer shot does not immediately prevent Covid infection, confirms Israeli health minister.’ ‘We’re just in the beginning of the campaign, we unfortunately do see cases that after getting the first dose, people do get sick, get the coronavirus.’ This is the important bit, and the part I hope our government takes note of - hopefully they have learned their lesson from last summer - I believe they might have done, and realised that trying to open everything up, encouraging people to visit pubs and restaurants seeded a lot of the problems we currently have. This adds to my belief that allowing live music - certainly live music indoors - will be one of the last things they’ll allow. ‘Vaccination is not a panacea, Coronavirus is still with us, and we’ll have to live with this reality for a long time.’ Personally, as much as I’d love to be performing and playing with other people - it’s been a huge part of my life, it really is the only thing I’m any good at - but there’s absolutely no way I’m going to, until I know that it’s safe and that I’m not risking my health, and more importantly the health of my parents.