Virtual Meetups
In these difficult times, I think all of us miss making music together. We are trying to ease that feeling a little with Facebook Live sessions , where we play one or two songs together. There is no visual or audio feedback from you, because I cannot see or hear anyone (apart from a few refreshing exceptions), but at least it is nice to read the Facebook comments during — and after — the broadcast. Facebook Live has its own special charm. As far as I know there is roughly a 40-second delay to begin with, so if I ask something, that is about how long it takes before I can see your answers . For some reason, live video broadcast from a mobile phone also appears mirrored no matter how I try to adjust the phone settings (meetups 1–3). For the fourth meetup I used a proper webcam plus an additional camera, and finally the picture was not mirrored. I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who joined these virtual meetups !
The first Facebook "Strum Along with Me!" broadcast was a month and a half ago, and since then we have been gathering in the virtual space about every week and a half. If anyone missed them, you can catch up with the second, third and fourth broadcasts here, and there is even a surprise video (which was a surprise for me too!). I planned the fifth meetup to be interactive: I wanted to see and hear you even though the technology does not allow us to play music together in real time. So we tried Zoom, and on the afternoon of April 26, 2020, seven or eight adventurous ukulele players and I had a little "Zoom" session. There is no point pretending otherwise: it did not really work. We could see and hear one another, but neither of my two microphones worked properly with Zoom, so either my ukulele could not be heard at all or the sound came through horribly distorted. Still, I think we had a good time, especially at the end when we were saying goodbye. I asked the participant appearing under the name Ildikó to say something, because there was no webcam and we had not heard their voice once. Then came a resonant male voice: "Hi everyone, I'm Béla," followed by, "I joined using my wife's Zoom account." Needless to say, everyone burst out laughing for about a minute. So the only thing left to do is try Facebook Messenger Rooms and Google Meet and see which gives the best quality and which one the most people can use.
Until then, here is the complete "Strum Along with Me!" archive, with the surprise video right at the bottom:
Strum Along with Me! First broadcast (March 18, 2020): When the Saints
Strum Along with Me! Second broadcast (March 26, 2020): Stand by Me
Strum Along with Me! Third broadcast (April 5, 2020): a selection of songs chosen by you.
Strum Along with Me! Fourth broadcast (April 16, 2020): Proud Mary
And finally the surprise video, which one of our very kind participants, Orsi, sent me after the very first live session, when we played When the Saints together:
