Community Bands Suspending Rehearsals?

[GC]

I tell him all the time that I'll be happy if I can even say the word "tuba" at 88.

I'll be happy if I can still recognize a tuba when I'm 88...

For that matter, being able to hear a tuba at 88 . . .

[roughrider]

Two of my three bands here in Saskatoon have announced the cancellations of rehearsals. While our Coronavirus numbers are on the low end, it is here and our band population for two of the three groups is EXACTLY in the target group. Plenty of time to rehearse now and hopefully sounding really great when this mess is over, whenever that is! Stay Healthy Everybody!!

[hup_d_dup]

At this time, there is really no point in letting us know your group is cancelling rehearsals.

I would be much more interested in hearing from someone in a group that did NOT cancel rehearsals - if there is such a group – and why the group decided to continue playing.

Hup

[Tom B.]

Our community band has stopped rehearsing and canceled our April concert. We normally would be ramping up in June for a seven-concert summer season but I doubt if restrictions will be lifted before late summer at the earliest. It probably won't happen, but there has been some thought about holding rehearsals outside this summer with at least six feet social distancing between performers, and asking audience members to also pull their lawn chairs six feet away from each other at our concerts. We'll need to establish if the less-than-50 persons congregating restrictions (or whatever they become) hold under fresh-air conditions. If safe, it would be a welcome distraction for the community. Stay tuned....

Tom

[Tom B.]

Would the sound improve if players #'s 49 and on (if ranked by ability) were eliminated?

bloke "asking for a friend"

The sound might become too bottom-heavy, because of course, no tubas would be eliminated.

Tom

[humBell]

All my bands cancelled stuff middle of last week. And i even slept through the start of and ended up skipping the largest and thus probably the one putting me most at risk. Some had the decision made for them by the rehearsal space.

I am wondering what the current situation will mean for busking?

That said, huzzah for playing tuba when one is 88! On the other hand playing tuba that is 88 years old is also cool, but not so much of an accomplishment. My primary association with the number 88... "Roads? Where we're going, we don't need roads."

[windshieldbug]

There are 3rd trumpets, 3rd clarinets, and 2nd flutes...but no 2nd or 3rd tuba parts.

Tell that to John Adams...

[KKORO]

I belong to 3 community bands and a brass band. All have cancelled concerts and rehearsals. Since my bands are pretty much all I look forward to during the week, cabin fever is getting pretty bad. At 70 and fully retired I need to find something else to do.

KorKoro

[MikeW]

Here in Vancouver, BC (Canada): a few days back I posted a cheerful review of what was then the current situation, but within a few hours the wind changed, and a depression blew in and settled - Hubris, I suspose: excessive good cheer seems to have offended some kind of authority figure ?

Anyway, normality has been cancelled for the duration.
Current review: all venues closed, all rehearsals and performances cancelled, cross-border travel restricted, social distancing strongly recommended. Mortality still seems low (from news items, about four deaths out of over a thousand reported cases)

[Donn]

As hup_d_hup points out above, "we bailed out" is not really news at this point, but "we thought of way to do it" sure would be. A small ensemble I play in is thinking about a parking lot situation where we'd be able to keep the prescribed 6 foot distance. Maybe wind instruments would call for a little wider margin, especially single reeds (speaking as a reed player myself.) May not come off. More of an informal concert than a practice, but with this particular group that's a distinction without much of a difference.

[Boomer]

Athens, GA, band is down for the count, cancelled spring concert, as much a result of practice and performance venues closing as a band decision.

Public schools closed, University of Georgia closed for the semester, graduation cancelled, 30,000 students told to go home.

Bars are already closed, tonight they vote on an ordinance to close the liquor stores, so the situation is becoming dire.

[jperry1466]

...cabin fever is getting pretty bad. At 70 and fully retired I need to find something else to do.

Have I got a deal for you and everyone else on the board. Living in the country is great, but I had a visitation from several feral hogs 3 nights ago. Maybe a similar herd of tubas would scare them away.

Or maybe I'll just play my .45 caliber tuba for them.

[Three Valves]

Luau at JPerry’s house!!

Invite no more than 10 of your best friends.

[tubapix]

The Palm Beach Gardens Concert Band has canceled the rest of the season due to school closings (practice room and performance hall).

[Bill Troiano]

The Cedar Park Winds canceled the remainder of our Spring season. It would’ve been a blast, playing an orchestral transcription concert in May.

[Rick Denney]

Luau at JPerry’s house!!

Invite no more than 10 of your best friends.

Don't laugh. We may be living off the land soon.

Rick "not sure where it's all going to end up" Denney

[groth]

Luau at JPerry’s house!!

Invite no more than 10 of your best friends.

Don't laugh. We may be living off the land soon.

Rick "not sure where it's all going to end up" Denney

Too big to fail my friend. If it gets to that point where the land is the only point of sustenance, you will have bigger "people" problems to deal with before you worry about hunting a deer for dinner.

[Three Valves]

Closing liquor stores - at times such as these - is stupid as _ _ ck.

Further, it's the last place left that still has 75% alcohol in stock (for sanitizing surfaces, etc.)

I got some extra hooch on the way home, in case the gob’ment confiscates distilleries and reconstitutes the volstead act on behest of the teatotaler in chief!!

[jperry1466]

Luau at JPerry’s house!!

Invite no more than 10 of your best friends.

I saw 40 in one herd one day. Plenty for everyone. Also have deer and Turkey, wild plums, wild blackberries. It's a tough life but somebody's gotta do it. As bad as the cattle market is, I might be better off eating them. But the grocery store is a lot less work.

[Dan Schultz]

The community band I founded in 2000, The Old Dam Community Band in Newburgh, Indiana... rehearses in a middle school band room. It's always been our policy to cancel band when the school is closed due to weather or other things. This pretty much lets me off the hook when having to deal with this sort of decision. We're down until school resumes.