Sheltered in place, sitting here on a rare rainy day, listening to the raindrops and working on my various music projects.

I’ve got a remote recording project going with a couple of friends I play with periodically. I put together a few reference recordings with some rough guitar parts and a click, and sent them off to my collaborators. They will record their parts and send them back to me to assemble and mix. I’ve also broached the same concept to my band partners in No Static, as a way of learning and practicing some new numbers to add to our repertoire.

Meanwhile I have a batch of old snippets of musical ideas that I’m sifting through in hopes of kick-starting some composing, and I’m also deconstructing a recording a friend made of an improvisation which contains a few moments I felt are worthy of learning and extending into a collaborative composition. I am also working on my guitar playing, working through a couple of books and video courses, revisiting fundamentals and pushing my boundaries.

It’s unclear as yet how long this COVID-19 pandemic will last but the current directives are to remain sheltered in place until the beginning of May. Even if things loosen up a bit then, no doubt many people will continue to distance themselves as much as possible until it becomes clear that the crisis is truly behind us. I expect all of us musicians will not be able to perform live for some time, possibly for the rest of this year.