A Pandemic Survey

Like many musicians now, I’m incredibly busy with important issues like waking up, etc. So about a week ago I asked some friends (musicians or not) how they were spending their quarantine time, or what their current projects/goals were. Apologies if yours was not included in the list below, but please feel free to add in the comment section.

• learn to play the violin
• learn to play another instrument, or at least the basics of viola.
• give Zoom lessons after a few weeks of learning an instrument.
• post something on social media every day of you playing something.
• post other things on social media, especially cat videos or other animals doing funny or unusual things they would not normally do during a pandemic.
• text your friends about being isolated/quarantined, then….
• call your friends and have a long discussion about being isolated. If your friend is a musician, spend a lot of time talking about how things really aren’t that great and probably won’t be for quite some time. Or just talk about the New Normal or the recent League Conference.
• contemplate another profession. Learn about another profession in great detail.
• clean things (in general).
• organize things in your house/apartment even though they may have been fairly organized before. Then do it again every few hours.
• create a Covid vaccine.
• post about the vaccine on social media and observe comments.
• run for President and observe comments.
• practice for that upcoming audition.
• invent a mask that pets can wear, just in case. All pets, so sizing is important. 
• start exercising again, but you don’t want to overdo it.
• watch all seasons of Breaking Bad straight through. The next day, start to watch everything on YouTube.
• when you’re done with YouTube, move on to Amazon Prime or Showtime or HBO and watch all of that.
• brush up on the 24 Caprices
• perform all 24 Caprices online in your living room. Observe comments.
• keep practicing for that audition
• read a book. Any book.
• find a hobby, like falconry or magic tricks. Or square dancing (alone). Buy a falcon.
• Learn a lot about math and physics, then write a book that explains String Theory and the expanding universe to musicians. Maybe quantum mechanics as well.
• When the book is done, figure out pandemic seating in an 1800 seat hall without losing revenue (see League Conference).
• get off the couch/bed for at least 15 min/day.
• do a lot of yoga, then post on social media about doing a lot of yoga.
• Learn to cook something, then post pictures of food (not necessarily what you cooked).
• take a nap at 10.30 am
• keep playing your instrument every day unless you’re just totally fed up and really the whole thing sucks and nobody knows where it’s headed.
• Do anything you can to help the MET musicians.

Stay optimistic. This isn’t all that bad, right?