Invitation to join The Ould Sod Virtual Session on Zoom

[Michael Eskin]

Invitation to join The Ould Sod Virtual Session on Zoom

Since March 2020, throughout the pandemic shutdowns, when there were no pub sessions, I’ve been hosting a weekly session on Zoom.

You can learn more about it here:

http://michaeleskin.com/session

It’s an open session held weekly, the latest Zoom link and times for the events are on the website.

In the session we play solo sets and we also have "chained sets" where through Zoom muting/unmuting we can chain together several players playing, for example, a set of jigs or reels. We might string together 7 or 8 players in a row, each playing one jig or reel three times.

We also do what we have come to call "Celtic Karaoke" (I know, I know, stupid name) where individual players who have the capability, mix in recorded tracks with their solo performances. Sometimes its nice to play along with a larger ensemble, and several of us have curated tracks that really work nicely for this setting.

Of course, since it’s Zoom, you’re listening to only one player at a time, but the chained sets really have a lot of the energy of a real session.

Many of the regulars have optimized their audio setups to provide extremely high quality, stereo audio, on Zoom. You might be surprised as to the quality of the audio you will hear.

Now that real sessions are opening back up, many of the "lifeboat" sessions on Zoom that were running during the pandemic lockdowns are starting to either shut down or reduce their frequency. As I expected, we’ve also had a decrease in the number of players for my session as well. I’m hoping I might be able to recruit a few more strong players from here to at least give it a try.

I intend to continue these weekly Zoom sessions for as long as I have enough participation to make it fun for everyone.

Anyone is welcome to join in to either participate in leading sets, being part of chain sets, or just spend the whole night listening. You are most welcome to participate in what every way you enjoy. We can accomodate up to 100 participants, and we’ve never had more than about 35, so plenty of room for listen-only players.

Again, please visit:

http://michaeleskin.com/session

for the current schedule and Zoom meeting link.

As of July 3, 2021, the session is every Thursdays from 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM Pacific time (9:00 PM - 11:00 PM Eastern time).

I hope some of you will consider joining us for tunes.

Please let me know if you have any questions I can answer about the events.

Thank you,

Michael

[Paul_Hardy]

Hello Michael,

Having once attended in person a session at the Ould Sod, I would have been quite interested, except that 6pm Pacific is 2am in the middle of the night here in England!

 

Any chance of using Zoom to record the session, and make it (or parts of it) available as a video for a week, to allow for catch-up?

 

Well done anyway for keeping a session going.

 

As an aside, I'm still continuing my Virtual Greenshoots slow/improver sessions (https://pghardy.net/greenshoots/virtual/) on Mondays - Tomorrow will be lockdown session 66!

Edited July 4, 2021 by Paul_Hardy
Correct date and number

[Michael Eskin]

Hi Paul, unfortunately, I don't record the sessions, it's already challenging enough for players without knowing that their playing is being recorded.   Glad to hear you've got a local virtual session going as well!

[David Barnert]

I’d love to join, but if I played from 9-11 on a Thursday night, my wife would kill me (she meets with her personal trainer at 5:30 Friday mornings).

[d.elliott]

Hello Michael,

 

I wish you well of your zoom session, but like my friend Paul, 2:00am is a bit too early. I wonder if we reverted to to a flat earth then things would be easier?