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INDOOR REHEARSAL


jonunders

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Can someone please explain the current rules on indoor rehearsals as I haven't managed to find any clarification on the Gov.uk website. 

Are band members allowed to get together ,say 6 people from different households, observing social distancing and ppe requirements. (Covid safe) including singing?

Are any of you in bands managing to rehearse safely

Jono

Edited by jonunders
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Yup rehearsed inside my workshop which is huge, inside a studio with marked out areas for each member and a live stream gig outside. We had masks for the outside one while we were inside the pub getting changed etc.. but things are open and getting back to normal-ish. I think as long as you're all comfortable doing it and sensible enough you can crack on.

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20 minutes ago, jonunders said:

Can someone please explain the current rules on indoor rehearsal

According to the govt guidelines, no you cannot.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-outbreak-faqs-what-you-can-and-cant-do/coronavirus-outbreak-faqs-what-you-can-and-cant-do

Quote

 

1.26 Can I gather in larger groups for any reason?

You should only be socialising in groups of up to two households (including your support bubble) indoors and outdoors or up to six people from different households when outdoors.

 

Search that page for any mention of "indoors" and you'll see that they repeat the two-household rule everywhere.

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Or to put it another way:

If your group is from one or two households:

  • you can gather indoors or outdoors

If your group is from more than two households:

  • you cannot gather indoors
  • you can gather outdoors up to a maximum of six people.
     
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N.B. The above guidelines are for non-professional musicians, as a rehearsal would count as "socializing".

If however you're a professional musician rehearsing for work purposes, then the guidelines from https://www.gov.uk/guidance/working-safely-during-coronavirus-covid-19/performing-arts apply, which are more like workplace guidelines.  In which case, in summary yes you can rehearse - but read that doc.
 

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Our rehearsal studios officially opened yesterday. They have 14 rooms and have put in a one way system ie in thru main entrance to your studio room and leave by the rear side door. All payments made on-line before arrival. 

Each studio will be sanitised after each band.

Bring your own mics or you can purchase foam covers for mics at front office. There are wipes and sprays in each studio to sanitise the equipment you use when finished.

Very well known Glasgow studios

We're booked in for 26th July 12-6pm.

Dave

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2 hours ago, dmccombe7 said:

Our rehearsal studios officially opened yesterday. They have 14 rooms and have put in a one way system ie in thru main entrance to your studio room and leave by the rear side door. All payments made on-line before arrival. 

Each studio will be sanitised after each band.

Bring your own mics or you can purchase foam covers for mics at front office. There are wipes and sprays in each studio to sanitise the equipment you use when finished.

Very well known Glasgow studios

We're booked in for 26th July 12-6pm.

Dave

I'm in late July and early August with both bands.  The August date is an audition with two candidates.  I spoke with the studio and it all sounds well managed.  I'm looking forward to getting back to rehearsing again.

 

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31 minutes ago, NoRhino said:

 I spoke with the studio and it all sounds well managed.  

 

It sounds well managed but how did they conclude its okay (or are you professional so the amateur-not-allowed-to-meet-indoors-more-than-two-households rule doesn't apply)?

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5 hours ago, paul_c2 said:

It sounds well managed but how did they conclude its okay (or are you professional so the amateur-not-allowed-to-meet-indoors-more-than-two-households rule doesn't apply)?

Good point. Not sure how they are getting around that. The 2m rule is fine plus hey have all the sanitising kit etc but that 2 household thing at any one time still stands.

Dave

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18 hours ago, paul_c2 said:

It sounds well managed but how did they conclude its okay (or are you professional so the amateur-not-allowed-to-meet-indoors-more-than-two-households rule doesn't apply)?

I'm no expert and i'm kinda with you on this when i read thru the guidelines again last night.

Bit that confuses me is that cinema's and other similar buildings can re-open which obviously have many people in the one hall.

Some of the guidelines appear to contradict themselves making it unclear what's allowed but more important what's safe. 

The positive factor up here is that our new cases are in single figures and deaths are down to zero for several days i believe so the risks in Scotland are greatly reduced.

Dave

Edited by dmccombe7
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I agree that it's not completely clear.  Compared to going to the cinema, I suppose the government feel there's additional risk of transmission particularly from singing or the playing of wind/brass instruments.

Looking at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/working-safely-during-coronavirus-covid-19/performing-arts#arts-5-2 it seems that singing and playing wind/brass instruments should be limited to professionals, with extended social distancing (3 metres if "face-to-face and without mitigations"), and then (contradicting itself), "avoiding singing face-to-face even when following the required distance".
 

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1 hour ago, jrixn1 said:

Looking at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/working-safely-during-coronavirus-covid-19/performing-arts#arts-5-2 it seems that singing and playing wind/brass instruments should be limited to professionals, with extended social distancing (3 metres if "face-to-face and without mitigations"), and then (contradicting itself), "avoiding singing face-to-face even when following the required distance".
 

I play bass guitar in a concert band (brass/woodwind) and they are following this constantly with obvious interest.  

Although everyone wants to be safe, I think they are in consternation about the separation of "professionals" - as if someone being paid would be any less or more likely to transmit the disease?

I'm not into the committee rubbish so am only on the fringes of it, so don't fully understand it all anyway.  As a covid/ventilator survivor, I'm not in too much of a rush to get back to the dingy rehearsal hall anyway...

 

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I think the pro/amateur thing is like essential/non-essential. If you make your living (or a good chunk of it) from playing music, and you need to rehearse to do that, then rehearsal becomes essential. If rehearsal is purely a social activity for you, then you probably shouldn't be doing it

We've opened as we were told specifically by trading standards that we're now allowed. Obviously we've put measures in place, but it's not up to us to judge who should and who shouldn't be allowed to rehearse or record. 

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Rehearsing increasing the risk of transmission, regardless of whether you're a professional or not - but it also allows the working musician to do what they need to do to earn a living, with all the benefits which come with that, both to the individual (does not starve/get evicted) and to society (tax revenue etc).  So it's a balancing act between the increased risk vs increased benefit.  In the case of the non-professional group, you have the same increased risk, but with no corresponding increase in benefit.

(BTW I'm not judging anyone who does or doesn't choose to rehearse; like the OP I'm just trying to make sense of the guidelines as written.)
 

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Before 9th July guidelines I was in the dark but had hope we'd get back to rehearsals soon. There was no specific guidelines and community centres etc were rumoured to be able to reopen. But now the guidelines are released I'm obviously disappointed but it has (mostly) taken away the uncertainty. The bands I'm involved in all have wind instruments so it looks like it will be a long haul.

The guidelines are somewhat vague though, so if someone else has interpreted them in a different way, or further info has come to light (maybe directly to rehearsal spaces) which allows amateur groups to rehearse (indoors), great! I'm all for getting back to it ASAP but obviously within the guidelines.

Realistically, for amateur groups, it would need to be outdoors rehearsals <=6 people, which obviously allows some bands to rehearse but not me.

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Out of interest has anyone managed to organize outdoor rehearsals. I’m thinking of contacting local farmers to see if any of them would allow us to use a field (ideally away from residential areas). Better still would be an open sided barn with power, but I’d take a field right now.

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Not sure whether this counts as rehearing outside, but this is where we rehearse, and we are having our third rehearsal tomorrow morning because we are all retired.

The marquee is in the garden of our drummer who inherited 12 acres of land, the nearest neighbour is miles away so no complaints about noise, and there is plenty of space to keep well away from each other.

We have all the sides open when we are rehearsing, so I would say that technically, we are rehearsing outside with just a roof over our heads to keep everything dry 😉

Marquee.jpeg

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2 hours ago, cheddatom said:

I think the pro/amateur thing is like essential/non-essential. If you make your living (or a good chunk of it) from playing music, and you need to rehearse to do that, then rehearsal becomes essential. If rehearsal is purely a social activity for you, then you probably shouldn't be doing it

 

This is a conundrum, especially in our band where certain members are pro, some are semi pro and others are technically amateurs.

1 hour ago, 41Hz said:

Out of interest has anyone managed to organize outdoor rehearsals. 

My band had a rehearsal and then live-streamed a gig from the drummer's garden at the weekend. He consulted with neighbours and put flyers round locally. It was a stripped back, acoustic (but amplified) type affair. I was very conscious of the volume, but it seemed to go OK in terms of not annoying the residents (at least not too much, there are always those who will not like it, but it was mid-afternoon and only for a couple of hours, so nothing for environmental officers to get involved in).

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41 minutes ago, thebrig said:

Not sure whether this counts as rehearing outside, but this is where we rehearse, and we are having our third rehearsal tomorrow morning because we are all retired.

The marquee is in the garden of our drummer who inherited 12 acres of land, the nearest neighbour is miles away so no complaints about noise, and there is plenty of space to keep well away from each other.

We have all the sides open when we are rehearsing, so I would say that technically, we are rehearsing outside with just a roof over our heads to keep everything dry 😉

Marquee.jpeg

That looks ideal!

Does your drummer fancy renting out to other bands? Think there would be a decent demand!

Edited by 41Hz
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