Lock Down Life – My Music Therapy

At the beginning of this lockdown period, I made the very foolish decision not the bother with getting lost in music. Music has always been my favourite method of escaping reality but I guess I didn’t want to associate any music with this pandemic as I was really struggling to begin with and to have favourite tunes linked with bad times would affect how I heard then in the future. (Honestly, while exes have introduced me to a lot of stuff I listen to, I have steadfastly avoided linking an artist or tune directly to relationships to preserve my music collection. It’s very complicated inside my head at times, but it makes sense to me and that’s what counts) 

So having cut off my main source of escapism, what happened? To be frank I struggled. Then I realised that I was happiest on Wednesday which had rapidly become live music night on Facebook for me. My lovely friends Kim and Lee have a half-hour live feed as part of The Wednesday Sessions, Mike Batt started to hold informal live sessions on his FB page and then along came The Odd Horny Goat Open Mic sessions run by Marcus and Ellie which meant I got to see and hang out online with various friends too. 

It was the Mike Batt sessions that got back me into slapping on the headphones and drifting away from it all on the music. He was a very early musical influence in the guise of The Wombles who I have listened to from about the age of two and who had an influence of on the divergent nature of my musical tastes. At first, his sessions sent my scarpering back to those Wombles albums and from there the leap back into musical escapism was easy. I now have mad little dancing sessions in my room, with upbeat poppy tunes blasting in my headphones, and every night I see in the wee small hours with softer tunes aiding my relaxation at the end of these trying days. 

Right now I am sat in the garden, on the shaded patio, headphones on, blotting out the kids in the immediate area playing in their gardens. (Not a complaint, that energy has to go somewhere, I’d be running around like a mad ‘un in their shoes too!) 

I have a bunch of new music to listen to, so expect posts about it all over the next couple of days. 

Have a look around and check out the live feeds that are out there. A number of pubs are using their Facebook pages to host live feeds from their regular acts. Several well-known artists are doing little live sessions or releasing full concerts for viewing on youtube etc… And lots of other acts are putting on shows too, ask around, search for lockdown or isolation festivals and events, you never know what you may find. 

Please support artists where you can, whether it’s a Paypal tip jar or a music/merch purchase, or even just telling others about them to spread the word. So many musicians are reliant of live shows to earn their livings these days and that income source isn’t likely to return any time soon. 

Small venues are also struggling right now so please do check out this important fundraising page trying to keep our smaller venues going so they are still around at the end of this pandemic ready for us all being able to go out and enjoy live music together again. 

None of the links in this article are affiliate links, I gain nothing from them at all. Most acts/venues have the live feeds archived on their FB pages so you can watch back at any time. 

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Author: anne-marie

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