One of the biggest side effects of this whole pandemic has been the massive shift to online content, primarily video content. Thus far, I’ve done a few videos for Yakima Symphony, contributed a video for a virtual concert for Lake Chelan Bach Fest (with another one coming up next month), and been in several things with Calliope Brass including music videos, a Facebook Live interview/cocktail hour, two podcasts with “a video component” (hey so if you just want to do a video then do a video, podcasts don’t need visuals, that’s why they’re podcasts), an upcoming benefit concert that’ll be streamed online, and probably a few other things that I’ve forgotten about because it’s been a long damn quarantine. It feels like a lot, and I know people who have done even more.
Also it’s the worst and I hate it. I did not sign up for this.
Just a heads up that there will absolutely be some self-promotion in this one, partly because this is the world we live in now, but mostly because people (read: my family) keep complaining that I don’t tell them when I do things, because I’m actually outstandingly bad at self-promotion.
What, one self-deprecating post on Facebook with a link isn’t enough? Next you'll be telling me that devoting my entire Instagram account just to pictures of the unicorn on my trombone isn’t the best way to boost my career. Shocking, I tell you.
“Sara, I love the Professor’s Instagram, but have you ever considered putting your actual face on the internet once in a while?”
“Eh, I don’t think that’s a real thing.”
It started with the YSO “Stories From Home” interview series, in which I desperately pretended to be charming for ten minutes:
Fun fact: I have not actually watched this video. I just don’t have it in me. People have assured me that I did a good job and did not shame my ancestors, but also I had to lie down for several minutes afterwards because I was exhausted. I am but a simple introvert, I was not built for this, also I hate the sound of my recorded voice.
(Quick poll: I know “he loves the sound of his own voice” is an old cliché, but does anyone actually?)
In July, Lake Chelan Bach Fest did a series of virtual concerts and asked if I could send a short clip of something. I chose the Crespo Improvisation no. 1, which is decidedly not Bach, and discovered just how difficult it is to get Washington Heights to Just Be Cool long enough for me to record a five minute piece in one take without car horns or illegally loud stereos or explosions or random screaming outside.
(It was July, aka “illegal fireworks season”, and thank god I got it done before the 4th, because it sounded like a literal warzone outside my window that night)
I’m doing another one for them next month and I really look forward to dealing with that problem all over again, it’s gonna be great.
YSO also has a “Music From Home” series currently running, where musicians create informational videos, and I foolishly signed up for two of them. As it turns out, there’s a big difference between interacting with another person on camera and speaking into the void of my phone. Also, editing video of myself is pretty much the worst thing; I hate it so much.
At least one of them is out of the way. I solved the aforementioned neighborhood sound problem by simply recording all my spoken audio at four in the morning, which is sadly not an option for trombone.
I have another one next month and I am already dreading it.
Probably the most video content I’ve been involved with has been via my brass quintet. They have a long-standing tradition of constantly putting me on camera, both in videos and in multiple photoshoots. I assume it’s so they can all enjoy my suffering.
Here is a selection of quarantine videos. Our bass trombonist does all of our video editing and as you can see, she is much much better at it than I am:
And, as mentioned previously, we pre-recorded our annual benefit concert this year so we can livestream it online. Which is happening tomorrow at 7pm EDT.
Does this count as promotion? I currently have <checks notes> fifteen subscribers, four of whom are fellow Calliope members, so probably not, but let’s pretend anyway. I even wrote the script for this one, which means I got away with only having to say two lines.
I am doing a lot of complaining here, but I do understand why it’s necessary right now. Like, I get it. I don’t love it, but I get it. And also it’s my fault for saying yes to these things. It’s part of my life now, and will probably continue to be until the pandemic is over (and possibly even afterwards, who even knows anymore), so I might as well get used to it.
I guess
ugh