So yesterday, 8/29 was Play Music on the Porch Day. The local ukulele groups like to participate in this but the local guitar group doesn’t seem to know it exists. Since nobody here posted about it, I suspect most here are unaware of it?
Play Music on The Porch Day – A worldwide celebration of peace and music.
In the past, the local uke group has played at a local venue as more of a gig type of thing. They were unable to find a venue for this year so my wife invited a bunch of folks over just to play on our porch as a jam, not as a gig. She invited a bunch of neighbors, too, and I also invited some folks.
In total, I think we had close to 20 ppl. My porch is small, so the group overflowed into the house. Most of the instruments were ukuleles, but there were 3 guitar players (one guy brought both a guitar and a banjo, but he didn’t actually pick up the banjo). We even pulled out a couple of amps and a microphone. We also had a collection of shakers, foot tambourine, a frog rasp/guiro, and a cajon. It took a little bit, but one neighbor managed to get several non-musicians to join in on some percussion.
Overall it went well and I think we’re going to do this again on a semi regular basis.
We have some friction points we can address mostly related to the songs we choose. Since folks came from multiple groups, not everyone had access to the same material. So my wife and I will probably spend some time curating a short-ish list of stuff that’s clear and well-formatted, and putting it together in one place so everyone has access to it.
Seating arrangements could improve, too. Our narrow deck doesn’t give us much flexibility (especially considering how high above the ground it is, overflowing outside isn’t an option), but there are a couple things we could do better.
One friend recorded a song after most people had left and there were only 4 of us still there. But I don’t have the video and can’t share it here. We were focused more on playing and having a good time, which is how it should be, right?
Did anyone else participate in this event? Even accidentally?