227: Stay In. Play On!

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Hi, this is Christopher Sutton from Musical U, and this will be a special short announcement episode to invite you to Stay In - and Play On.</span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">If you're watching this episode when it airs then you'll be well aware of the current situation with the worldwide pandemic of COVID-19.</span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Now I'm not here to offer health advice or news updates - no doubt you've got enough of that flying at you already. But it seems clear that the sooner people self-isolate, the more lives can be saved. </span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">I’m here in Spain on total lockdown with my wife and two young daughters - and although it’s all a bit crazy, we are all in good health so far.</span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">And if you're like most in our community at Musical U then faced with that prospect of staying in for several weeks ahead, you're quickly turning to music as a rock you can rely on. I’m glad that my home office is always packed with instruments so I can keep playing. I did have a momentary panic when a guitar string broke - but it’s okay, it turned out I had a spare set.</span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Now I don't want to trivialise this and say "hey, never mind, let's all just have fun and play music!" - this is a serious situation.</span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">But at the same time, music can be an incredible force for keeping our spirits high, helping us stay connected with one another, inspiring us to hope and be thankful. And with the opportunity to spend more time on our music learning it even offers a possible silver lining, that we can come out of this situation with new and better skills, feeling more musical, eager to go out there and enjoy performing and collaborating at a new level once life returns to normal.</span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">So I wanted to record this s