4 Virtuos...

 

The players?  Well, I'm talking about the Emerald Virtuo guitars in our group of 7.  Yesterday was music day, and the first time since last spring that all 7 of us have been together.

After being under the weather for a couple weeks, it was really good to get back together with my music buddies! 

A while back, I had mentioned to the folks at Emerald (the guitar maker from Ireland) that we now have 4 Virtuos in our group: Mark's, Tom's, Carl's, and mine.  In addition to those, Mark also has an X10 Slimline, and I have an X20, and X10, and an X7 (my first Emerald from 2016).  Alistair at Emerald said they'd like to see some photos or a video with our group.

Today, Cindy (Mark's wife) took some photos for us.  Here's a look...

 The 7 of us, truly a "garage band" today, at Mark's home.  L to R: Gil, Carl, Ron, me, Mark, Tom, and Danny.  It is always a good time when we are together.

 The Virtuo players...

 Cindy asked us to step outside to get a bit of Arizona in a photo...

 I wasn't sure how my singing voice would be - it has been nearly a month since I've gotten together with these guys.  I am over the nasty cold, but the lungs are still needing some re-build time.  Surprisingly, I was able to sing in my full range.  And, with 5 singers, I didn't have to do all the lead singing.  Plenty of good harmony.

We are all in our 70s.  With a combined playing experience on the far side of 400 years.  Whew - now I feel even older.  We all use iPads for our charts.  It is easy to put your nose in the iPad and not look up to see how much fun we're all having... I had issued a challenge for today: each person submit two songs where they don't even look at the iPad.  Yes, we did it.  I first used an iPad when playing out in 2012 - it was for my set lists and an occasional glance at a chart to check lyrics.  With these guys, we play a lot of songs that are new to us (unlike the songs I've been doing for years when I play solo) - it is helpful to have the lyrics and chords while playing.

I had been looking forward to this for weeks - a truly good time!  And Ron brought pizzas!  We generally get set up, run though a song for a sound check, then have lunch before going after it for the afternoon.  Oh, and a short cookie break - 'cause man does not live by pizza alone.