Thursday nights now online quiz nights during Coronavirus outbreak

The Coronavirus hasn’t stopped the band seeing each other’s faces – online of course.

Band members meeting for online quiz

Some band members concentrating during the online quiz

Every Thursday evening, instead of physically meeting to play music together, we’ve been meeting virtually through the power of technology to do an online quiz on Zoom.

We’ve certainly been gaining a brain cell or two!

We’re all missing rehearsing together and catching up with each other in person, but it’s been brilliant having something to look forward to every week, knowing we will still get to see each other in some way.

Four teams getting competitive

Now we’re six weeks into doing online band quizzes, it’s getting competitive between our four teams! In no particular order, the team names are:

  • Les Quizerables (saxophones, percussion and oboes)
  • Can I Have A Reed Please, Bob (clarinets and bassoons)
  • Don’t Hate Me Because I’m Flutiful (flutes and piccolos)
  • Phantom Raspberry Blowers (brass)

Band members meeting for online quizEach team has a WhatsApp group, and as soon as the quizmaster asks a question, we frantically message our team members and agree on an answer. It’s remarkably organised for such a large group of people!

Each week the score board changes and there are only a few points in it – the winning title is up for grabs!

Pausing to Clap for Carers at 8pm

We always pause at 8pm to clap for our NHS and key workers. It’s now becoming a bit of a tradition for some of us to play ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’ outside our front doors and windows. There’s often a second piece each week too, like ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ or ‘We’ll Meet Again’.

Singing happy birthday

It seems every week someone in the band has a birthday and we begin each band quiz by singing happy birthday. It proves exactly why we can’t rehearse together online because everyone’s internet has varying speeds and we’re definitely not in sync!

On 30 April it was Colonel Tom Moore’s 100th birthday. We sang as best we could to celebrate his special day with the nation. Here we are – although you might want to cover your ears!:

Which team will win the online quiz competition?

We’re all looking forward to meeting again in person but until then, we’re excited to see who will win the online quizzes overall!

We’re also calling on band members to come forward with ideas for our Thursday online meetups, because it looks like we’ll be doing this for the foreseeable future. Who knows, we could be getting our exercise gear on next week!

Check out our Facebook and Instagram pages for photos and videos of our Thursday quiz nights.

By Emma on flute