We got together on Friday and Saturday nights to practice for our upcoming gig. Aaron, our long lost lead guitarist extraordinaire lives in West Virginia. so he wanted to hear what we now sound like. He came up with the idea of getting on Skype and communicating with us while we go through the set list. Seemed like an odd idea, but we gave it a try. I repositioned my iMac to a spot that could get the whole band in frame and we dialed him up. We announced which song we were going to play, then charged into it with Aaron watching through the magic screen. After we finished we'd talk about where his solo or part might fit into the arrangement we had been working up. We have been trying to add room for his guitar and vocals all along, but this was a great way to make sure we are all on the same page.

Every now and then when we were in the middle of a song we'd check the monitor to see if Aaron was smiling or caught a slight change in the arrangement to what he might have been used to... what? no Aaron? Then we'd see a little bit of his headstock bouncing around and his head peeking into frame with a big smile. That was so strange to see, and great to experience.

What a great time that was. I'm hoping our gig goes well, and i'm much more confident that it will thanks to technology I would have never considered. We talked about how great it would be to have him in our headphones playing along with our live mix, but latency issues would certainly prevent that (for now).