I am a singer. Singing is a very important part of my mental well-being and provides a connection and an outlet for my musical talent and social community. Singing side-by-side with my friends and colleagues is what keeps me going during the hustle and bustle of normal 21st Century life.
It is important during normal times. It is more important during COVID times. But, singing in a chorus involves sitting in close proximity to your mates and moving large amounts of air and the contents of that air into the shared air space of a choral rehearsal or performance space.
This air is a very effective medium for the spread of potentially virus carrying aerosols to your fellow singers and to you. For that reason, singing in-person was quickly identified as a sure fire way to spread virus containing aerosols rapidly and effectively.
Back in mid-March when California shut down in response to the novel Coronavirus, both my church choir and my audition choir very quickly realized the risk of viral spread among choristers and halted live rehearsals.
It’s hard enough to be socially isolating, but it goes to another level of impact when that isolation takes away an avocation that is central to your health and happiness. A previous post on this site goes into some detail about the benefits of singing in a group.
In the early days of the pandemic, the double whammy of social isolation and choral isolation began to take hold. Soon, individual performers, usually professionals, began finding ways to perform online.
These performances were very pleasing to hear. But for me, they were further reminders of the fact that we were unable to sing together at our normal Monday and Wednesday rehearsals for my two respective choirs.
So, what about choirs? Digital platforms were not set up to work with performers performing together in real time. There was the issue of how to sing together in real time. Performances can be recorded and mixed together in an asynchronous way, but rehearsals need to be done in real time.
Our now familiar virtual meeting platforms are not yet capable of allowing choral groups to rehearse together in real time. But, that has begun to change as the months go by. Techniques to utilize the online video meeting platform for choir rehearsals and performance began to evolve.
These techniques have eased the pain of not being together to sing, but they haven’t yet been able to duplicate the singing experience online. This is of considerable significance to me as a singer, especially since the Unitarian Universalist Association, the guiding body of our church community, announced that it was strongly advising that congregations not meet together until the Summer of 2021 at the earliest.
What were singers to do in response to not being able to sing together?
Well, we all are now familiar with digital meeting platforms like Zoom, Google Meets etc. We are spending many hours on them for work, so the time that we spend online for our hobbies and enjoyment are under pressure to happen in a more concentrated and efficient way. No more two and three hour rehearsals. Some groups are trying to solve the technical problems of rehearsing online by meeting in expansive outdoor settings like in parking garages or parks, but many people are uncomfortable with this solution.
As we learn how to practice our craft in the socially distanced reality of COVID, we are learning to record ourselves in isolation from our peers and waiting for our choir directors and sound engineers to gather those individual recordings and compile them into a choral sound. This can be done. I have experienced the joy of harmonizing with my fellow choristers. It brings tears of joy to my eyes just writing about it.
Virtual singing is a temporary solution to singing remotely. It isn’t perfect, but it will serve to hold our choral communities and audiences together until we once again can make music together. Here’s a personal testimonial on the power of singing together even in the virtual world.