I've a lot of things on my mind: stuff at St Mary's; all the BCCF workshops, and especially, planning for ROCA in September. Some things for you to think about for the fall...
We still have no idea what we are formally going to be allowed to do in September. My own line is that we will plan for the worst and hope for the best.
The best would be that we are allowed to sing in person in a limited format – probably small pods of c.6 singers, scattered through the pews at Fraserview. To have this work
we would need for this to be OK with Fraserview – i.e. we would need to conform with whatever their protocols required (and they’re not making decisions till September)
we would need to make these rehearsals accessible in virtual mode to all those of you who do not feel safe meeting in person – i.e. we would need to (ideally) livestream or (if necessary) videorecord rehearsals so that the at-homers could still be part of it. There are financial issues here! as well as tech details. These rehearsals would be hard to find rep for, since probably half of our tenor section will be singing at home and therefore not audible to the group.
we would need to have our own protocols in place according to the requirements of the health department, and anyone taking part would need to agree to them. That means if we are told we have to mask when we sing, you would have to mask, even if it feels unnecessary to you personally
I would be open to you choosing your own pods, according to your comfort level. They would probably be better as sectional groups, but if you want a mixed group, that’s fine. You would remain with the same people in those groups for all in-person rehearsals.
We’d need a pianist. Here’s the sad news (for us) – Toby and his partner Kevin are selling their condo and moving to the Sunshine Coast, so Toby won’t be available to us as accompanist any more :( We’ll need to think about how we can celebrate his time with us, virtually! Ideas?
IF this works, I would probably be looking to do it on alternate weeks, so that we’re all on the same footing for Zoom rehearsals.
At worst, we'll be all-Zoom for the fall - not ideal, but better than not singing at all. Zoom rehearsals will contain elements of
vocal training – maybe me, maybe someone else, maybe a recording
solo song repertoire – classical song rep, for good singing technique, but also folk songs and other things. Not just singalonga, though – time taken to do some analysis, some reading skills and so on. Song suggestions accepted – I’m starting a list.
choral repertoire – much harder to bring off in a Zoom context, but by recording accompaniments and voice-tracks, I can give you a choir to sing against at home. I suspect we’ll focus on things we’ve already done through the first term. Any requests?
The other thing to try here might be prepping for a virtual choir project: learning how to sing against a foundation track and trying to record yourself. This might be worth doing with some Christmas rep – perhaps with an aim to preparing a video to send to the local seniors residences where we won’t be caroling. Virtual choir is not for everybody, and we won’t try anything really challenging unless you’re all up for the challenge
listening together to choir performances
perhaps for the repertoire – with some historic context, or for simply enjoying the music
perhaps for subsequent discussion of the performance – we all know of good and bad performances on YouTube – sometime you learn a lot from watching a bad one!
listening to a lecture or a TED talk, and discussing
We might also have the odd cabaret evening, where people have the chance to offer something they’ve been working on. (Anna and Rick, Bill and Sylvia ALWAYS have something they’re working on!). It doesn’t need to be sung – it could be instrumental or a recitation or something.
And we might have the odd singalonga evening, as we did with the Beatles. Jen has already asked about this, and as long as I don’t have to prepare them single-handedly, I’ve a bunch of possible ideas.
I think the important things to remember here is that we are community, and we need to work this out together. We long to be with each other and hear each other’s voices, and yes, Zoom is not at all the same. Sadly, there is not yet any conferencing platform that has truly beaten the latency problem – Jamkazam is probably the best, but not for more than 4-5 people.
But we can be together even when we can’t hear each other, and we will take time to unmute and discuss and be together in words, even when our music doesn’t mesh.
And I think the other important thing to remember is that in the normal way, we are goal-driven; our rehearsals all take place with a concert as the end-product. In this time of COVID-19, we need to change that. The journey itself will be our focus; where we get to in the end doesn’t matter as much as the fact that we travel together, we learn new things, we explore areas in which we may not feel so comfortable, we listen for the voices that we don’t hear, knowing that they are singing with us.
I’m going to start asking Robert Bridson to post these info things in our membership section so you can access them if you mislay them in your inbox. Remember – down to the black border at the bottom of the webpage, click on member login, enter the code ROCAisgr8. I’ve just posted the repertoire list, current to our March concert, if you’re looking to see what we’ve done before and should do again. Christmas is not included in that – I might get to sorting that....
But the next list for you will be one for you to start planning your tech for Zoom rehearsals...
I’m also thinking about how we might do a summer open-air sing somehow, whether informal with guitars, or something that actually has music and perhaps a keyboard... Even masked, it would be fun. Suggestions? Perhaps talk on Tuesday evening...
Be safe...
Brigid
