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How to Plan the Virtual Rehearsal

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Suddenly, in mid-March 2020, the world stopped, and collective singing was silenced. We were taken by surprise by a pandemic that made it impossible for us to sing together and meet in person. We were deprived of physical contact, conversation between friends, the freedom to come and go and hugs. Many choral groups that were planning annual rehearsals and concerts were cancelled. Theatres, churches, schools and community halls, spaces where presentations and concerts with choral groups are usually held, have been closed. Fear, insecurity, and chaos took over life and singing. And now?

 

Faced with this panorama, the choirs became welcoming and mutual help communities and found a solution, a virtual rehearsal space to supply the need for the meeting and to motivate people in such a delicate moment of fragility, loneliness and hardships to find encouragement in singing together. The rehearsal room has changed. The singers who used to meet to rehearse together, today rehearse separately in their own homes and the choir found themselves facing a new stage, the internet. The choir conductor was challenged in the face of this new era, to develop new technological skills and new skills to carry out the work with the online choir.

 

The planning

  

Thus, the choral conductor realized that organizing the planning of each online essay can make it productive and interesting and for that to develop a test plan, just as in the face-to-face test, it is essential. Establishing the digital platforms, applications and software that will be used to carry out the activities, the objectives, the content to be developed, the songs and the methodology that will be used to carry out each online essay in advance is undoubtedly one of the ways to ensure the optimization of the test time.

Defining the frequency of online rehearsals allows the singers and conductor to organize themselves to actively participate in the choir.

 

The digital tools

 

Each conductor can choose a digital tool that is more appropriate to the singers' reality. Among the applications, sharing platforms and software that make it possible for music work to be done remotely, I mention some that are being used by choirs for conducting rehearsals and online activities:

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- Zoom: allows online meetings of the choir, conducting rehearsals one by one or in suits, presentation of lectures and classes with invited teachers and conductors; Download link:

https://zoom.us/

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- Musescore: free professional software that allows you to create, play and print scores; Download link:

https://musescore.com/

 

- Google Classroom : allows you to organize the sending and receiving of the choir's activities; Download link:

https://edu.google.com/intl/pt-BR/products/classroom/?modal_active=none

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- How to use google classroom:

https://canaltech.com.br/internet/google-classroom-como-usar/

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- WhatsApp: sending instructions, sending playbacks for studies and recordings, and sending other materials. Be very careful in managing your working time when using WhatsApp!

 

- YouTube: some conductors use YouTube to create a channel for the choir and download materials for the singers (instructional videos, playbacks, video recording and audio of the voices);

 

- Cell phone camera: useful for recording video and audio instructions and recording video and audio of singers.

 

-Group on Telegram: sending instructions, sending playbacks and other materials; Link with instructions on how to create a Telegram on Android, IOS and Windows.

https://www.oficinadanet.com.br/telegram/29414-como-criar-um-telegram-no-android-ios-e-windows

 

- WeTransfer: for sending material (video and audio) by e-mail; Download link:

https://wetransfer.com/

 

-Reaper: software used for audio editing and mixing; Download link:

https://www.reaper.fm/download.php

 

-Oliver video editor: Software used for video editing. Download link:

https://www.olivevideoeditor.org/

 

- Get to know other digital tools on this MusicaUnirio channel Live:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tt6DghDMio
 

The musician and audio-visual producer Vitor Gomes recorded this video with 7 steps to record a virtual choir:

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