The current coronavirus crisis looked like it might stop choirs from rehearsing and performing. If anything, the opposite seems to be the case, and your choir at Christ Church is going strong and would like to invite you to get involved. The way we are forced to operate at the moment is a real opportunity for those who, like me, find singing harmony together hard. I'm learning to sing Tenor, when I have sung Bass all my adult life. Rehearsals on Zoom and what follows after is the perfect way to gain confidence before performing.

Here's the process:

Early in the week we choose hymns and songs that we will record for the coming Sunday Service on Zoom. If you've been to these services you will know that there are slides for each hymn so everyone at home can join in the singing (with their microphones turned off) We often choose shorter hymns or we choose the verses carefully. We are using hymns from our New English Hymnal, but we are also using songs from other sources that we can use with our copyright licence. We hope you like the mix.

Dennis Tjiok then records the music on his incredible home studio set-up over in west London. He does this in a special way which is the secret to helping everyone sing in harmony. If he wants four part harmony for a hymn he sends out four versions of the track he has recorded, each with a part 'highlighted' with a different sound. The accompaniment may be on the piano, but our parts are added with a comfortable extra sound like a flute or a clarinet. Dennis also sends out a scanned version of the music score. It's really easy to get confident with a part as you listen, follow and sing along to one of these tracks. No one needs to hear you, and you can practise until your confident.

On Wednesday evening at 6pm we meet on Zoom for a rehearsal. We warm up our voices and thenDennis takes us through the tunes and the individual parts. All this happens with our microphones turned off, so the only person who hears you is you. The rehearsal concentrates on how we sing rather more than what we sing - for example, how do you get all the words to fit, or how are we going to pronounce a word to make it sound nice (heavenly sounds hellish if it is sung heav-en-ly, rather we like to sing heav'nly). Also how loud we need to be, how forceful and where to take breath. Important stuff. We then record a simple video of people singing the hymn on Zoom. The point here is not to have a perfect performance in harmony, but to show the choir performing. We sing with our microphones off, so it's a bit like Silent Movie or The Artist. You see the results of this on Sunday mornings alongside the words of the hymns.

Then comes the clever stuff. It's possible to listen to the recorded version of the music on a computer and record your part on a mobile phone and then send it to Dennis to produce. But there is a piece of computer software called Audacity take makes this so much easier. You will also need a microphone, but the microphone in a webcam is usually fine. Audacity is free to download and it looks like this. 

The blue 'wobble' is a digitised version of the recorded sound. You can see where it starts, stops, gets louder and fades away. This could be the backing track that Dennis sends out. Using Preferences you can now select to add your recorded singing as a new track (you only need to do this once). You open the music file for your part and you practise a few times until you are confident to record. I find it helps to wear earphones for this, but I like ones that still let me hear how my voice sounds, so not very hifi. When you are ready you press the red 'record' button, listen to the introduction and begin to sing. Sop by pressing the black square 'stop' button.  At the end you can review what you've recorded and if you are happy with it, export it as an MP3 file, muting the backing track (very simple). You send the result to Dennis and he does the rest. Part of the fun is listening on Sunday morning to hear if Dennis has made you audible on a hymn, or hidden you among the other voices or perhaps you sang so confidently suddenly you are singing a solo. Who knew you had the confidence to do that?

We'd like to encourage more people to take the plunge and have a go with this technology. You will be serving your fellow Christians, and learning new confidence as a singer. You always wondered if you could sing - well, now you can! 

Dennis or I am very happy to show you more about how it works. Please do join the online choir and enjoy singing in this way.

Fr. Tom