A digital renaissance

If there was ever any doubt, music has proved once again to be the place that humans turn to during a time of crisis. Lockdown measures brought in to fight the coronavirus outbreak have been necessarily stringent, but people the world over have responded with music. From the lone Italian trumpeter captured on video playing Imagine and mass online singalongs on YouTube, to a South African youth choir’s public health music video and free, streamed performances from major world music venues, music has flooded our living rooms. However, we haven’t just been ‘consuming’ music – we’ve also been throwing ourselves into taking part. Here are just some of the highlights.

For singers, apart from The Sofa Singers run by James Sills and Gareth Malone’s Great British Home Chorus singalongs, there are countless online choirs. There’s the Stay at Home Choir and Duet Yourself, a virtual community choir open to all on Facebook. Our corporate member Choir Community has been running Distant-Sing sessions, with resource packs you can download for each session.

For current or returning instrumentalists, there are lots of YouTube tutorials to help you practise, as well as professionals offering online lessons (our corporate member Your Space Music, for example). Part Play is a practice companion instrumental app that’s especially good for stringed instruments – you can play your part along to a professional ensemble backing track. Brass players have been joining in with Kearsley Youth Brass Band for live rehearsals on Facebook every week, and they can also access free music from Pennine Music and Mode for Publishing.

But it doesn’t stop there – our member groups have joined in, meeting up with each other to play or sing online or even just have a chat and keep their social connections going. At the time of writing, popular online platforms for group rehearsals include Zoom set to ‘music mode,’ which has a free version for up to 100 participants and as many meetings or sessions as you like for up to 40 minutes per session. We hear that Facebook Live is best for broadcast rather than interaction, but members tell us they have had success with musical directors broadcasting and everyone at home singing or playing along. Acapella is an app that lets you record and share music (vocal or instrumental) with each other, though for full, recorded pieces professional software like Cubase Pro will bring better results.

There are also musical activities to look forward to further ahead. The global grassroots music festival Make Music Day will still be running on 21 June but with a digital focus – take part in the Live From Home Challenge by recording a musical performance and tagging friends on social media to respond with their own performances. Upload any musical recording to one of Make Music Day’s ‘Street Studio’ producers, then watch the livestream as they incorporate it into a track. Or just sit back and relax on your sofa, and watch a day-long video stream showing the rich diversity of live Make Music Day performances from around the world.

Even when this crisis is over, we may find ourselves taking forward some of these inspirational ways of making music and reaching out to new people and audiences in ways that we’ve never done before. Visit makingmusic/stay-connected for more