Singing & music
Reinventing our classes ONLINE! 2020
Contribution thanks to
Nicola Gawthrop
Vocal Works 07894 047559 nicola@vocalworks.org.uk
has been a crazy year for everyone. For some activity and education providers, like myself, the lockdown has meant scrambling to move classes online via Zoom where possible or potentially shutting up shop for good. A heart-breaking prospect when you’ve spent many years building your own business.
Setting up and delivering classes virtually is not an easy task if you have never worked in this way and do not already possess those technological skills. You also need a decent computer and camera set up, good audio, a suitable space and most importantly a reliable internet connection to make it all happen. My husband produces his own podcast and has been using Zoom for years so I luckily had good studio set up already at home and a tech wiz to help me. I just had to learn how everything worked, which buttons to press and figure out how to teach remotely. How hard could it be? Turns out singing together remotely is actually impossible. The lag on the video call means that you cannot sing at the same time. When teaching groups, I have to mute everyone whilst I lead the warm-up exercises and teach the song. The students all sing along but cannot hear each other. We unmute individual students to hear them separately. I’ve had to learn how to teach singing in a completely different way but thankfully it works! The students have also adapted quickly to working in this way. For some, having a lesson via video call suits them better. Throughout lockdown our students continued their vocal training and learnt songs that they then recorded at home. These videos were sent to me and I put them together to create ‘Virtual Choir Videos’. I have never edited video before. It is hard. It took days! My video and audio editing skills have improved gradually and the students have become really good at making decent recordings. Filming in landscape, using tripods, and even using greenscreens! I have created nine videos so far. You can see them on our Facebook page: @vocalworksclass. I will be running a ‘Virtual Choir’ 3 day holiday workshop during half term for 7-16 year olds £20. We will be making a Halloween themed Virtual Choir videos! Visit our website for details: www.vocalworks.org.uk Being forced to teach online has shown me just how much potential there is for online learning. I have learnt that I am not too old to learn new things and I CAN work with technology! 22
Check out our blog & much more online at www.livinglifemagazine.co.uk
