Audio Latency: the reason we can't synch on video calls- so annoying. We solved the problem by muting everyone during YRCC Zoom Choir. It worked!
Balconies: During the first lockdown, there were so many nice videos of people making music together on their balconies. Here's a compilation of people in Italy making music during in March 2020. I loved seeing the snippets during the news, or shared randomly. The balcony thing started in Italy, but spread everywhere. It's been so frustrating to have no live music!!!
Concert Recordings: Videos and sound recordings of our YRCC concerts saved us. We sang along with our best selves. It was perfect. Here's a link to one of our YouTube videos. Finding videos of songs performed live was sometimes an emotional thing. Feelings of longing for the live music experience and also shock and horror to see all those people close together, breathing right beside thousands of other people!
Droplets: YUCK Here's a video of droplets released when singing. We had Carol buy face shields for the choir in hope of rehearsing together in the fall of 2020. We still haven't had the chance to use them. But, we will soon. I'm determined to get the choir rehearsing in person again as soon as possible.
Exercise: Aside from walking the dog, the best exercise during COVID has been evening “dance parties”. My eldest and I would crank up volume on the speaker, turn off the lights and dance around to the Apple Music Dance Workout Playlist. This was key to keeping sane.
Facebook Live: Livestreaming on Facebook from their bedrooms, a number of big names gave us precious concerts and musicians of all kinds found ways to perform and share their music.
Guitar: I picked up the guitar again and started learning chords so that I can sing and accompany myself. I really wish I had learned to play guitar. It’s so hard! My fingers hurt and don’t want to behave.
Headphones: Noise cancelling headphones were life savers. Blocking out the world and providing the right music for the moment, energizing or moody, sad or romantic, whatever I needed to be submerged in and alone in. While I was working, they were essential. Music made them bearable.
Instagram Live: Livestreams from bedrooms, and random locations that allowed social distancing were sometimes wonderful, and sometimes sad.
Just Dance: This is the fun musical exercise of choice for my eldest. Sometimes, I would join her. When I could, I would convince her to have a dance party instead (see Exercise).
K: short for Okay, sometimes kk, in a chat of a Zoom call, or in a text. Like LOL (laughing out loud) and TY (thank you), IRL (in real life), we learned these short forms. I hardly use my phone to talk anymore. Video calls and messages seem to be best. Messages are good because you can share songs by sending a link to a YouTube video or a song on Apple Music or Spotify.
Live Music: There was no live music. Without the internet, it would have been awful, unbearable. See Facebook Live, Instagram Live, Online Concerts. The first time I saw live music, on Canada Day, 2021 on a bar patio off Main Street, I cried. It was so good to see and hear and feel it! Going to be sure to go to see more live performances. I might have to start bar-hopping post COVID.
Masks: So much controversy at the beginning, and now it seems strange to think we might be taking them off soon. It’s not easy to sing with a mask, but we can’t sing together anyway! Sigh. The YRCC, my choir, bought face shields. We’ll see how that works when we get together again.
Needles: Vaccination was key to the reopening plan in Ontario. I got the first shot I could, so I had Astra Zeneca and also got the AZ for my second shot. In England, they got jabs and here we got shots.
Online Concerts: There were a few big ones. Elton John’s Living Room Concert Fundraiser in March 2020 was memorable.
PPE: Personal Protective Equipment was in short supply at the beginning. Masks, gloves, and hand sanitizer were in huge demand early on when the toilet paper thing happened. I have a good collection of masks now, so I’m not in a big hurry to stop wearing them. The choir will try face shields.
Questionnaires: Those COVID questionnaires, also called assessments, everywhere! We’ll probably need them for when we get back to choir. No fever, no travel, no contact, no, no, no, …
Reading music: One reason I insisted on keeping up the Zoom Choir meetings was that I thought it was important for us to keep up our music reading skills. For the majority of the choir, they haven’t had to look at sheet music for over a year.
Singing: We couldn't sing together. Singing was deadly! The videos of people singing and germs spreading were horrifying. News of outbreaks in choirs who rehearsed after the lockdown was shocking. I decided to try the Zoom platform so that we could sing together from our own homes. It worked, but it wasn't perfect. I sang while exercising, which was one reason for blasting the volume.
Tik-Tok: I didn't even download the App until Spring 2021, but it was influential.
Ukulele: The small size and relative simplicity of the ukulele make it a good choice for accompanying myself while singing.
Video Calls: vital when you can't meet in person
We Rise Again: this will be a new anthem for us, I think. Getting the choir back together after COVID will be wonderful, but a challenge. We will need to be reborn.
X: see Questionnaires. All the X’s we had to enter beside the NO’s!
YRCC: York Region Community Choir, my music family
Zoom: our saviour, the platform for video calls with large groups, which we used to keep the YRCC going, to keep me sane.
