Photo: Michael Gold
... a few words about music.
Important note: this work makes no medical claims, and it is up to you, dear reader, to use any information you find here responsibly and intelligently, toward yourself and others.
All material ©Sing into Joy
The Joy of Singing Together--Online
September 9, 2020
Yes, it can be done!
Last evening, I had the pleasure of presenting about Sing into Joy to the Ulster County Women’s Network, as its September guest. The organization, based in NY’s mid-Hudson Valley, now holds all its meetings online. We sang, as part of our hour-and-15 together, after a focused, short warmup of bodies and voices. Later came the talking part. We need to sing, first.
I had assumed the women—just under 20 participants including guests—would have to use their mute buttons most of the time. We’ve all experienced the latency and overlap problems with even speaking at the same time in a Zoom or Skype conference, let alone singing. Heaven forfend. During the warmups, everyone did use the mute option. For one thing, there’s a need for safe space in those exposed moments when people are finding their own (un-warmed-up) voices in the privacy of their own homes.
But when it came time to do a song together, there we were: smiling happy faces, voices ready, hearts with a song to share. It was just too tempting not to try leaving those audio channels open. So we did.
And it worked. Not with the polished perfection of a “virtual video,” where people record their solo musical parts to a conducting track at home, and then someone edits it all together into an impressive whole that can be shared on YouTube. (This is in the Sing into Joy plan for later, BTW.) We’ve all heard and often marveled at those.
What happened last night was a different kind of magic. I had divided the group loosely into two halves, to trade lines back and forth. And because we were alternating, and because several voices were singing at once each time, something else had to happen. We paused, and we listened. Some people’s internet connections were a little faster or slower than others. Some women started singing a little earlier or later than others in their group. It didn’t matter, for what we were doing. We were hearing each other’s voices, sometimes individually for a few seconds, mostly as a texture. We waited that extra second for one group’s sound to complete before we answered. And thus we caught those unpremeditated little vocal moments lingering in the air, too.
There was a collective joy in this, as homespun as the technology necessitated. We were singing together—for everyone (I think) for the first time since quarantines began. What a wonderful experience! What a thing to share again!
The talking part followed: I explained how “Sing into Joy” came to be and what it’s about, and we had a Q&A at the end. After some very good questions, one woman asked: “Do you think we could sing another song?” Of course we could! And did.
It was a little hard to push the “Leave Meeting” button after we all said good night.
This morning, I received a lovely email from one of the board members, that read in part:
“I love what you are doing and was inspired by the UCWN event, which was fun, informative and empowering for each of us individually and as a group bonding for the UWCN participants.”
The thing about getting together to do things like this, is that we ALL can be empowered. And have fun. Thank you, Ulster County Women’s Network, for the opportunity to bond with you through the power of song.
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©Danielle Woerner 2020
