This month, we have focused on the choreography for one of our newer songs. We have been taking advantage of the breakout room capability within Zoom for this, and our choreography team has also created videos for us to review when we are not at rehearsal. Though it's a bit more difficult to do this virtually, we have made great progress learning it, and we can't wait to be able to do it together in person. We have also begun learning the singing portion of another new song. 

In addition to doing our regular physical and vocal warmups and working on our repertoire, we have continued to provide music education. We learned to identify more intervals, and Judie Wykoff taught a class in marking our music. We've continued to break out into sections to focus our efforts. Julie also gave us all an opportunity to release some of our stress by screaming into a pillow unmuted for a few seconds! No need to worry - it was not long enough for us to hurt ourselves. This was very cathartic and fun.

Last week,  we had a wonderful coaching session from Sandy Marron, who taught us about Speech Level Singing, a school of thought that encourages us to sing the way we speak. We did some exercises where we first spoke a line of a song with energy and animation. Then we chanted it on a single tone using the same energy, and finally, we sang it. This helped us to focus less on forcing the sound to come out a certain way and allowed us more freedom to produce the sound more naturally. We always enjoy our sessions with Sandy, and it was great to have her back with us.

 

As mentioned in last month's newsletter, we have been working to create a virtual chorus presentation. A number of chorus members have submitted audio recordings, and we'll soon progress to the video recording submissions. This month's storytelling gathering was a back-to-school theme, where people shared their school experiences. We continue to have daily coffee chats and occasional tea gatherings as well. Although we do find this time apart challenging, we are trying to encourage opportunities to maintain connection with each other.

We have intensified our efforts to meet new people this month by reaching out on Nextdoor and other social media channels. We will be hosting a guest night in early October as well in hopes of encouraging more singers to see what we are all about. We are hopeful for the future. We hope our regional community is doing well.