This resource covers how to use the online meeting platform Zoom for online choir rehearsals. To find out more about Zoom and how to set it up, read our Zoom: how it works resource.
Basic set-up
Zoom works best for online rehearsals by muting everyone except the MD. This means:
- Everyone can hear the MD
- People can’t hear each other
- The MD can’t hear any other people
- So when everyone sings, they are singing to themselves
This obviously has musical limitations and does not recreate the ‘in person’ rehearsal experience. This is a limit of the technology at the moment and we think the above approach is the best in a virtual world. Whilst it might not be ideal, it does offer a lot of positives:
- You are at least meeting as a group, and people are making music!
- It still offers vital social connection, if not the perfect musical one
- It allows people to hear their voice on its own which can be a great learning and development opportunity
You might have to consider the music you sing to make sure you are getting the most out the platform.
Equipment
If your MD has a decent quality external microphone to plug into their device, they should use it. If not, then their device microphone will work – but it might be worth buying an external one: they are not too expensive and can help sound quality. For a good overview of the things to consider and some low budget options read this microphones review.
Sound options
MDs can use the ‘Enable Original Sound’ to improve the sound quality experience. This allows them to preserve the sound from their microphone without using Zoom's echo cancellation and audio-enhancing features which are optimised for speech. It means when they are singing to everyone Zoom will not compress and adjust the sound – so gives the best sound quality for music. A recent update to Zoom (March 2021) included new options for sound for those using desktop and laptop computers, including 'high fidelity' and 'stereo sound', so do make sure you have updated your Zoom app to the latest version, to ensure you can access these features.
To set these within the Zoom app on a desktop or laptop computer:
1. Click on your profile icon in the top right hand corner
2. Select settings
3. Click audio
4. Untick the box to automatically adjust microphone volume
5. Set "suppress background noise" to low
6. Check the box that says "Show in-meeting option to 'Enable Original Sound' from microphone"
7. Check the boxes to enable high fidelity music mode and stereo audio, and disable echo cancellation
To set these within the Zoom app on a tablet or smartphone:
1. Click the settings wheel
2. Select meetings
3. Scroll down to find "Use original sound" and turn this on
If you’re both speaking and playing during your session, you can toggle the on/off switch for original sound located in the upper left of the Zoom meeting for PC users, or under the 'more' option for tablet and smartphone users.
Backing tracks: The MD can also play backing tracks through the their microphone for people to sing to.
In terms of sound quality the best approach for backing tracks is to share the computer audio. Do this in the meeting by clicking on Share Screen, and then ‘share computer sound’ in the bottom left. It means participants hear the backing track and can still see the MD (but MD muted).
The downside to this is that the MD is out of sync with the backing track, and so they can only sing along if they mute themselves. It also means that if they want to give direction they have to adjust for being out of sync – which means they would have to give the instruction a second or two before they normally would.
Note: if the MD does plan to give direction, they will obviously have to unmute themselves – and make sure they have headphones plugged in (otherwise the computer microphone will pick up the sound the computer is playing).
The other option is to not ‘share the computer sound’ via screenshare and just let the computer microphone pick up the sound – this is better in terms of syncing but worse in terms of sound quality. Most groups have reported better sound quality through ‘share computer audio’.
So the best two sound options are:
- Play tracks through sharing computer sound if the MD doesn’t need to be heard singing
- Sing using original sound feature if the MD wants to be heard eg for teaching or a call and response song.
How to structure a session
Introduce the session
A brief induction on how to use Zoom at the start for everyone is a good idea. Include:
- How to mute and unmute
- Why everyone needs to be muted
- How to use chat
- How to use thumbs up and clap
- How to toggle between grid and speaker views
- How participants can ‘pin’ you, the leader, so you appear large and don’t move, even if others speak or if there are too many people to be seen together on one screen
- Making sure your name is spelt right in your name box - and also getting people to add their voice
People might not want to do this every week so as weeks go by you could invite new people to join the session 10 mins early if they want a mini zoom induction.
Warm-ups
Singers still need to warm up their voices just as they normally would. But in the virtual world this takes on an extra importance; given that no one can hear anyone else when the singing starts, it’s good that everyone can see each other and know that everyone is doing the same thing. It can also look quite amusing, which can help put people at ease. For that reason, including some physical warm ups is a good idea. Some good ones are:
- Rolling shoulders to relax tension
- General stretches
- Facial warm ups, stretching and scrunching the face up. This looks quite funny and makes people laugh
- Tongue warm ups: write the name of the person to your left on Zoom inside your left cheek. And the name of the person on the screen below you in your right cheek
- Breathing exercises are all good (and calming and relaxing)
- Tongue twisters
- Sirens on different sounds, fricatives and vowels. Ask everyone to follow the siren with a physical movement so everyone can see everyone doing it, even though they can’t hear.
Rehearsal techniques
Simple call and response songs work reasonably well. The leader sings a line and holds the last note for singers to repeat back over the drone of the last note.
Simple rounds also work quite well – everyone sings in unison and then the leader starts and gives them a cue of when to come in. You can be quite explicit in saying that this is really good for practicing holding your part alone against one other part.
Simple harmony songs have worked quite well. Teach one part, and then a harmony part, and then go back to singing the main part. People have the option of singing the main part with the MD, or holding the harmony on their own - again good practice for developing their own voice and relying on themselves and not those around them.
As per the sound setting sections above the best two sound options for rehearsals are:
- Play tracks through sharing computer sound if the MD doesn’t need to be heard singing
- Sing using original sound feature if the MD wants to be heard eg for teaching or a call and response song.
It is quite easy to switch between the two methods above within a rehearsal, so the MD might use Original Sound feature to teach parts, then switch to playing a sound track through ‘share computer sound’ to sing the whole piece.
The screen share function can also be used for sharing lyrics.
Take a break
Between pieces: you could build time to talk between pieces. This has to be managed well – you probably don’t have time for everyone to comment between every piece.
The MD can say “how did people find that?” and either ask people to raise their hand and select people to comment. You could let people unmute themselves and comment, but be prepared to step in and manage this if needed.
This can bring useful feedback for the MD (as they can’t hear what people are singing) but also makes it more social and interactive for people.
At half time: most in person rehearsals have a half time break and there is no reason an online one shouldn’t do the same. Putting people into breakout rooms so they can chat in a manageable sized group is a good idea, 6 or 7 per room seems about right, and 10 minutes or so is probably all they need.
You can manually manage who is in which room – or just let Zoom do it randomly. This might be a good way for people in your group to meet new / different people. You can help facilitate this by giving them some questions to ask each other, for instance:
- Introduce themselves - how long they’ve been in the group, what they do
- Share (if they like) any challenges they’re facing
- Offer, or ask for, support with things like shopping or post for anyone who may be in isolation
- What music are they listening to during social distancing?
- What boxsets are they watching?
Online rehearsing will probably be new to everyone involved – so getting some feedback is a good idea. You could ask people to stay on at the end in a breakout room to get their feedback on how they find it and what might improve it – both the musical and social side.
Social
Leave room for some social time after the rehearsal – if you have a paid for Zoom account you can leave the meeting running after the rehearsal for people to chat, or you might want to use breakout rooms for this again, or just see how it goes! You could also consider more organised social activities like a pub quiz (breakout rooms can work well for teams) or giving people a chance to talk about and share the music they have been listening to.
Safeguarding
Safeguarding is just as relevant for online events as it is for in person events. Many of the principles are the same and some common sense procedures can make a big difference. You can read our Safeguarding guidance for an overview of the key principles or our Online safeguarding resource for specific guidance. The ISM and Musicians Union have some useful guidance specific to online safeguarding, they focus on one to one music tuition, but much of it is transferable to group situations.
We hope you find this Making Music resource useful. If you have any comments or suggestions about the guidance please contact us. Whilst every effort is made to ensure that the content of this guidance is accurate and up to date, Making Music do not warrant, nor accept any liability or responsibility for the completeness or accuracy of the content, or for any loss which may arise from reliance on the information contained in it.
