A Virtual Choir is a collaboration of singers who independently create a video of themself singing a piece of music and then put together using music and video editing software to create the video you see. First, the singer creates videos of themselves singing to a recorded track with headphones so that the video is only their singing. Then, all of the audio tracks are mixed to accommodate varying microphones, volumes, and timbres. Then, the videos themselves are put together with the final audio mix and you have a Virtual Choir!
*Virtual Choirs do not in any way replace a choir or choir performance. Those rehearsals and performances are organic experiences of a community coming together in a shared love for music to create and perform.
This video is a collaboration the Bethel Middle School Treble Choir students created using our concert piece "Something Told the Wild Geese" by Andy Beck. The lyrics are based on the famous children's poem by Rachel Field (1894 - 1942), the first woman to win the Newbery Award for outstanding children’s fiction.
The goal of the project was for the students to practice creating characters only using their voices. This challenge provided students the opportunity to focus solely on their vocal inflection, singing, and speaking techniques without focusing on the visual component of performing a play or musical. Each scene, the students rotated roles to practice varying roles focusing on the traits of each character. How would this character react to this situation versus my other character? The students worked independently on their recordings while I produced their finished files. The students collaborated to record their parts using rehearsal and accompaniment tracks.