By Chloe Mee
Musical expression continues at Collingwood during online school; a significant new obstacle caused by the coronavirus.
Since online school started in late March, the way that students may have thought about music had to change during these past few weeks. Bands and choirs have not been able to meet and rehearse together. One of the most treasured and meaningful things about musical groups is the ability to come together and express themselves with music together. There is something magical about hearing the people around you and hearing your part blend in with the others to create something greater.
Luckily, in the twenty-first century, professional musicians record their albums and put the best takes together to create the final product that we hear on albums and radios now. Sometimes recording leads to scrutiny due to how polished the music sounds, with AutoTune and sounds that cannot be replicated in a live performance. However, Collingwood students have taken the technological innovations to their advantage to connect and put together music for a final virtual concert.
In the band classes, Mr Smith gave a series of lessons about the history of DAWs (Digital Audio Workspaces), as well as how to record oneself on an instrument with optimal sound quality. Before everything happening with the coronavirus, the bands were talking about learning new facets of music other than practising to put on traditional band concerts. The coronavirus became an opportunity for us to learn more about new aspects of music.
The process is relatively simple. Mr Smith creates a backing track to the piece with a metronome which follows the tempo changes in the piece. Occasionally he will indicate bar numbers that are already demarcated in the music. The student then records themselves in a secondary track, adjusting the recording levels to reach the best sound. They can make multiple recordings and put the best parts of the piece in various recordings together to have the ultimate play-through of the song.
Next, the student deletes the click track from their recording and sends it to Mr Smith. He has a master track where he will add each of the recordings and adjust them to put the piece together. And voila! A virtual piece, seemingly polished to perfection, is created. Mr Smith has said that he has been pleasantly surprised by the results, even growing to like a song even more after having created the recording. Shalom Chaverim has players from each concert band, which is around 90 tracks from different players!
There is a similar story for Collingwood’s choir rehearsals. Mr Buchan had already recently established a system on Google Classroom of recording parts for students to learn with and sing along with. Students were already submitting their recordings to have specific feedback on a song and their part. Mr Buchan records the piano playing each individual voice for the singer to practice with, and they then practice with the full piano part to record. For another piece, Mr Buchan is also adding a video component to add to the personable feel of singing to the audience through video.
Mr Buchan told me that “choir has been very different and yet at the same time, certain themes exist from pre-COVIDic times.” He explained that the main differences are that the choirs meet using Google Meet during class and performances are virtual. Additionally, the “early” rehearsals now start at 8 am instead of 7 am since online school starts an hour later. Students rarely miss classes now because of illness, and the online interface means that students cannot interrupt as much, “except for Alex Ge,” he told me jokingly. However, he sometimes has to hunt down recordings from the same students as before.
As previously mentioned, there are some correlations to “preCOVID,” where recordings were “to just ensure that work was done confidently. Now it is done so that we can create a virtual choir.”
Mr Buchan also gave me more information about his background in recording music:
“Over 30 years ago, David Buchan was a professional studio musician. He was recording in studios where a studio engineer would include his work into a completed production number on 8-track tape. Students at Collingwood are essentially now ‘apprentice studio musicians.’ Their work at home is developed and honed through the tutelage of the teacher. When the final work is submitted… it then gets “engineered” into the final beautiful production number. Other points of interest are a continued study into the theory of music as well as a more ‘general interest’ component where students take a broader approach to their own studies of choral music. Their interests have varied from the more computer/technical side of music to favourite listening music, to performing/solo music, and even a combination of these where one student has sung seven-part harmony with themselves using GarageBand!”
The online choir was featured in the final assembly with videos of a plethora of singers.
Musical expression continues at Collingwood during online school; a significant new obstacle caused by the coronavirus.
Since online school started in late March, the way that students may have thought about music had to change during these past few weeks. Bands and choirs have not been able to meet and rehearse together. One of the most treasured and meaningful things about musical groups is the ability to come together and express themselves with music together. There is something magical about hearing the people around you and hearing your part blend in with the others to create something greater.
Luckily, in the twenty-first century, professional musicians record their albums and put the best takes together to create the final product that we hear on albums and radios now. Sometimes recording leads to scrutiny due to how polished the music sounds, with AutoTune and sounds that cannot be replicated in a live performance. However, Collingwood students have taken the technological innovations to their advantage to connect and put together music for a final virtual concert.
In the band classes, Mr Smith gave a series of lessons about the history of DAWs (Digital Audio Workspaces), as well as how to record oneself on an instrument with optimal sound quality. Before everything happening with the coronavirus, the bands were talking about learning new facets of music other than practising to put on traditional band concerts. The coronavirus became an opportunity for us to learn more about new aspects of music.
The process is relatively simple. Mr Smith creates a backing track to the piece with a metronome which follows the tempo changes in the piece. Occasionally he will indicate bar numbers that are already demarcated in the music. The student then records themselves in a secondary track, adjusting the recording levels to reach the best sound. They can make multiple recordings and put the best parts of the piece in various recordings together to have the ultimate play-through of the song.
Next, the student deletes the click track from their recording and sends it to Mr Smith. He has a master track where he will add each of the recordings and adjust them to put the piece together. And voila! A virtual piece, seemingly polished to perfection, is created. Mr Smith has said that he has been pleasantly surprised by the results, even growing to like a song even more after having created the recording. Shalom Chaverim has players from each concert band, which is around 90 tracks from different players!
There is a similar story for Collingwood’s choir rehearsals. Mr Buchan had already recently established a system on Google Classroom of recording parts for students to learn with and sing along with. Students were already submitting their recordings to have specific feedback on a song and their part. Mr Buchan records the piano playing each individual voice for the singer to practice with, and they then practice with the full piano part to record. For another piece, Mr Buchan is also adding a video component to add to the personable feel of singing to the audience through video.
Mr Buchan told me that “choir has been very different and yet at the same time, certain themes exist from pre-COVIDic times.” He explained that the main differences are that the choirs meet using Google Meet during class and performances are virtual. Additionally, the “early” rehearsals now start at 8 am instead of 7 am since online school starts an hour later. Students rarely miss classes now because of illness, and the online interface means that students cannot interrupt as much, “except for Alex Ge,” he told me jokingly. However, he sometimes has to hunt down recordings from the same students as before.
As previously mentioned, there are some correlations to “preCOVID,” where recordings were “to just ensure that work was done confidently. Now it is done so that we can create a virtual choir.”
Mr Buchan also gave me more information about his background in recording music:
“Over 30 years ago, David Buchan was a professional studio musician. He was recording in studios where a studio engineer would include his work into a completed production number on 8-track tape. Students at Collingwood are essentially now ‘apprentice studio musicians.’ Their work at home is developed and honed through the tutelage of the teacher. When the final work is submitted… it then gets “engineered” into the final beautiful production number. Other points of interest are a continued study into the theory of music as well as a more ‘general interest’ component where students take a broader approach to their own studies of choral music. Their interests have varied from the more computer/technical side of music to favourite listening music, to performing/solo music, and even a combination of these where one student has sung seven-part harmony with themselves using GarageBand!”
The online choir was featured in the final assembly with videos of a plethora of singers.
A virtual concert will be put together, including each musical group’s repertoire, and members of the Collingwood community will be able to view near the end of the school year. It has been a delight to participate in this new era of music in Collingwood, where students and teachers still come together through the unity of music to take a break from the chaos of our world to create something beautiful and meaningful. The link will be shared on June 12th.
https://vimeo.com/405119609/a2c8a2e85f - Morven Teachers
https://vimeo.com/408158482/5b99f652f9 - Wentworth Teachers
https://sites.google.com/view/morvenarts/instrumental-projects - Bands
https://sites.google.com/view/morvenarts/choral-projects - Choirs
https://vimeo.com/405119609/a2c8a2e85f - Morven Teachers
https://vimeo.com/408158482/5b99f652f9 - Wentworth Teachers
https://sites.google.com/view/morvenarts/instrumental-projects - Bands
https://sites.google.com/view/morvenarts/choral-projects - Choirs