Transcript PowerPoint - RickSeaholm.com

EMPOWERING THE VOLUNTEER CHOIR WITH TECHNOLOGY
Rick Seaholm
Edwards Church, UCC
Framingham, Massachusetts
PROPOSAL
Choir directors in smaller churches may challenge the notion that they are able to push
boundaries, in the absence of added rehearsal time. As their academic peers enjoy multiple
hours per week with their choirs, church musicians must make the most of an accelerated
weekly performance schedule, built upon single evenings each week, which may, at any
time, and without notice, be cancelled due to inclement weather; or drastically underattended, due to illness and conflicting engagements (both in the church and in the
surrounding local community).
It is our responsibility to understand that this is the nature of the small volunteer choir, and
to honor its members’ complex lives, preferably without sacrificing quality, or losing the
respect of the group. We may assume it’s more hours we need, when in actuality, we would
push ahead most effectively by making smarter use of those limited hours together (and the
many hours apart).
PROPOSAL
Fortunately, an abundance of technologies, now standard in college curricula, can be readily
adapted to the choral process, both by streamlining rehearsals, and by empowering
volunteers (who “can’t read music” and “can’t play piano”) to continue their progress
throughout the week. Our choristers are accustomed to technology everywhere else, and they
will gravitate to the community more fully, when it is suddenly brought into line with
expectations from other parts of their lives.
Over this eight-year experiment, I have explored a number of methods, and this presentation
highlights three.
•Community Website
•Digital Signage in the Rehearsal Room
•Mobile Apps for the Director
WEBSITE FOR THE MUSIC COMMUNITY
WEBSITE FOR THE MUSIC COMMUNITY
The music community’s website is separate and distinct from the church’s main
website. It is built and administered by the music staff. It is built on WordPress, the
world’s largest and most frequently-used content management system. WordPress is
fully extensible, allowing any number of assigned users to make updates, simply and
non-destructively, while leaving higher-level administrators to administer larger design
changes.
WEBSITE FOR THE MUSIC COMMUNITY
The Homepage threads the latest blog
postings, reflections, and church newsletter
articles in reverse-chronological order, so
that the most recent information is always
found at the top of the page, while older
posts are continually archived and remain
available. Staff and singers can have
separate accounts, allowing them to post
without the potential to “break” the site.
WEBSITE FOR THE MUSIC COMMUNITY
The Anthem Library page serves as an index
of our complete choral library (some 800
octavo titles), and directs users to individual
pages for each specific title, which include
at-a-glance composer, seasonal, and
inventory information, as well as resources
to help choristers in preparing the anthem at
home (this may include text, translations,
background, composer biography, links to
YouTube performances, etc.).
WEBSITE FOR THE MUSIC COMMUNITY
The Audio Archive stores individual music
files, extracted from full-service audio files,
and presented in a password-protected
playlist, which allows choristers to hear their
performance later that week, and refresh
their familiarity with a score the next time the
same piece is offered.
WEBSITE FOR THE MUSIC COMMUNITY
The Annual Reports page, protected by
password, acts as a portal to encrypted PDF
scans of the church’s annual reports
throughout history, as well as individual
pages with searchable text of the Music
Committee and Choir Director’s reports,
committee personnel, and budgetary
information for each separate reporting year.
WEBSITE FOR THE MUSIC COMMUNITY
The Annual Highlights pages provide, at a
glance, information regarding committee
personnel and staff for each program year,
in addition to the anthems sung for each of
holiday, and traditional cyclical local events
(stewardship, kick-off, Special Music
Sunday, etc.). Users can click through from
the highlights page to see full calendars for
each year.
WEBSITE FOR THE MUSIC COMMUNITY
The Calendar can be used in multiple ways,
depending on the needs of the end user.
Filters allow one to see just the upcoming
rehearsal schedule or the upcoming worship
dates (including anthem titles ahead of time,
and full bulletin information the Friday before
each service).
DIGITAL SIGNAGE IN
THE REHEARSAL ROOM
DIGITAL SIGNAGE IN
THE REHEARSAL ROOM
A standard LCD (large-screen computer monitor or television) can quickly and easily be
deployed at each rehearsal, and reaps massive rewards in making the session more
efficient. Of all the technologies suggested in this presentation, this is, without a doubt,
the most expensive, and potentially the “toughest sell” to church budgeters, but with the
addition of a mobile cart, the LCD can be used throughout the building at other times of
the week, effectively shared for education classes and meetings, outside of the music
program. This may allow the cost to be shared amongst multiple budget lines.
Additionally, it’s worth informing church members of the need, as many are often looking
for a reason to get a larger screen for themselves at home! In place of an LCD and cart,
churches may wish to investigate a projector instead.
DIGITAL SIGNAGE REHEARSAL
OPTIONS
Focus: A gathering slide can
noticeably focus the rehearsal in a
very powerful way. Without your
saying a word, as choristers burst in
the room with all their concerns of the
day, they are immediately reminded
of why they have come, and what
they need to do.
DIGITAL SIGNAGE REHEARSAL
OPTIONS
Demonstration: I played this
animation for several weeks in
rehearsal. The first week, I found it
valuable to go into great detail of
what was happening in the video. In
subsequent weeks, without saying a
word, I looped this slide during our
warm-up period. It was amazing to
see everyone’s posture improve,
touching their ribs, and so on.
DIGITAL SIGNAGE REHEARSAL
OPTIONS
Consideration: In shorter time than
you could ever accomplish with
spoken words alone, the choir now
knows what we’re rehearsing next,
what it looks like, when it’s being
sung in worship, and most
importantly, a few thoughts to focus
on while beginning to really “make
music” of the notes.
DIGITAL SIGNAGE REHEARSAL
OPTIONS
Clarity: The choir means well in their
studiousness, but what director hasn’t
nearly come to blows when trying to
give out such detailed information as
this with spoken words alone? I put
up (and leave up) a slide like this
when we begin the piece for the
evening, launch right into rehearsing,
and let them catch up at their own
pace.
DIGITAL SIGNAGE REHEARSAL
OPTIONS
Announcements: Given that slides
can be presented without taking any
corporate time out of the rehearsal,
the director is suddenly free to pass
along information which may be of
peripheral interest: upcoming
television or radio broadcasts of note,
local concerts, etc. This is true digital
signage for the rehearsal room.
MOBILE APPLICATIONS FOR THE
DIRECTOR
MOBILE APPLICATIONS FOR THE
DIRECTOR
As in all walks of life, there are countless ways in which mobile applications can help
the choral director and music administrators, both in and out of the rehearsal room. At
present, I am unaware of any one app that handles the workload of a choral conductor
in a comprehensive fashion, and instead I am using a number of individual ones. All
referenced apps are available in Apple’s iOS App Store. Let me know which ones you
use as part of your routine!
MOBILE APPLICATIONS FOR THE
DIRECTOR
Attendance Tracking: For me, simplicity is best, as I
do not have any mandate to enforce good
attendance, or strictly manage outages. I auditioned
several apps, hoping to find one that would allow for
the creation of groups (men, women, full choir), that
could be assigned to specific engagements, and
that would allow for marking planned outages in
advance, so that I could always know who would be
absent on a given future date. It was also important
that the selected app sync across devices so that I
could view the same information on both my iPhone
and iPad. The app I use this year is “Participants,”
but appears to be no longer for sale.
MOBILE APPLICATIONS FOR THE
DIRECTOR
Quick Recording: The iPhone has a surprisingly
good long-distance microphone built in, and there
are dozens, if not hundreds, of recorder apps out
there. They all handle the hardware of the device in
similar ways, so the most important distinguishing
feature for me was the ease of doing something
with the file once it was recorded. Some apps let
you deposit immediately to DropBox, SoundCloud,
and other providers wirelessly, while some have the
added functionality of importing the file onto your
computer once you get back to it. The app I use is
“iTalk” by Griffin, and its associated desktop client
“iTalk Sync.”
MOBILE APPLICATIONS FOR THE
DIRECTOR
Tempo Tracking: Metronome apps are a
dime-a-dozen, so to speak, and the
functionality is even built in to most guitar
tuner applications nowadays. The more
interesting use of the phone is a tap-totempo use of the touch screen. After tapping
a few beats, the software will display the
tempo at which you are tapping. My favorite
(“Tap / Tempo” by Benjamin Jaeger) allows
you to establish a click-track based on your
taps, perfect for organically choosing and
then maintaining tempo.
CONCLUSIONS
This ongoing research project has upheld for me the assumption that employing
technology in a volunteer choir can dramatically enhance the experience in the
rehearsal room, and can empower members to work on their own throughout the
week. Time is saved in rehearsal, leading to a pronounced improvement in quality of
sound over time.
One very strong take-away, however, is that it costs time to save time. I now spend far
more hours each week in an administrative capacity: preparing slides, tending the
website, and considering options for extra learning (composer biographies,
backgrounds of anthems, etc.).
CONCLUSIONS
This is all for a good cause, and I don’t regret it, as I am just as passionate about technology and
teaching as I am music-making, and I find them all to be in service of each other.
However, from a purely practical standpoint, I realize I am spending far greater hours each week
than I am called to do by contract, and it is highly unlikely that these hours (though recognized and
appreciated by the membership) would translate into a larger position, or higher compensation.
There are those weeks where it is not feasible to create a presentation, which can lead me to feel
like I am not living up to job responsibilities, when in actuality, it is my self-imposed higher-level
workload that I am failing to reach.
Therefore, it is an absolute requirement that one be passionate about whatever they intend to
introduce, as it may end up taking up much more time than originally anticipated.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rick Seaholm is in his eighth year as choral director at Edwards Church in
Framingham, Massachusetts, and is in discernment for commissioned music
ministry in the United Church of Christ. He is a 1999 graduate of UMass
Lowell (BM, vocal performance) and a 2001 graduate of Westminster Choir
College (MM, sacred music conducting). Rick is the Associate Director of
Interactive Technologies at Boston University Questrom School of Business,
where his team evaluates and implements new applications and hardware
that can improve the learning experience, both in the classroom and on
students’ own time, including flipped classroom tools such as lecture
capture, in-room polling, and learning management systems. He takes
advantage of these seemingly dissimilar walks of life, to create a fusion in
which his regimens of rehearsal preparation and score study are
dramatically enhanced by the use of technology.
[email protected]
@rickseaholm
rickseaholm