Over the past few months, music leaders used to bringing people together to make music in arts, community and education settings have been exploring ways in which these musical communities can be replicated or adapted online.
There is much advice out there about software that helps people to collaborate musically online – and much discussion about the challenges presented by latency and connectivity issues!
But beyond software and apps, how can music leaders build collaborative musical communities online?
- Many practitioners run regular Zoom/Web conferencing workshops for a fixed cohort of participants, meeting daily or weekly, undertaking musical activities led by a professional music leader. Breakout rooms can enable smaller groups to rehearse or practice together, whilst still being part of a larger group session. Call and response, or demonstration then individual practice (with participants on mute) approaches can be used in place of playing together. This approach can be used with existing groups – the English Folk Dance and Song Society led daily workshops as part of a week-long online residential for their National Youth Folk Ensemble, or to form new ones, as Opera North did when delivering a brand new online choral project. The model can overcome geographical and psychological barriers to participation and broaden access to music.
- Another option is to deliver Facebook Live sessions open to all who tune in, with the music leader running a live session and participants joining in from home, interacting via comments rather than as part of a video call. It is harder to monetise these sessions, although you can ask for ‘pay-as-you-feel’ donations, and you will have to create all of the energy and dynamism yourself, imagining the participants at home. Although participants can’t see each other, regular timings and great communication on social channels between sessions can still help to create a sense of connection and community. They can also be your ‘shop window’ – encouraging people to access paid for content such as 121 or group Zoom music lessons.
- Coming together to create a new piece of music or ensemble performance – by posting instruction videos, backing tracks and parts for your players, you can enable them to continue to play together, virtually, by creating an ensemble performance. Publish and publicise it and come together online to celebrate your collective artistic achievement!
Musical communities case studies
Music leaders across the country have found a range of innovative ways to continue to connect musical communities when playing together in person had to pause due to the pandemic. Here are a couple of examples drawn from the work of our partner, NYMAZ, and their Connect:Resound programme.
#YMHShare – York Music Hub created a comprehensive online offer for young people in York when in person music activities had to stop. From Zoom choirs to YouTube tutorials, Ukulele Orchestras, virtual ensemble performances and weekly Facebook Live music sessions, the Hub created a weekly schedule that was accessible to all, supported by a lively social media presence, including a blog, that advertised the offer and encouraged a sense of connection and community. Their #YMHShare channel underpinned this and enabled young people and music leaders alike to share and celebrate the music they were creating.
The Music Works – The Music Social Goes Online! The Music Works is a music charity based in Gloucestershire. Their ‘Music Social’ provides adult musicians with the opportunity to meet up, develop skills and make music together. The music leader, Lee, understood it was vital to keep the social aspect of the project going over lockdown, and quickly created a facebook group and weekly zoom meetings in place of the face to face meetings:
“The sessions have been running since the beginning of April with the group taking an active role in shaping the content of the sessions. Since then we’ve been doing online hangouts based around tutorials and DJ sessions where the group can request songs for me to mix, learning the art of song selection and often setting me challenges to learn from how I DJ different musical genres and mix songs together”.
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