New Ways To Make Your Choir Rehearsals More Effective
Less learning. More singing! Getting singers in sync ahead of rehearsal.
If you are looking for ways to make your rehearsals more effective this episode of ChoirSuccess is for you! Meet Håkan and Olof Berg of ChorusClass.
ChorusClass is a virtual choir app that makes it easy for chorus members to practice at home, at school or anywhere. By practicing between rehearsals, everyone can spend more time singing together during rehearsal, instead of learning parts. How cool is that?
Packed with useful features for singers, ChorusClass is a perfect example of how technology and innovation is transforming chorus.
Håkan and Olof Berg talked to Tom Metzger in the ChoirSuccess studios in Vancouver.
“Many singers can read sheet music straight off the page but they need the support of learning tracks. So I think at least for me, learning tracks have been a very, very big help in learning the songs quickly and getting to the fun part, which is singing all of the group together.”
About ChorusClass
ChorusClass is a virtual choir app that makes it easy for chorus members to practice at home, at school, at work or anywhere, with a smartphone, tablet or computer. ChorusClass is based in Sweden.
“Countries that have a culture of choir singing, about one out of ten people is actually singing in a choir. And if you take all the English-speaking people globally, that makes more than 100 million English-speaking people actually singing in choirs.”
Video Transcript Highlights
There are huge opportunities for innovation in the choral space. ChorusClass is a rehearsal app for choir singers that uses pre-recorded learning tracks with a multi-track player so that choir singers can utilize all the time in between regular choir rehearsals to get their parts right.
In 2014 we started thinking that it would be possible to make choir singing easier and more simple using smartphones, so we built the first tool to show choir singers it could work like this. We started developing the app for iPhone, and then for Android.
When we started developing ChorusClass, there wasn't an app for choir rehearsal or rehearsing choir parts at home. We are pretty much alone with a multi-track recorder in the market, so choir leaders can easily record their own learning tracks within the app, and also adapt learning tracks.
You only have to record once, and then everyone can access the tracks through the app. They can mix and match parts, and get a predominant part or isolated part, how they wish.
You can upload professional choral tracks to the app or you can upload them one at a time through the app. If you're using the Choir Genius admin tool, you can upload them all at once through the admin tool.
You asked what the difference between our app and the competitors is, and I think one of the most appreciated features is the loop function, which allows you to repeat only the parts that you want to practice.
Show choirs, barbershop choirs, and some others do a lot of choreography, so they can't be standing there with the music and they have a definite need for quick memorization of the music.
You know, a choir is thought of as being a very local experience, but if you have a singing group that meets virtually or once a year, you really do need to learn tracks to get people in sync prior to meeting.
Technology is changing the choir world, so let's talk about what you see coming. Choir singers aren't fast adapters of technology, but they did take a huge leap in technology during the pandemic and started to use a lot of digital tools for singing. I think artificial intelligence and virtual reality could open up some interesting possibilities.
The opinions expressed in this program are those of the guests and contributors. They do not necessarily reflect the opinions of ChoirGenius Inc.