Episode 15

0:00 – Intro

Welcome to "Scene Change", a podcast by the National Federation of the Blind Performing Arts division. All about equality, opportunity, accessibility, and the arts. Here, you'll learn about the techniques from performers in the know. We are changing what it means to be blind at one stage at a time. Thank you for joining us today.

Lizzy 1:28 – Introducing Rachel Grider and Tom Paige

Hello, everybody, and welcome to Scene change. I'm Lizzy Muhammad Park, the Vice President of the National Federation of the Blind Performing Arts Division and your host of the show. Today, we will be learning about an activity that has gotten so many people through the pandemic. It's been a stress reliever, it's, you know, allow of people to connect with each other, all while maintaining skills that we've used in performance before the pandemic ever started. We will be discussing the virtual choir. We have Rachel Grider and Tom Page here with us today. These are two chief leaders of the NFB virtual choir, and they've been doing it for the last two years. Welcome to the show Rachel.

Rachel

Thank you, Lizzie. My name is Rachel Grider, and I am from California. I am the first vice president of the NFB of California. I am the president of the Central Valley Chapter and I wear several other NFB hats. I got my bachelor's in music at California State University Stanislaus, with an emphasis in voice performance and composition, and I got my master's at Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore. In voice performance, and music theory, pedagogy.

Lizzy

Excellent. That is really, really cool. We definitely will want to hear more about that in a minute, but first, let's jump over to Tom Page. Hey, welcome to the show.

Tom

Thanks for having me today. Many of you may know me as the president of the Kansas affiliate. I'm also a musician, performer, songwriter, and audio engineer.

Lizzy 2:26 – The start of the choir

Yes, and that is a huge role that you play in our virtual choir. Let's start things off right at the beginning. So who approached whom about the virtual choir? And what was that process like, you know, just starting one, for the NFB?

Tom

I would say that, I've got to blame it all on Rachel. She definitely approached me with this great idea, and I'm not sure how completely formed it was at that time, but I'll turn it to Rachel.

Rachel

So I am a music teacher. That is my main job right now, and at the beginning of the pandemic, all of my in person classes were canceled because of the pandemic, including the choir that I was directing, and that was very sad. So I thought about, you know, how we could make things happen virtually, and I had received an email from another choir director talking about a virtual choir, and I thought, hey, that's a really cool idea. Why not do that for the NFB. So, no, it was not fully formed when I came to Tom, but I had thought it would be cool to try and I emailed President Riccobono and asked him if that would be something that he might want to put on our national convention, and it sort of just went from there.

Lizzy

Wow. So you were really inspired by the classes that you were teaching? It sounds like and and seeing, you know that someone else was starting a virtual choir is that, is that a fair way to sum it up?

Rachel

Absolutely, yes.

Lizzy

So are you a part of any other virtual choirs? Or was this you know, sort of the first one or the only one.

Rachel

I did one virtual choir before we did this NFB one. So that was around May of 2020, and that was my first virtual choir experience. That's actually my only experience actually singing in a virtual choir. Since since our 2020 Virtual Choir for convention. I also lead one for the state and the state affiliate, last convention, and then I've done a couple for our ler- for the Learning Ally College Success program over the summer as well. I've led led to virtual choirs

Lizzy 5:00 – Accessibility with the choir

So was there any question in your mind about, you know, accessibility? If this would work as a blind director as a blind audio engineer, were there any questions of challenges that you might run into with the virtual choir?

Tom

I suppose I could jump in and say that my first questions really were not concerned with accessibility, but rather, could we do it at all?

Lizzy

And where’d that come from?

Tom

I’ve had very little experience up to this time with putting together files generated in different spaces around the country, my major concern was that the audio would just sound like a big mess, and that we wouldn't end up with a listenable product at the end.

Lizzy

And is that because different members recording in different spaces? Or what--

Tom

Different spaces, most of the recordings we've gotten have been created on phones or on notetakers, and so there are some questions as to whether the fidelity would be usable, and then yeah, the different spaces a little scary, and I suspected that the process of syncing was doable, but I wasn't really sure how much work it would take? Or how intensive a process that would be. So there are a lot of question marks for me over the just, you know, kind of hanging around the audio production end of it. I think, you know, Rachel had had a different perspective, of course, coming from the organizing of people, and of things.

Lizzy

So Rachel, what about you? Was there any question in your mind about doing the virtual choir?

Rachel

So? Yes, I'm trying to think of where to start here. My first question, I think, was just making sure that we had the music in an accessible format for everyone. Because not everybody reads Braille music. Not everyone reads print music, we have lots of different needs, as far as, you know, the medium of how people prefer to get their music, how they're used to getting their music in a in person choir. So we wanted to have, I wanted to have all of those options available, including audio recording. So you know, making sure that we had all of that and just so that people could learn their music, structuring rehearsals over zoom, which is very interesting in a virtual choir setting, because in an in person choir setting you are, you get to hear people sing. You get to hear the choir, how it sounds, how they sound together, you can make corrections. In a zoom choir rehearsal, everybody is on mute. So it's mostly the director, playing and singing the parts, and it's amazing how exhausting that actually is to do that for two hours without a lot of feedback. After the first rehearsal, I was really tired, just from from doing that, and, and then you don't really get a lot of feedback as far as how things are sounding. So the only feedback you get are questions that people ask during rehearsal or after rehearsal, but you don't really get to hear what they sound like until they send you recordings unless you work with them privately. So that was a little scary, because I had no idea. Even if I could hear them one on one, I had no idea how it was going to sound together until really until Tom gave me a recording demo. So it was, so that part was definitely you know, I had questions up until the end, I guess, and, and yes, I think I had similar similar questions to Tom as to how would, how would it all work? Like how would it all come together when you have all these different recordings, and I was, and I did listen to the recordings as they were coming in, and so I could hear, you know, their different devices, different file formats, and, you know, I wondered how that was really going to come together, and I was very pleasantly surprised and happy that it that it came together very nicely

Tom

Because Certainly Rachel's skill as a teacher is evident here. As, as these files came in, I became more and more emboldened with the idea that this process was going to work and a big part of it is that people had actually learned parts, and it became fairly obvious that, you know, most of the Altos were singing, singing from the same sheet of music, so to speak, and, and the same with the other sections.

Rachel

Have to say, to add something, because for the state convention, I actually did the audio editing myself. I don't know if I will ever do that again, quite frankly. So that was part of it was I'd never done it before. So I really was learning as I went, and I just, it just really drove home, how amazing and how much work, Tom, and other audio editors who done this have to put into this because it is so you know, putting, it's one thing to teach the music, it's another thing to put it together and make it sound good, and it's hours and hours of work. So, you know, it's kudos to Tom and to Kyle, our audio editor from from this year for making this all work.

Tom

Yes, big shout out to Kyle. He also had not done a process like this before, and so much like Rachel jumping into the fire on the state convention in California, he really jumped in this year and took the the reins on the audio editing and did a great job.

Rachel

Yes, he did.

Lizzy 11:27 – Did Rachel or Tom consult friends about running a choir?

He really did, and it's interesting that both of you kind of said that there was not a question of blindness, and this is really, it was really a question of, you know, musical technicality, and then the audio technicality. So I'm very happy to hear that. For anyone out there who's listening and you know, interested in doing some sort of a virtual choir. This is doable from, you know, sounds like this is very doable. Now, Did either of you? Because they were very, you know, audio and music, music specific questions that either of you consult any, you know, friends or books or YouTube about running a virtual choir? Or did you both just kind of go into it with these sort of questions and thoughts, or just kind of figure it out as you went along?

Rachel

I did. Actually, I actually reached out to Kaleigh Brendle, who is the director for Singing For Serenity, which is another virtual choir, which I believe is all blind singers, if I recall correctly. Okay, cool. So, and she was also a scholarship winner this year.

Tom

Go Go

Rachel

Right. So I reached out because I actually have a student who sings with her, and so I had heard about it, and then when I had reached out to President Riccobono, he had, you know, suggested maybe, maybe, consulting with her. So I talked to her and I kind of got her idea about how, how she does it, and she does it in a very organized a lot more organized than I did, I think, because she she uses section leaders and she does different things, because it's an ongoing year round choir, and, but I also got the idea from this, the other virtual choir that I sang in, and the way he ran rehearsals of, you know, I basically ran them the same way that he did it, and then now that was a little different, because it was a video choir, and so that was a whole nother aspect of, you know, making the recording, but, you know, I use the same, the same idea of doing the count in which, you know, I got that from them, and then Tom confirmed that that was a good idea. So, so yes, I think I picked up things from both places.

Tom

I had heard a couple of my friends talk about doing zoom at church, and I kind of wondered how that worked and ask them about church choirs over zoom, and they told me it's a big mess, and it doesn't really work at all, and so that's mostly what I got on that was it it was a big mess and didn't work and that it comes out sounding like like when zoom jams basically just ran, and so did a little bit of thinking about how one would put together these different audio files from different sources, and just went back to basic, what I would call basic audio editing techniques. There are probably some fancier methods using snap to grid sort of a concept, but really what we did was what what Rachel was saying we used to count in and then I just think things to that count.

Lizzy 15:01 – How did Rachel find people for the choir

Awesome. Okay, so we will get more in detail with some audio information later in the show, and another Sneak Peek for later in the show is that Kaleigh Brendle will be joining us not on this segment, but in a segment that we are starting up called questions with Katelyn, where we may pull in some some surprise guests here on 'Scene Change', so be on the lookout for that, and before we delve into some more technical behind the scenes information, Rachel, how did you go about finding the talent for the choir?

Rachel[1] 

So the first year 2020. I know I'm trying to remember, I reached out to the NFB Performing Arts Division and the NFB net Members list and I think several other listservs probably the performing arts listserv, and basically just said, you know, I'm looking for singers for this project, is anyone interested, got lots of lots of takers, especially after President Riccobono announced it on the presidential release, which was really helpful in getting singers and, and there were many singers that did it, and it was not, though there's no audition involved, it was just, you know, I mean, anybody who wants to sing, come and sing, no matter what level and I tried to have, you know, different music, different varieties of music, so that, you know, be of interest to as many people as possible, and I even said, you know, if you don't want to make all if you don't want to record all three songs, that's okay. You can just one or two, it's fine. We just want to hear you saying so, um, you know, got lots of takers, and then and then this year, pretty much I think we went around at the same same way, we had a choir form that people were to fill out and posted it all kinds of places on the Performing Arts Division list, and beyond listservs, and it was, you know, lots of people wanted to do it, and, and, and, of course, I reached out, you know, directly to people who had done it last year, who, you know, I thought might want to do it again, you know, or people who I knew might be interested. So that was also, you know, I did I did a little bit of that as well, but but it was mostly just from advertising on NFB, listservs.

Lizzy 17:26 – Typical rehearsal 

Wow, and from there, people were able to just kind of, you know, jump in at their own level of comfort, and I really, like the way you did it, where you said, you know, you don't have to do you know, there's no pressure, you know. So that's cool, and that does leave this as sort of a way to perform to relieve stress. Now, I'd like to know, if you could walk us through a typical rehearsal.

Rachel

Okay, well, the typical rehearsal, I would, I would try to, you know, give some time in the beginning to ask questions. So the idea. So the thing about a virtual choir is that it is a lot of a lot of learning on your own. The rehearsals are really more just to sort of reinforce least that's how I see them. So, but by the, by the beginning of a rehearsal, everyone should have had time or should have had the opportunity to go over whatever we're going to go over in the rehearsal that day. So it's, so it's not new, new information. So say, we're going to rehearse one of our songs was 'You'll Never Walk Alone'. The first this last convention, and so in the rehearsal that I'm planning to rehearse that, I will have already put out the audio recordings, the music, Braille music, sheet music, everything, all the materials are already there on the in the Dropbox folder on the website, so that people can can access them. So that at the beginning of the rehearsal, I'll take questions about any, you know, anything throughout the week, any any thing that people actually most of the questions would be more just, you know, general questions, and then we'll do a warm up, and we'll go through warm ups for people or vocal warm ups, for people to go along to mute themselves and sing along with and then we will rehearse and essentially I will play parts so I'll go over parts, sort of review parts, soprano parts, alto parts, tenor parts, bass parts, and we will divide the song into segments will stop every, you know, after each segment or so to answer questions if people want to hear a part again, and then, you know, we'll We'll run run segments together, it sort of depends on, you know, the, the comfort level of everybody, if they're ready to, you know, try to run stuff. Again, I don't get to hear their, their, their singing. So it's all everything i i do is based on the feedback I get from them during rehearsal. So after we've sort of, you know, gone through parts, we will, you know, maybe run the whole thing at the end, perhaps, and, you know, and I'll screenshare if we already had the actual track for recording ready, which we didn't, we didn't always that wasn't, that wasn't ready in the beginning of the project, but you know, toward the end, you know, we had the tracks for recording. So, I would play that over the over screenshare, and let people hear it and sing with it, and then I'd take more questions at the end, and then that would, that would essentially be a rehearsal.

Lizzy

So you're really trusting people to know their own voices, to know what they're struggling with? And so on in a virtual choir, whereas in an in person choir, that musical director can listen and say, no, no, that's not it, you know?

Rachel

Exactly

Lizzy

Okay

Rachel

The other things that that. Now, this is where I think, you know, if we did this for if this wasn't just a one, a one convention project, does that make sense? If we did this as a year round thing, I would maybe do things more along the lines of how Kaleigh in Sing for Serenity does it were there section leaders and there's a little more, a little more of the one on one training, or one on one rehearsing, and such. Because that way, you do get to have more feedback as to how things are going, if that makes sense, but but for this, what I did was I did offer if anyone wanted to rehearse privately or work privately with me, and there were several other people in the choir who also really took that on as well and offered to help people who might want to work on on parts. So and that was really, really helpful to have to have those individuals who were who stepped up and, and worked and helped helped folks learn parts, and so I saw I did some private, sort of private lessons or rehearsals or I don't know, you know, whatever you want to call them, with some folks to, you know, work with them on their parts, and that was really helpful. Because that that did give me feedback as to how people how people were learning their parts and and then I also offered, you know, people wanted to send me recordings ahead of time, just, you know, just a sample recordings of, you know, to get feedback, that was, you know, that was totally fine as well. So that way I can get some, you know, some insight and they could get insight to if there was something that they needed to change with their recording.

Lizzy

Was there ever a time during rehearsal where you might screenshare, the backtrack, you know, back on music, and you were not singing, but instead had people singing on their own, so that they could sort of get used to singing alone for their audio file.

Rachel

So that that is exactly what we did in practice, and so when, when I screen shared, everyone was on mute, including Well, I don't know if I was on mute, but I was I wasn't singing. I was everyone was on mute. So that was the idea of that they were singing. Because if I were singing along with a backing track on Zoom, that would just make that would just be a mess.

Lizzy

Oh I see

Rachel

So yeah, so that was that was what we would always do at least some of that. Either at the end of each rehearsal or, you know, sometime in the rehearsal, where they would, they would actually get to hear the screenshare we'd screen share a track, either a practice track or the track for recording so that they could sing along with it.

Lizzy

And was there ever for those who learned by ear? Was there ever a time when you might sing along with the music? Maybe not during the rehearsal, since that wouldn't really work? Well over zoom. I didn't think about that, but where you would just sort of sing it so that people could hear it?

Rachel

Yes. So every song that we did, had a I made record demo recording through each part. So and Kyle literally also really helped with that too. He helped by creating the tenor and bass parts for the for the songs, so Oh, So yes, so they did have have recorded audio tracks for each part, as well as, you know, resource to music for those who wanted it.

Lizzy
Excellent

Tom

Say that helped me a lot to have those demos also, and that, you know, Rachel and Kyle really acted as the section leaders in terms of providing those model tracks for people to study, and then also, of course, from, from my perspective, it helped me understand, this is kind of what it's supposed to sound like, and so if there's, you know, a particular singer that's not in rhythm or not on pitch, or whatever, I was able to kind of screen those against the models and adjust accordingly.

Lizzy

Ahhh

Rachel

As a Braille music reader, even though I read Braille music, I still find, I really find those audio tracks not only super helpful when when doing something like this, but also necessary, I think, because because people aren't able to hear the singers around them. If I were in a in person choir, I would have my whole soprano section I could hear, and I could, you know, you know, I'd have an idea, you know, even if I know, in theory, when a cut off is supposed to be, for example, I would, it's, you know, there's still so many other factors, and it's just really easy, it's really helpful, and I think essential in a virtual choir to have that, that audio track to just create some life, and some, just make it real and make it give them an idea, you know, this is exactly what it what it should sound like. Basically.

Tom

My only real choir experience in life was in junior high school, where I sang in the choir, and I imagine that a lot of time in, in person choirs is spent with people learning how to round their voice or shape their mouths, if you will, so that they sing together in a tone, and I do remember, we had a lot of like, I-E-O kind of training during the junior high time, and and as you're alluding to, Rachel, it's very difficult to understand how your neighbor's voice will mesh with yours, when you never get to hear that, and so yeah, so I think it was really important to have those on those model tracks, and, and that that really did help things.

Lizzy

And it almost seems like you were the filter in a way to make sure that that the blend was achieved, because it's you know, you're you were kind of the one who got to hear everyone's tracks, right?

Tom

Yes, I, I think I did get to have the bonus of as the tracks came in, I was the person that got to hear them together first. I just tried really to imagine what it would be like to have all the people in a big room on a big riser, and how that would sound as a whole, and then go from there, and I think, you know, as you're hearing from Rachel's description of her ideas of how to get this together and lead the project. She has a very community based choir outlook for this, and I thought that was very appealing, and to me what that meant was, if you have a particular singer in a particular section, who might be a little loud and brassy, guess what, that's who they are, and if we were together in person, you'd be saying, oh, man, so and so and the sopranos is always singing a little too loud. Whatever, and so to that extent, I mean, there's a I think there is a penchant for audio engineers to want to strive for perfection at all times, and that was a good experience for me to say 'no, this we really want to preserve the humanity of this.' And so if somebody is a little out what what stature of person is their voice? Are we talking about a very large person with a big booming resonant voice while they're going to be hurt? Is this a very small person with a tiny voice they may not be as big in the mix but they're still going to be in there, and so so that was sort of the the part I got to have fun with of imagining the group together and then layering up the layering up the sounds

Lizzy

You really got to feel people's personalities through their their their singing voices

Tom

Oh yes and sometimes the other, you know, the fun part the other stuff that was in the files that they sent in, you know, you can hear the what's happening in the background of people's apartments or the city, the city noises where they live, or the country noises where they live, and so that's kind of neat to just to feel the diversity of folks who were contributing.

Lizzy 30:13 – Did Tom ever had to ask someone to adjust their voice

Now, did you have to Tom? Ask anyone who was, you know, maybe they had that big booming voice and maybe it was a little too much and maybe your equipment couldn't quite turn it down enough? Did you kind of just let it shine? Or did you ever ask for re-records?

Tom

Mostly let it shine was the approach I don't think I'm there might have been a couple re-records, they were mostly due to noise factors, and I let the singing coaching portion of the thing rests entirely on the shoulders of Rachel. So if I had some questions or concerns about a particular part, I basically expressed those to her, and she did the one on one coaching to, to work with that, because really, I'm you know, to be fair, not a vocal music instructor, and you know, I joke about these things, but it's like, I will demand my tempo, and, you know, you're going to need to be on pitch, that's the, that probably would be the end of my instructional set for singers.

Lizzy 31:19 – Did Rachel use any techniques

Wow, and you know what, I like that, you know, the two of you seem to work really well together, and it really comes from knowing both of your roles and respecting the other the other person's role that's really coming through in this interview. So Rachel, gonna jump back over to you, and I'd like to know, could you describe any techniques that you use as a musical director in specifically individual choir?

Rachel

Oh, my goodness. Okay, well, in the virtual choir. Um, so I feel like, you know, in the rehearsals themselves you know, mostly it's, it's plunking out parts on the piano. Essentially, there's, I don't feel like I mean, we do warm up techniques, like all I'll do with them the same warm ups that I would do with an in person choir or even with my one on one voice students, and then I will, and I'll try to encompass all all the parts, I'll do some, some warm ups for like, you know, the altos and basses, and then for the tenor and soprano. You know, so trying to encompass the entire range, at least the range of, of whatever, we're going to be rehearsing that day, and then, you know, we will, it's mostly plucking out parts, but, but I will work with people one on one, when they when they want it, as I said before, and that will, you know, I'll treat them just like I would any of my voice students. We will work on, you know, their song or whatever, you know, they'll I expect them, you know, I treat, you know, I try to treat my students, you know, like adults, like young students, I should say, where I will, I will tell them you know, I will I will ask them, okay, what is it that you need? You know, what, where do you feel is your most challenging part? In this? What is what is the biggest challenge for you? And then they'll tell me, and then we will go over that, and then we'll, you know, do whatever needs to be done to fix it. So, with the virtual choir, singers, they are, you know, mostly, mostly adults, and they know, you know, what it is that they need work they need help with, and sometimes it's, let's just run through, can I run through 'Ritmo'? Or can I run through the tenor part for 'You'll Never Walk Alone?' Like, okay, let's hear it, you know, and though, they just want to see if they're doing it, right, and if there's anything that they will, that they need to fix, and so sometimes it's like, okay, this is this is going to, I don't think there's anything that you need to fix on this. This is great, and other times, it's, you know, you know, let's Okay, let's go over this part. Sometimes they want to talk about breath support and how they when when they need to breeze, you know how to how to start your breathe because that's one really difficult thing to do in a virtual choir in in-person choir if you have a long note or a long phrase, you can stagger breathe, meaning you're breathing in a different place than the people near you. So to the audience, it doesn't sound like anybody's breathing, but in a virtual choir, you don't really have that option because you don't have people near you. So learning how to take as quick a breath as possible and breathing in a place that that will be as noticeable if there's a long, long phrase or long note, at, for example, at the end of 'You'll Never Walk Alone', there was that very long, long phrase at the end or your super long note, and there was a lot of staggering going on, and it actually worked out really well, in the audio editing, which was great, but, um, but yeah, you know, a lot of people wanted to work on breath support at the end of that song, so we would work on it, and I would give them some breathing exercises, and we would do some of those together, and then we would work on, you know, that that passage, so, so I think, you know, so So yes, I think the the techniques I use, at least in the one on one is very similar to what I use with, with my students only more tailored to the choir itself, and I and I tried to let these singers you know, kind of call the shots as to what they need to learn what they need help with, and what kind of feedback they're looking for, and then I tried to give that to them.

Lizzy

So one thing that I'm noticing about the Virtual Choir is that it seems like it's a lot more independent, and also student run, it almost reminds me of college is like, as when you were describing it, it was reminding me of the difference between you know, in high school, you have a lot more direction, but in college, it's up to you, it's up to you to read the material, and then come to class and discuss it, you know, be ready to discuss it or ask questions that you have, you know, already prepared, you have the material, and then you kind of have to your trust it to go and do it yourself and come in and and ask for the information that you need.

Tom

There were a lot of self starters in the group, if there was a certain amount of requirement that that yes, that somebody would would have to actually peruse these materials and be prepared. Rachel only had so much time to, you know, call around the country and, and and get individuals motivated.

Lizzy
That is so cool. So that's, you know, yet another tip for anyone listening who's interested in getting involved in a virtual choir Good, good to know for sure. Now, Rachel, you actually wrote ''Stronger Together'', is that correct? 

Rachel

That’s right.

Lizzy 37:20 – Motivation behind ‘'Stronger Together'’

Could you share with us? What motivated you to write the song? And also, how did how did singing an original piece affect the choral experience?

Rachel

You know, President Riccobono, had actually mentioned that maybe this was a good year for an original song. Just kind of, you know, in passing, and I, it occurred to me, because I have been struggling myself a little bit with just the recent events, the NFB, you know, that have been happening with the NFB, and I felt like, this song was sort of my statement regarding those events, if that makes sense. It was a way for me to express my love and respect and desire to help the NFB membership in whatever way I can, and also, you know, to, to express the solidarity, and the diversity in our organization with the members that I want to help achieve, you know, continue to achieve in the NFB is that make sense, and so that was sort of what inspired the song, and I wanted to, to have something that was specific to the members, not something necessarily about the NFB as a whole, but about the members of the NFB and something that would maybe make people feel welcome, and that, you know, would also even address a little bit. Some of the things that have happened, there's a line in there that about, you know, the pains from the past, but then, you know, hope and healing and victory at last. So, that was sort of my my statement, I think regarding regarding those events, but also moving forward and being strong as members and celebrating the diversity and the contributions that everyone can make, and those make every day to the blindness movement.

Lizzy 39:48 – How did Tom pull it off

That's awesome. Rachel, thank you so much for sharing that it's as you were speaking, especially as you're recording that line from a song I just got the chills. It's It's true. It's very You know, it's a song that definitely strikes, feelings of, you know, love, hope and determination, as we always say in the Federation, and I think that everything that you want it to come across definitely did come across in the, in the song and and in the in the final performance. So we're actually going to move into talking about how performances are created, and I think, Tom, that's a lot of what is your job in all this? So you mentioned, you know, originally having questions about how the quality would turn out. So the big question is, how do you pull it off?

Tom

Well, some computer magic is part of the story. gating is a wonderful thing, which is a process that can be applied to audio where a person sets a threshold, a volume threshold, in essence, and so if the signal drops below that threshold, then you have a kind of a pre made fade out time that you apply. So let's say if you do it too radically, it sounds choppy, and like it would cut out somebody's voice, but if you do it at the right, threshold and the right fade out, time, it comes across feeling fairly natural, and it eliminates the background noises that were in the files. We also did have some pre thinking and coaching on, on helping folks to make better files with their phones, we discovered pretty quickly that there were different settings in the phones that you could change to get a higher fidelity file, and then also, oh, some things I've just learned over the years with with really low tech recording, which is, if you can get yourself into a really small space, a closet or something like that, it sounds less roomy than if you're saying in your living room or kitchen, and even, you know, you could put a towel, you could be under a towel or under a sheet is a good way to to achieve what is called proximity effect, where the voice sounds like it's close to the microphone. So those those techniques and strategies really did work. From there. Really, I guess I have to defer back to Rachel, that you know that the director and the work of Rachel and Kyle, as acting as section leaders, really is what produced the performances from the individuals, and all I did was put all of those performances together with the computer magic to where they appeared to be in one space.

Lizzy 43:02 – Some of the Apps and Tech that Tom uses

Wow, and could you just rattle off maybe some of the apps or the tech that you use

Tom

Yeah, no problem. I guess I should mention, of course, I am a blind person. I use JAWS screen reader. This was all done under Windows with JAWS. My it's a silly acronym digital audio workstation has a lovely free DA is how they say things these days, and so the DA that I use is Cakewalk sonar. A little dated now, but the folks at dancing dots years ago programmed scripts for sonar, so it worked with JAWS, and it still does for me, and so also used the Sound Forge audio editing program on the back end for to track. Mastering purposes

Lizzy

I really have no idea what you're talking about. I'm just asking for people who are

Tom

Yes, I imagine Shane is using Pro Tools may be which is the modern way of doing these things. 

Lizzy

He uses something called the gold wave or something. I don't know. He just said it yesterday. That's the only reason why I know that.

(combined talking)

Tom

I should be looking at Reaper, okay sorry

Lizzy 44:27 – What video is played with the songs

That should definitely help our listeners on those of you out there who are audio engineers and and know about this stuff. If you have more questions, feel free to send them our way and a NFBPAD@gmail.com, and we just might do an audio engineering episode, but Shane or someone else may have to host that because I'm not going to know what I'm talking about, but I will ask questions if people send them to me or I will gladly yield my position for that episode. Um Rachel, I want to jump over to you and ask As far as the final performance video site, we talked a lot about the audio and music and singing that goes into it. How did you decide on the video that you would play with the songs? And you know, what was that like?

Rachel

So there wasn't a video. We didn't do video, we did pictures. We didn't do. We didn't do a video, we talked about doing a video. We talked about it both last year, and this year, in fact, but it was kind of decided that that was a little too complicated. So so we just did pictures. So last year, what we did, because one of the songs we did was live the life you want, and so we had people send in pictures of themselves doing things that was showing how they were moving the lives they wanted, or living the life they want. So that was really cool. So we got some really, really interesting things. We had somebody shooting at a target in a shooting gallery we had, I believe it's somebody riding a horse or a camel or so I can't remember now, but it was it was a lot of a lot of really neat, neat pictures, and in this year, but we didn't do anything quite as exciting. As far as the visual aspect. We mostly just had people send in, you know, their headshots, and those were featured on the website, and I'm not sure. I'm not sure what exactly was featured on the if they had the pictures on the YouTube video with the choir. You know, the choir songs, but But yeah, there was no no actual video. Not this year.

Lizzy

I remember a part where you have people send in voice clips, was it? And it was some--

Rachel

Yeah

Lizzy

What's that? What was that piece because just about yeah?

Rachel

Yeah, that was 'Stronger Together', we have ‘Stronger Together’, and so it took a while to figure out what I wanted to do and what what we wanted to do really at the end of that, because I wanted to have something special, at the end of 'Stronger Together' to show diversity, and so I actually talked to several people, including President Riccobono and, and some other folks just to kind of get their, their ideas and such and and so we decided to do sound clips. So we had everybody would would send in so I basically I made a list a script of different different professions, characteristics. Just all these different characteristics that that we have in our federation, you know religions, professions, sexual orientations, ethnicities, I mean, just, you know, so many different, you know, all mixed together and, and adjectives, you know, describing, you know, individuals, just whatever, and then I asked, you know, I, I basically first started, I asked different people, right? Well, I reached out to the choir first and asked, you know, if anybody identifies who's here is the script of what is going to be set at the end of 'Stronger Together'? Is there anything that should be added to the script that I missed? And do any of you identify with any of these characteristics? And would you be willing to read them and I got lots of people who wanted to read and it was also really cool, because there were some people that couldn't make actual the actual prior recording, but they were able to make that recording. So it was a cool way to get some folks involved who may not have otherwise been involved in the choir, and then, and then I also had people from outside the choir, I reached out to some people that I knew like, it was really, for example, it was hard to find a blind doctor, a medical doctor, because I really wanted not that it was hard. It wasn't actually hard. It was just, I didn't know any. So I reached out to someone actually, I had I got a contact from from someone from the choir and reached out to this, this blind doctor, and, um, so you know, so there were some that that I reached out to privately because no one had had claimed the line but, and most of the lines were covered. I think there were a couple that weren't that that we couldn't get, but for the most part everything was covered. So what they did was they said, we are all together, and then there was this followed this list of characteristics and and it was really cool because you had all these different voices, different you know, just just just very different different voices, saying different things and it was fantastic. I mean, it was so cool. Because you could you know, just Just really, I feel like helped to, to emphasize, you know, our diversity and, and then at the end everyone says, and we are blind and we are sronger together, and so, so yeah, I thought it was pretty, pretty awesome. 

Lizzy

Very Powerful

Tom

A really fun part of the experience also, and, and commend Rachel on this, this creative element, as the script unfolded and was being bounced around between Rachel and President Riccobono and others in the email, it was also just a really a fine exercise in recognizing how we are all intersectional people, and that the characteristic of blindness is intersectional, with every other possible characteristic of humanity, you can imagine, and so, I think part of the fun part of, you know, I really just participated by reading the emails and encouraging, but part of the fun part was recognizing how many characteristic words apply, and, and coming up with a list that was pretty focused, I think it was great. Also, I do remember, we had to work a little bit on cadence. So that hopefully, we would end up with something that was editable where say, when people were saying we are, they weren't all saying it, like we are, as opposed to we are, but it did end up working out in the end, and, and the the splicing part was also pretty fun and enjoyable, and another big shout out to Kyle Woodruff for being the engineer for 2021, who got to have a lot of that fun.

Lizzy

Wow, and it all culminated in this, you know, powerful, powerful, diverse, just really motivational piece, and for our other members, you know, of the Federation, where, you know, I wasn't in the choir, but you know, sitting at the banquet, and just watching that was like, Wow, that's so cool, and I was actually sitting at at the table with another 2021 scholarship winner, Miranda Williams, and she was a part of that, and that's, you know, we were like, oh, you know, your part's comeimg your part's coming got really quiet, and, you know, just just listen and watch that, and it was so cool. So that was probably my favorite part of the virtual choir, just seeing the diversity and just watching everyone and hearing everyone say those words together, it really made an impact. So you did a really great job on the virtual choir, the past two years, kudos to the both of you.

Tom

Thank you, you'd asked about the video a little while ago, and maybe this is a point to actually solicit. If this was to come around, that we ever did it again, it would be great to have video, and I, I had discovered a limitation in my skill set. After doing the virtual choir work in 2020. The Illinois affiliate asked if I could help them with doing some audio editing for their ‘Braille is Beautiful’ convention reading, and at that time, I imagined that I could actually edit the Zoom video, in line with the Zoom audio, and what I found out was that my software actually just disregards the video content when I do it, and so I was very hopeful that that was just going to work in the same way, but it did not, and so perhaps in the future, if there is somebody out there who has that skill set and software, understanding, we'd love to have them as part of the team.

Lizzy 54:07 – How to get in to uch with Tom and Rachel

Awesome. Yes. Anyone out there who you know, as Tom just said, has the whatever whatever it takes, I have no idea what it takes to do to do the video piece of it. Definitely, you know, getting in touch with Tom or Rachel and they are going to give their information out in just one second. So thank you both have for giving us a behind the scenes sneak peek at what it takes to run a virtual choir and what the experience is like from both the member and leadership side. It was lovely having you both on today, and anytime and same to you Rachel please do share any contact information or social media. How can people get in touch with either of you? Both of you how can they get involved in the in the choir? Hopefully we'll be in person next year, but you know if they should ever happen in the future, where do they go?

Rachel

So my email address is Rachel.Grider, R-A-C-H-E-L dot G-R-I-D-E-R@gmail.com (Rachel.Grider@gmail.com), and I would very much hope that we can do another virtual choir next year er, I'm sorry another choir next year, whether it's virtual or in person will remain to be seen. I am I have gotten some feedback that even if we are in person, I think some people want at least one virtual choir song as well. So we might do that, and but if you're in person, I definitely would like to also explore the idea of doing an in person choir at a convention

Tom

I hoped that we could find a way to integrate both virtual and in person. You can find me at T-O-P-A-G-E at SWBell dot net (Topage@SWbell.net) and that's my first and middle initial T and O and my last name name, Page, and again at SW Bell dotnet, and that's like Southwestern Bell for people to remember that era of telephone connectivity. You can find me at Tom page ICT and that's like ice cream truck. That's the airport code for where I live on the Facebook. You can find my professional life under haymakers ICT dot com (HaymakersICT.com) if you're so inclined.

Lizzy

Thank you both for sharing that information. Do be keep in mind that the virtual choir sang three songs this year 'You'll Never Walk Alone', 'Stronger Together' and 'Ritmo'. Do search for these songs on YouTube and see if you can't catch other snippets of our 2021 NFB convention, and be sure to stay tuned for questions with Katelyn featuring our special guests, Kaleigh Brendle.

Katelyn 57:21 Questions with Katelyn (Kaleigh Brendle)

Hello, and welcome to questions with Katelyn. This is Katelyn McIntyre, president of the National Federation of the Blind Performing Arts Division, and today I have with me Kaleigh Brendle founder and director of the Sing for Serenity choir Kaleigh, welcome.

Kaleigh

Thank you so much for having me. I'm honored to be here. I love the performing arts division in the NFB as a whole. So thank you for having me on.

Katelyn

Thank you, we're so glad to have you and you're from New Jersey and have have a bit of musical background yourself. So first, tell us about you and how you first got into music and what you do.

Kaleigh

Um, so I've been singing all my life, my parents literally told me that when I was four years old, I'd be seeing Sesame Street to passersby, it's just always been a part of my life, I am lucky to have perfect pitch, I have synesthesia, so I can see colors and music. 

Katelyn

Ah yes

Kaleigh

Um, so I've been singing all my life, my parents literally told me that when I was four years old, I'd be seeing Sesame Street to passersby, it's just always been a part of my life, I am lucky to have perfect pitch, I have synesthesia, so I can see colors and music, and so yes, always is a really big part of my life, and you know, an amazing experience to be a part of because it involves multiple senses, and you know, last Friday, I dropped my first album called 'Karma', and to say that I have an album out is really surreal, and you know, actually had a release party that night with a bunch of serenity, choir people, and we all just got on and we had so much fun this album, and it was, it was really amazing. I couldn't have imagined like spending it with any other crowd of people.

Katelyn

Congratulations, that is so great.

Kaleigh

Thank you

Katelyn 58:21 – How did the choir get started

Wonderful. Well, let's talk about the serenity choir. So how did you you know what made you want to start a virtual choir? And how did you begin? How did you get started?

Kaleigh
So when I was in eighth grade, I was elected to be president of my school's chapter of the National Junior Honor Society, and as our service learning projects approached, my friend said that for hers, she was going to because the service learning project entail doing something that would benefit the community at large. She said that she was going to orchestrate a veteran's awareness fundraiser, and I said, 'you know, what would be interesting? I have a lot of friends around the New Jersey area that you know, in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, in New York, and they love singing what if, and they're all blind. So what if we assembled a little vocal group, and we performed at your event? And that would be my project?' And she was like, 'yes, that would work. Great.' So I started, you know, assembling the forces and getting everything together, and I had so many friends that I'd met from the Braille challenge. Um, you know, the Braille challenge finals are in LA, every Yeah, kids from across the country would come, and so while there for many years, I met amazing singers from all over the country, and so I had many of them reaching out to me and saying, 'Hey, can we participate?' And I was like, 'I'm so sorry, but no, it's just tristate.' And then, unfortunately, my friends event didn't end up taking place, but it was almost a blessing in disguise, because then I could then turn around to this people say 'actually, yes, yes, you can. We'd love to have you.' And so I turned it into this national choir for my project and we started on Skype, we started making a little videos of singing, we worked on a song called 'Beautiful' by Christina Aguilera, and I know, I really didn't even think of choir parts. At that point, it was just individual solos make up the entire song, and then the year ended, and technically my obligations to the choir ceased, but I remember at that point, it wasn't even called Serenity. I was not not very gifted in the naming sector that point because I called this thing for the spring choir, which I cringe, but you know what I remember saying to someone, I don't want it to be just the spring, I want it to be forever, and I never looked back, and it was, I was like, Okay, I need something that's alert, Alliterative, and so okay was Sing For Serenity, because sing for peace, super tranquility and sing for love, and so, you know, we thank you so much. It's, it really is at the core of what we do, and so we'd move to an app called team talk, which was suggested to us, and team talk allows you to have different channels for individual voice parts, and, you know, create sub channels from there if people need one on one instruction, and so that's how we started operating, and then we worked on a piece called 'White Christmas', there was about six of us that recorded for that. We were still a very small group, but we were very tight knit group, and, you know, we just kept growing and growing, and I just knew this was something like I was never going to let go of if I had any say in the matter, I was never going to let go of it, and then we had, you know, we were all girls too, and then we had our boy come in in February. I was like, I don't know what to do with you, like I was so I was so like, I was trying to figure this out, because I was like, I don't know how to do this, but we kind of I catered all my arrangements to his range, and so we were soprano, alto mezzo, and then this boy is very, very funny, and then we had, you know, some more boys and now we have we are soprano mezzo, Alto, Tenor, Bass, and because five part thing, and in some arrangements, it's eight parts because it can split each the girl parts in half. Well, that's great, and we had adults that wanted part of it, and it just kept international people that wanted to part of it now. Lo and behold, four years later, 15 countries, over 100 members, like girls and boys have like, just this amazing family.

Katelyn

That's so great, and how did you spread the word? I mean, it sounds like a lot of it was just word of mouth.

Kaleigh

Exactly

Katelyn

But how did you gather all those participants? That's amazing.

Kaleigh

It was quite frankly, word of mouth. Yeah, a lot of people that schools for the blind we're definitely our friends in this because we have a shout out to New York and super special education shout out to Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind. You know, we had a lot of schools for the blind that once one person joined that entire choral fabric of that school joined like, literally we have entire, a lot of good wired because the word just traveled, and then you know, social media, I think Facebook, there's a nice blind musical community on Facebook, and so we definitely Instagram we spotlight some of our members, we have a division of singers, or we have a division of blind and visually impaired individuals that don't really like to sing, but still wanted to be a part of the family, and so we create the monologue team division. So if you hear people giving intros and outros in our videos, that's them. If you see our social media being active with member spotlights or informational posts, that's them. They really at the core of what we do

Katelyn

So inclusive, that is wonderful. Wow, and so what is your process for selecting and arranging songs?

Kaleigh

Okay, so I'm going to take you through an example piece, because I think that's going to illustrate how we work best. So last year, we had a group of blind senior citizens, many of which actually, are affiliated with the NFB, and they are called the we see to peer support group, and they're housed out of New Jersey, and their president contacted me and said, 'Hey, we've seen what your group can do. Can you dedicate a piece? Or can you dedicate a piece to our group, our little family here', and I was like, 'we'd be honored to like, absolutely.' And so we worked collaboratively with them to select a piece that we felt would be consistent with their mission and with ours, and our kind of happy medium was, That's What Friends Are For by Dionne Warwick, and featuring Stevie Wonder, of course, and other amazing musicians, and so it was very low for a lot of our female singers, because the majority of our singers are not altos, and so, you know, the 'and I', like that would be kind of low for some of them hit, and so like, let's, as I'm arranging this, let's modulate the key, and so it became F sharp major instead. of D sharp major. We found a piano instrumental online and I just transposed it, and then I what I do with arranging is, you know, sometimes I'll take an arrangement, an existing arrangement online, and I'll simplify it a little bit or change it to tweak it to fit my choirs range, and other times, I'll just make one from scratch. So in that case, I made them from scratch, and first I decide where to put the solos. Because solo auditions, everybody gets so excited for solo auditions. You know, there'll be the five or six that I picked an interview the five or six honorable mentions. So I've been good at it, and, you know, I use honorable mentions to kind of tell people, you need to keep auditioning, because you're right there, you're so close to getting one, and, um, you know, so I gave out, I think five souls that song, and then some souls are international members, and then once I figured out where I wanted the souls fee, I would sit down on my piano and start messing around with chords, and just kind of experiment and then try stuff out, like sing stuff in GarageBand and see if the harmonies work, and just kind of, I can't quite explain the arranging process, it's almost like you just have to see what works and what doesn't, yeah, and just try stuff out and let the music guide you, and then once it's done, once it's done, I would send the full arrangement out so people can hear what the harmonies will sound like when they're together, and then I will for the soprano part, for example, I would mute the bass, tenor, alto and mezzo tracks, and then send the recording back with the instrumental and the soprano part, and then that's what they all would record with. They all would record a track with that track, and then mute my track and send theirs back, and then the editors would compile all those tracks, God bless them, oh, no one project and do panning and volumes and EQ and all these other terms that I have no idea what they mean, because I'm not in any way. No, I wrote some of them, but you know, at every rehearsal their section leaders would be if people need one on one instruction, they would be teaching them. If people were to be on, you know, alone, they would listen to them saying through once they got it, and we just kind of take it week by
week.

Katelyn
That's so good. Thank you for explaining that whole process. I find that absolutely fascinating and what an undertaking that you have developed such a great process for all of this. So the the rehearsals you mentioned are on team talk, and how do people what do they use to record their parts? How do people go in and do that?

Kaleigh

It varies. You'll have Hokusai You'll have GarageBand you'll have Reaper. Yeah, he was really one of those three, right? Because you need something you have headphones for. Right? Because the track we playing in headphones, and you'll be singing, you know, out loud. So you need something like that.

Katelyn

Perfect, and then the editors what do they use to make that magic happen?

Kaleigh

I believe most of us either Hokusai or Reaper.

Katelyn

That's great. Wow. It's it's so wonderful. What you can do, you will all hear in a moment, the beautiful sounds of Sing For Serenity with such great blends, and you guys just put on a great show. So where where do you you know, air quotes perform? Where can people listen to you? And what do you guys preparing for?

Kaleigh

So all of our individual songs are up on YouTube. If you type in Sing For Serenity choir, on YouTube, you'll see our channel, and you'll see, I really love scrolling back to our first performance and just seeing how we've grown. It's a really good year, you'll hear some pieces are dedicated to specific groups or people like this past summer released a piece called 'Speechless', which is dedicated to a person and strategy who is also in the NFB, and she survived COVID, but it was a very, very intense battle within she was hospitalized, and you hear her talk about that, before the P starts, and then you hear say, you know, this was my motivation not to go down, not to go speechless, and then the P starts and she thinks this all on me back her and you know, then you have 'Blessings' for the girl lost her mother, and you know, someone that you all know, he's on there too, and he had lost his father, and so, you know, both of them are talking about how much this piece means to them, and then you hear you know them saying, so you hear all these like dedications and all the social medias that we have the Instagram, Twitter, the Facebook, they all kind of lead you back to that YouTube because singing is at the core of what we do, like yes, you're the post and you know, talk about everything, but we love to sing more than anything else, and that's us who we are.

Katelyn

That's beautiful. What a testament to the power of music. So healing. This brings people together from all over the world, as you said 15 countries. That's incredible.

Kaleigh

Thank you.

Katelyn 1:09:47 – How to join Sing For Serenity

I love it. So and where can people go if they would like to join the sing for serenity choir.

Kaleigh

Um, you can email sing for serenity@gmail.com that's S-I-N-G-F-O-R-S-E-R-E-N-I-T-Y@gmail.com (singforserenity@gmail.com) You can also DM us on Instagram, the Sing For Serenity choir Instagram you can, you know, tweet us on Twitter but Instagram and you can message us on Facebook. So Instagram, Facebook, or Gmail I think would be the best way.

Katelyn

And Facebook and Instagram are Sing For Serenity

Kaleigh

Sing For Serenity choir, it's always--

Katelyn

Choir, alright

Kaleigh

The only one that's just 'Sing For Serenity' is the Gmail.

Katelyn 1:10:39 – Where Kaleigh sees virtual choirs in the future

Gotcha. Okay, Sing For Serenity choir on Facebook and Twitter. That is where everyone can go and find it. Follow Instagram, sorry, Facebook, Instagram, I'll say that again. Sing For Serenity choir is where everyone can go on Facebook and Instagram and follow you keep up with your updates. That is so exciting. So now we get the privilege of in a moment hearing a wonderful seasonal tune to celebrate the holidays approaching a little bit of 'It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas.' But as we go Kaleigh any thoughts on the power of virtual choirs or where you see this going in the future?

Kaleigh

I would say that especially during the COVID 19 pandemic, the quad, the power of virtual choirs became extremely apparent. Because as the world shut down, we were the one thing that remained constant, and it was very comforting for a lot of our members because as everything else was taken, we were not, and we were very used to it. I mean, everyone was figuring out how to do the virtual choir thing, but we had been doing it for years, and you know, we also we are a family at our core too, and so we we gave them a prom this past year, a little virtual prom, and you know, it's pretty have clean parties and a couple of weeks, we have a holiday party in December, and, you know, so we, we just ensure that there's always that community engagement piece, and that people from different sections are getting to, you know, mix and get to know each other. I mean, we've had lasting friendships, we've had romantic relationships we've had, like, little like we've had, we call her like the serenity moms like we've had mothers of children, you know, being very nurturing to our little guys. You know, we it's just this whole network, and I think that's the beauty of the virtual choir is that it's not, it doesn't matter how close or far you live, it just matters. Pick up the phone, make sure somebody is okay, and just sing and forget about everything else.

Katelyn 1:12:41 – It’s beginning to look a lot like christmas 

That's absolutely wonderful. Wow. Thank you for sharing Kaleigh. Thank you for being here today. Kaleigh Brendle everyone and let's take a listen to ‘It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas’

Katelyn 1:14:10 – Outro

I'm Katelyn MacIntyre, president of the National Federation of the Blind Performing Arts division. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of "Scene Change". If you like what you heard, be sure to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and visit our website at NFB dash pad DOT org (nfb-pad.org). There you'll find links to our social media, membership, and resources for blind performers. Thanks to everyone who makes this show happen. "Scene Change" is produced by Shane Lowe, Joe Scheunemann, Precious Perez, Chris Nusbaum, Seyun Choi, and Erin Jordan with music by Ryan Strunk and Tom Page. Remember, you can be the performer you want. Blindness is not what holds you back. We'll see you next time.