How to join Stoke Sings Virtual Choir
Sadly it is not possible for us all to meet as planned at the 2021 Stoke Sings festival, but we wanted create a piece that everybody could participate in which would create a lasting memento of this year’s online festival.
If you haven’t taken part in a virtual choir before, the idea is that we all record ourselves singing our parts, and these are combined into a single video of a “virtual choir”.
What is involved?
We are perform a piece called “Singing Again”, a light-hearted topical piece about living through lockdown and
looking forward to being able to sing together and be together again. It has an easy to learn chorus that has been
arranged in three parts – soprano (high), alto (mid) and tenor/bass (low). “Singing Again” has been specially written for Stoke Sings 2021 by Martin Jones and Shan Jones.
Please could you make a video of yourself singing your preferred part of the song? It doesn’t matter if you don’t get
every note perfect, the overall effect will be brilliant. We won’t be listening to individual performances, just
combining all the voices together to make a full performance video.
How to make the recording.
Read the full information here.
For each of the three parts, there is a YouTube backing track for you to sing along to with karaoke words and Martin conducting. They can be found at:
- Soprano: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxNMVlQ0INs
- Alto: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjMkdg1mUKs
- Tenor/Bass: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kytGzB0I7_o
You will need 2 devices (phone, tablet, laptop or computer) and a pair of headphones.*
You should watch the backing track on one device using headphones and sing along!
It may be an idea to have a couple of practices first to get used to the song and the timing).
The second device should be used to record your performance as a video.
When you set up the video:
- Try to find a way to hold or prop up the recording device so that it is not moving
- Your video will be cropped to something looking similar to a passport photograph format, so please try not to move around too wildly(!) or you may bob in and out of shot!
- As much as is practical, sing facing square on to the camera.
- Something like this would be great!
That is our ideal, but we appreciate that situations vary…! So please do the best you can, but the most important thing is that I would love you to be a part of the performance!
If you really can’t get hold of headphones, please play the backing track quietly and try to get your recording device closer to you than the device playing the backing track.
Sending in your videos
You can send your videos by email to martin@woodlandquarter.co.uk or using WhatsApp to 07702 252424.
If you have any difficulties with this, let us know and we will help with ways to do this.
It will take some time to process videos for the different items in the festival, so please could you submit videos as soon as you can, and no later than the end of Friday 5th March.
It can be complicated sending videos, so to make sure that we have them all we will acknowledge all videos received
by replying to the WhatsApp or email. If you have not seen a confirmation by lunchtime on Monday 8th February,
please get in contact. If you have any questions please just let Martin know!
Please note that by submitting a video you are giving consent for it to be used in a video we will be share on social
media after the event. Videos from anyone under 18 must be submitted by a parent/guardian.
Stoke Sings 