Singing for the soul

Peter Read is part of the Healesville Community Choir and invites more members to join the group. Picture: Supplied

By Skye Mitchell

Healesville Community Choir is adapting to rolling lockdowns and shaken up its Zoom format to make meetings much more fun and creative.

Committee member Peter Read said because of Covid the choir was unable to rehearse in person and online was the only option.

“We tried rehearsing online but you can’t do that on Zoom, there’s a time lag between people speaking which means you can’t sing together,” Mr Read said.

“We also tried to rehearse in the park with masks on.”

But when another hard lockdown was introduced, meeting in person was no longer an option.

In an effort to keep up regular contact, choir members met online and instead of rehearsing, they began to play games, write songs and encourage individuals to sing for the group.

“It really wasn’t working doing anything related to performance together so we decided to start with an open mic,” Peter said of the initial format shift.

“Part of the night is open mic, part of the night is games related to music and the other part of the night we are doing songwriting.”

Every Monday night the choir get together on Zoom and listen to each other perform, with or without instruments.

“This has encouraged people to sing who we haven’t really heard from,” Mr Read said.

“It has given us a few nice surprises because we have not heard their voices individually before.”

“It takes a little while for people to get up the nerve to do that… even among friends.”

Apart from keeping the choir in regular contact, Peter said it has been a lot of fun.

“It’s a way of staying connected with people at a time when it is very difficult to connect with people,” he said.

“I live alone and I think some of the other choir members do too so it keeps that connection going.

“Lots of people are feeling down and not knowing what to do so this brings us back in.”

The choir is accepting new members. For more information email HealesvilleCommunityChoir@gmail.com or check Facebook @CommunityChoirHealesville or call 0406 402 590.