Music is a healing balm. When you’re feeling down, depressed or struggling with being locked in your house, to the point of pacing around in your room like a caged cat with a bell tied to your tail (I’m not suggesting that I’m doing or feeling any of those things, mind you, ahem), music can lift you up. I spotted an article recently that pointed to the many ways that listening and participating in music can do all sorts of wonderous things for you; from improving mental wellbeing to reducing pain levels to even raising your IQ.
Of course, if you’re a singer, these trying coronavirus days are not easy ones. You certainly can’t get together with like-minded vocalists. At the end of March, for instance, there were reports of an adult choir in Washington state getting together for a seemingly harmless little rehearsal that later was labeled a “super spreading event” as 45 of the sixty-some people there became infected.
Yes, I know. There have been some amazing live performances online lately. Our own Emily Clark reported on a bunch of them. But let me tell ya, that’s no easy thing either. On a recent Zoom call, I and a group of other cheery compatriots tried singing happy birthday to a, uh, lucky friend, and because of the slight delays in the Zoom it ended up sounding like a gaggle of gargling walruses … on a squeaky-wheeled train … derailing into a chicken farm.
Thankfully however, there are ways to use the technology available in far more fruitful and beneficial ways. And to prove that, let me share a nice little uplifting video clip from a group of Chino Valley, California, high schoolers. Before the pandemic hit and forced them apart, they were gearing up for their annual Choir Festival. But instead of simply giving up and saying that all was lost, they did what many high school choirs have done recently: they found online ways of practicing and singing together, while still staying isolated.
Here’s a bit of their handiwork.
May it brighten your bell-tailed day.
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