Are you looking for how to do performances, when “typical” performances aren't quite possible? In this podcast and blog post, I'm detailing virtual music concert ideas, so you can put together a virtual concert for parents, students, and your community to enjoy.
You can listen to the podcast in iTunes, on Amazon, on Google Play Music, on TuneIn, or here:
#1: Virtual choir
choir performance can be a wonderful way to share students' musical work. This virtual music concert idea takes snippets of many different student videos of a song, and weaves them together. In this blog post, I explain my process for creating a virtual choir performance. It can be QUITE time-consuming, so I only suggest trying this if you are comfortable with technology, and have time!
#2: Class performances
Another way to offer a virtual music concert is to create a class performance. To do this, you could rehearse a piece with a class, get it performance ready, and then record during class. Then, you could take several videos with several different classes and compile them into one performance.
For example, let's say you are doing a fourth grade virtual performance. You could record class A singing a song with instrumental accompaniment, and class B bucket drumming. Then, you record class C playing ukulele, and class D singing a different song with instrumental accompaniment. Finally, you compile all of those into one video and share with your community!
If you have singing restrictions, you could have students perform instrumental pieces.
#3: Talent show
A talent show could also be a good way to produce a virtual performance. Students submit videos of them playing piano, singing, playing violin, etc., on Flipgrid. You could give the disclaimer that not all the videos will be used (otherwise, the show will be quite long!) After selecting the videos, you compile them into one video, using a program such as iMovie.
Last year, we did this for our district's virtual program. We weaved together the talent videos with other videos, such as virtual choir performances, students talking about their favorite songs, and students having a dance party! That way, more students could be involved, and it incorporated more student performances!
When we compiled the talent show video, we used a combination of Flipgrid for the student submissions, WeVideo to create the “favorite music” and “dance break” videos, and iMovie to compile all of the videos together. It was a lot of work, but we were so happy with the final product!
I hope this is helpful as you consider how to provide some kind of virtual music performance with COVID-19 regulations. Happy teaching!
