We had a good turnout on tonight’s Zoom singing: I counted 30 people on about 24 log-ins, from five U.S. states and one foreign country. The foreign country was Turkey, where former stalwart Bay Area Sacred Harp singer Yuka has moved, and it was very good to see her again.
Leigh has gotten really good at using Mark’s Web app to find field recordings for us to sing to, and a couple of times she found a field recording led by the person who chose the tune.
Leigh has gotten so good — and it’s so interesting to hear the different field recordings — that most people let her find the song. But Paul and Lorraine and their children Sarah and John sang all four parts of the tune they chose. I have to admit I got a little choked up listening to them — it seems like it’s been a long time since I heard them singing together like that at one of our local Palo Alto singings.
All in all, it was a good evening. If you had told me eight months ago that I would find it satisfying to be on a Zoom call with 30 other people and sing along to a field recording, I’d have said you were nuts. But seeing all those other singers, and chatting during the break, was a big improvement over the usual COVID isolation. Also, I have to admit I find it hard to motivate myself to sing much at all any more, but this gets me singing — and of course once I sing I feel so much better, and resolve to sing all the time, and never do.