If you read my September 30th blog post “Fear is a Powerful Thing” you may remember that I talked about my anxiety about doing a live-streaming concert. If you didn’t read it, here’s a bit from that post:
Many
people have stage fright, which I haven’t really had since I was 5 years old,
and found out that humor made the audience smile… “They love me, they really, really love me!” But
there are aspects of performance anxiety that I do experience – video, and
live-streaming. Oh my! What if I forget the words? What if I mess up this
tricky part? If it’s captured on video, it might be watched more than once, and
no amount of humor is going to help those imperfections slide by unnoticed.
Whereas in live performances, there is a connection between the performer and
the audience that makes it okay to not be perfect.
So, I’ve been looking at ways to mitigate the fear factor
and create an online concert that allows people from far away to attend virtually,
but also gives me the experience of connecting with those who attend. YouTube
and Facebook Streaming allow people to type in their comments and send icons like
hearts and thumbs up to show they’re listening and enjoying the concert, but I
really like to see faces and hear responses.
After these past few years of teaching workshops using
Zoom, I began to think about how Zoom might be used for a live-stream concert. I
can have my computer screen show the gallery view so I can see the audience, but
highlight the speaker view so that not only does the audience in zoom see me
instead of themselves, but it can also be recorded that way if I decide to use
any part of it to post at a later date.
Then I would invite people to both use the chat if they
like, and to unmute to make comments, or for applause. This would give me the
feeling of really being in the room with them.
If you have had any experience with doing a concert or attending
a concert this way, I’d love to get feedback or any advance warnings so I can
prepare!
When will this concert take place? I haven’t officially set
a date, but it will likely be sometime in January, and most likely on a Friday,
with a start time of 5 pm pacific time (which is 8 pm eastern time) to
accommodate those who live in various time zones in the US.
And what will be the theme of the concert? I had written a
number of songs as my parents were facing the challenges of aging, Alzheimer’s,
and the end of life. But don’t worry, the songs are not all sad! And as I’ve
been performing more and more in assisted living facilities, I have grown to
love and appreciate songs of yesterday that bring happy memories and smiles. I
expect a lot of people attending will be singing along on familiar songs – on mute
of course! So, it will be a mix of original songs and familiar songs, with some
stories about my experiences with my parents and my work with patients in the
hospital and at assisted living facilities.
This concert will be a way to share in those experiences
even if you don’t have aging parents or play music for this demographic. I’ll be
playing harp and guitar, and of course, singing. Anyone who plays therapeutic music
in hospitals or for hospice will particularly identify with the music, and also
anyone who has a loved one who is in their sunset years…
There will be an opportunity to purchase CDs at a huge
discount, but I will leave the concert free to attend. Oh, and maybe I’ll add a
tip jar…
So, stay tuned for more information on this new endeavor,
and please do let me know if you have ideas about how best to make this work!
--Verlene
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