What to Do with Your Choir These Days

During this season of social distancing and prohibitions on normal choir activity, worship leaders are seeking ways to keep their choirs together and involved in ministry. Technology has become a backbone of continuing many ministries in the church, and the virtual world can be a help to our choirs in these days. Here are some ways you can use technology to keep your choirs rolling.... Read More

This is a very helpful article. One of things that choir members miss is the companionship that choirs offer.

I would add the following suggestions. When using live singers, we might want to consider having them lip sync the songs to a recording that the church has made or purchased. In this way we protect not only the congregation but also the singers. If one of the vocalists is COVID-19 positive or even a super-spreader, actual singing increases transmission risks since the vocalist will be exhaling more virus particles when he or she is singing. Lip syncing is less likely to increase the exhalation of these particles.

Actual singing also requires deep breathing, increasing the risk the vocalists will inhale more virus particles. Lip syncing does not require deep breathing, thereby reducing the risk of inhalation of these particles.

We should make sure the space in which the vocalists are singing is well-ventilated to prevent the accumulation of virus particles in the air. Poor ventilation has been implicated in the spread of the virus. We might also consider separating the vocalists with Plexiglas or Perspex screens like those used to muffle the sounds of drummers. When they are not lip syncing, the vocalists should wear face masks.

I further recommend teaching the congregation how to subvocalize songs. "Subvocalization, or silent speech, is the internal speech typically made when reading; it provides the sound of the word as it is read." We can also subvocalize when we sing as well as read. Subvocalizing is a way of singing and making melody in our hearts, as the apostle Paul encourages us to do.

God does not look at our outward appearance--how well or how loudly we can sing. He looks at the heart, our inner selves, how we are oriented. Worship involves more than singing. It involves a life that is oriented to God and which honors him. If we cannot sing for a season, it does not matter to God. What matters to God is that, like the needle of a compass points to the magnetic north, our lives still point to him.