Abstract:

The purpose of this paper is to present goals and results of a research project that we started with the same name MuseUp within a larger EU project, named Up2U. This research is now being continued by the authors of this paper at the University of Rome, with Conservatorio Santa Cecilia and Music Academy Studio Musica of Treviso.

In Up2U the goal was to investigate how high school students learn to sing in non formal choirs and what are the side effects of this learning for their school attendance and their intellectual growth.

But now, due to pandemia associated with COVID-19, it often happens that real choirs are replaced by virtual choirs. Hence we decided to pursue a second goal as well. Let us remember that a virtual choir is an artificial choir in which every singer records a video at home while singing his voice following a given basis and then sends his video to a team of experts who assemble all the recordings in one single video. The final video looks like a mosaic of small videos each one representing one individual singer, while the audio is similar to that recorded by a real choir. Virtual choirs are becoming a must during pandemia. But we thought that participating in a virtual choir could help students in learning to learn and to cooperate. In fact, when a choir goes virtual, each participant has to learn many skills more than those needed in a real choir. First of all, a higher level of emotional intelligence is required. Secondly, learning without the presence of a teacher requires a more sophisticated ability of learning to learn. Thirdly, there are many other skills related to the use of digital technologies, needed both for recording and for assembling all the single recorded voices in one video.

And we will still try to determine if and how participating in a virtual choir may help high school students to prepare for enrolling in higher education institutions.
The project is going to use different technologies. Some technologies are connected with mastering personal digital devices. Other technologies are required to refine and assemble the intermediate results, and still others to publish the final products on the web.

Both the preparation and the performances of the virtual choirs are made possible by different applications, and every application requires specific training. But also basic musical competences should be taught to the participants, as they need not be students of music schools. We will then use applications to let individual singers learn basic musical theory and refine their voices, intonation and rhythm. Other apps will be used to record individual voices that will be shared with expert technicians. There will be specific applications used to assemble together audio and video tracks in one final virtual choir.

Finally we believe that this project should help people to enjoy vocal music when “distance singing” is a necessity and help students to consider participating in a virtual choir as a valid opportunity for intellectual enrichment and personal growth.

Keywords:

Informal learning, self regulated music learning, digital soft skills, virtual choirs.