Online has benefits, but members miss the in-person sense of community 

By, Sarah Tomlinson

Despite an abrupt shift to online in the wake of COVID-19, members of Ryerson Vocalist Society are finding benefits to virtual rehearsals.

Maeve Devries, executive director of Ryerson’s competitive acapella group Ryenamics, said creating acapella videos virtually allows their members to document the work they’ve done throughout the semester. 

“It’s nice to be able to watch back what we’ve worked on. It allows us to see our progress more, it’s very satisfying. I always watch our videos, because it makes me so happy,” Devries said. 

Susanna Lee is the executive director of On That Note, Ryerson’s female and non-binary acapella group. Since every member records their own part, she said “it’s really fun to see that surprise when the video comes out with everyone else.” 

Likewise, Devries said she finds it easier to perfect a virtual performance. “While you’re recording, you can look at the music and you can put your earphones in and listen to the track. So, we have a safety net to rely on since we’re doing everything at home,” she said. 

In past years, Ryerson Vocal Society’s President Lyara Malvar said the two groups would always struggle to find time to post content for their social media. However, the switch to virtual has allowed them to increase the amount of content they promote. 

“Now we have something that we can post on social media that isn’t some crappy phone recording of a performance at a random event,” she said.  

Devries agreed with Malvar, saying that their focus has shifted a lot from live performances to online content, which has allowed them to have a better online presence.  

Likewise, Lee said doing acapella virtually as opposed to in-person allows the group to sing more songs.   

“There’s months of preparation that go into a one hour performance, whereas you can produce a video each month,” she said. According to Lee, online videos aren’t less valuable than live performance, “It’s just another type of art you put out.” 

According to Devries, Ryenamics used to rehearse six hours per week in-person and now rehearses one hour a week. During rehearsals, Devries said individual parts are assigned and deadlines are set which allows members to work independently.  

“I think the amount of work is the same, but just different,” she said. “There’s not as much that we can do online since we can’t all sing together. There’s only so much that we can communicate to each other during rehearsals so it really varies depending on how much new content we have to share.”

Despite the benefits they’ve found from virtual meetings, Lee said she misses the sense of community in-person rehearsals offered. 

“In person, before rehearsal and after rehearsal, we got to know each other. When you’re online, you just have rehearsal unless people like to stay behind, which most people don’t because of Zoom fatigue,” she said. 

As a solution, On That Note created a Snapchat group where they do weekly singing challenges which can help simulate the feeling of singing with other people.

“Singing together feels very therapeutic. I always feel physically more healthy after I sing with people,” Devries said. 

Another downside to the lack of in-person communication is the added struggles to the editing process. Devries, who is the person in charge of audio editing, said correcting members on their technique virtually is more difficult.  

“When you’re in person, you can tell if your vowels are off. It’s so much more instantaneous and it’s such a quick easy fix. But then online, you can’t really hear each other do that,” she said.  

On That Note has added six or seven new members, making it difficult to teach them techniques over Zoom.

On the other hand, Ryenamics only added three new members and Devries said that the group has benefitted from having most of the same members as last year. 

“They already have a pretty good understanding of how a lot of our voices blend together, and who would be best in certain roles,” she said. “I’m just glad that we have a committed team of people because it’s very easy to say ‘It’s online. Nevermind, I don’t feel like doing it because it’s not the same as singing together in person.’” 

Devries said Ryenamics and On That Note, which was previously a non-competitive acapella group, will both be competing in The International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella, an international competition that attracts hundreds of college acapella groups each year. 

“It’s still being run this year, but it’s just being structured differently because all the submissions are online. So instead of a 12 minute performance, they’re four minute videos,” she said. “Even though that sounds like a lot less, we have to be more precise about the decisions that we’re making and the way that we’re arranging everything.” 

While there are downsides to being online, members have found benefits. In the context of the pandemic, Devries said, “This is something that is a great outlet for me creatively and socially. It was almost a necessary thing for us to continue doing this online.”