Martin Luther King Day Virtual Celebration Choir

 
Thank you for your participation in our virtual celebration! This video will be the finale of our service, and we hope that anyone who has a voice will contribute to the effort. There will be a few guidelines to follow, so regardless of your experience in doing something like this, please review the ones outlined here to help us put this massive project together. The deadline for submissions will be January 3, 2021. 
 
Equipment needed:
Headphones or Earbuds
Desktop computer
Smartphone or Tablet
 
Materials from the Dropbox Folder:
(Your vocal part) - Lift Every Voice and Sing.wav
Lift Every Voice and Sing.pdf 
 
How to record:

• Download the PDF and WAV files¹ to your computer. (Link)

• Plug in your headphones or earbuds to your computer.
• Double click on both the PDF and WAV files to open them in your computers PDF reader and media player respectively.
• You may print the PDF or read it from the computer monitor. If you print it, please make sure your headphones aren’t on your head when you go to the printer to retrieve the music.
• Play through the WAV file to rehearse your part as much as you need. 
• When you’re ready to record, set up everything so you will have to move as little as possible.
• Open the camera app on your phone (or tablet), set it to record video, and make sure your face is visible.
• Begin recording video on your phone, then start the music on your computer and sing along.
• When you’re finished, rename the file - without parentheses, but with periods -  (vocal part).(your name).wav (or whatever suffix your device assigns to the file - try not to alter that when you rename the file.)

• Upload your finished file here.

• Pat yourself on the back on our behalf.

 
¹Each of the WAV files is a guide track for a specific vocal part. If you’d like to hear all the parts while you record, there’s a wav file for that. The vocals recorded as guides don’t reflect the gospel choir sound we’d like to get from all of you, so feel free to sing out on the refrains!
 
 
Some general guidelines:

• The room should be quiet - as free as is possible from voices, TV, radio, and vehicles. It should also be free from reverb. A carpeted office is better than a living room with wood floors. And don’t even think about the bathroom - great for singing in the shower, but terrible for recording. 
• Please arrange everything - your phone, the computer, the music, etc. - so that you don’t have to move anything during recording. Paper rustling can ruin a good performance, so if you have to turn pages, do so no sooner than 3 seconds after you finish a section and no later than 3 seconds before you start the next one.
• Recording video necessitates your holding your phone at least 12 inches from your face. This is ideal for the audio quality of the recording as well. If you make an audio-only recording (not encouraged, but you’re welcome to do so for any reason), try to keep this same distance. If your recording device is too close, it introduces a proximity effect that is, well, bad. 
• Please make sure that your beautiful face is well lit! If you’re using the one that’s not as beautiful, light it up anyway.
• The voices on the guide track are much smoother than what we’d like from all of you. Please sing with a lot of energy. And smile!
• These instructions are available as RTF or PDF in the download folder.
• If you have questions, you may send me an email at tedwilsonjr@gmail.com. Please include SES MLK 2021 in the subject line so I can find you among the clutter in my inbox.

 
In case the links embedded in the text above don’t work, here are the URLs:
 
To download track, music, and instructions: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/zan7ast1e62hw7i/AAD7vfP4DObZOS7YCHqhnsFsa?dl=0
 
To upload finished video and audio files: https://www.dropbox.com/request/HDLoCjkDoP57b33P4J90
 
This document may need to be updated, so if you happen to record a week or more after downloading, please check for a new version in the Dropbox folder. These updates will be indicated by a version number in the file name. 
 
Rejoice and sing with gladness!