Y LITTLE CHOIR is made up entirely of people without access to the internet. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics there were 1.3 million Australian households without internet access at home in 2014–15 (14%)(with similar statistics for the US), so I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised.
I don’t know why I have retained only non-internet users. Perhaps everyone else is too busy surfing the internet.
Most of my choir members are not very confident in reading music, so every now and then I put in the effort to make rehearsal CDs.
The difficulty comes with finding decemt mp3s. Corpus Christi Watershed is awesome in this respect with a wide range of resources.
For any music from the Adoremus Hymnal there are free downloadable mp3s. This includes some chant hymns such as Vexilla Regis and the Te Deum. More chant hymns are available in this collection of Gregorian Chant Hymns.
Sometimes I can’t find the piece I want, for example the beautiful Audi Benigne Conditor, so having a pasably good microphone is very handy. Last night my microphone would not co-operate, so here is a recording made with the stock Voice Recorder on my iPhone 4S:
* * Audi Benigne Conditor a rough recording with stumbles over the elision in the 4th verse
(I’m the soprano and my eldest son is the bass)
Lastly, in order to attach a track listing and protect the CD I use CD Papercase to print and fold a CD case without the need for scissors or glue.
In fine, producing practice CDs for choir members is not beyond the realms of possibility. It can be a bit fiddly, but some choir members really appreciate it.
