Singing Online

Is it still a thing?

During the height of the pandemic, almost all voice teaching and performing activities were conducted online. As we’ve almost fully resumed live performances and in person school, learning to manage COVID as a constant presence in our lives, the singing world seems to be stabilizing. Sure, we’ll have more performances canceled or postponed due to COVID, and we’ll have more performer substitutions due to illness, but those are manageable and perhaps inevitable outcomes in an increasingly complex world health landscape.

What about the important new digital and virtual tools that developed rapidly during the pandemic, and that remain in its wake? What about the students who found their progress better supported by online learning? There were more than a few within my teaching sphere who fit this category. And what about performers who found new creative outlets during the virtual performance boom of the past two years? In fact, many singers have worked digitally or virtually for the majority of their careers session singers for TV, movies, and video games, as well as self-produced recording artists, mixed media artists, and singers working at the edges of the technological frontier all may prefer to continue working in a mostly virtual or digitally contained way. As the amount of our lives lived online continues to grow, what place will the art of vocal performance hold in virtual spaces?

I think and hope that virtual vocal performance is here to stay, and that there are plenty of singers who want to learn and work in this medium. Online voice lessons can be logistically easier, more economic and ecologically friendly, and even creative and fun for those who enjoy working with technology. As a teacher, I enjoy the focus I can place on a singer’s face and upper torso, without the distractions of a large room or too much movement out of my field of vision as I play the piano. Certainly if the student or teacher are sick enough to be contagious but well enough to want to work, a virtual option enables the lesson to safely proceed. Students and teachers benefit from the ability to share screens, view videos together, read and annotate scores together, and collaborate on documents in real time, allowing a much more flexible lesson format. I’ve found that virtual voice lessons continue to include a lot of singing, but also encompass study, research, exploration, and discussion in greater proportions than they did before, and both my students and I enjoy this dynamic, varied format.

Equity and access are important issues for voice study, and both can be partially addressed through online lessons. In a state like North Dakota, population centers can be several hours from one another by car. Travel is difficult or impossible for months of each year due to inclement weather, and driving to lessons and workshops can be expensive or unsafe. Students with less access to transportation or who live far from major cities where singing events are usually held may find virtual voice study more logistically and economically attractive. The essential resources necessary for online study are a good internet connection and a device with which to connect. Faster, more stable internet like fiber and technology tools like microphones, sound interfaces, and laptops might be easier to source and share than transportation to distant lessons might be. There are also community and government programs that provide technology to under-resourced communities that can support virtual voice study alongside other online education access.

With all these ongoing reasons to continue virtual voice study and exploration, I am eager to keep working in this medium. Technologies like Zoom, Jacktrip, Dolby Atmos, and the numerous advances in AI intrigue me, and show incredible promise for singing online in fascinating and artistically vital ways. If you’re interested in being a part of developing future virtual voice study or performance opportunities, please let me know. I’d also be most grateful for feedback and suggestions from colleagues, so please be in touch if you’d like to share your thoughts. You can email me at justin.montigne@und.edu and find me online at justinmontigne.com.

Justin Montigne University of North Dakota

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