Singers, Beware of Droplets

Singing is a favorite hobby among people everywhere. It is more accessible to the average adult than other performance arts like theater and dance, where opportunities to participate often push out amateurs. Groups like church choirs and community choruses bring singers together without requiring formal training. 

Many singing hobbyists rehearse with their groups for a couple hours a week—a reasonable time commitment. Singing weekly keeps their voices in shape year-round. If someone takes even a month or two off from singing, they notice a loss of stamina when they return. 

Singing in groups becomes a routine release, giving a person a couple hours to step away from everyday stress and escape through learning new songs and improving their technique. Singing groups provide community, naturally building bonds between singers who work together to produce the most beautiful music possible. 

But group singing came to an abrupt halt with the emergence of COVID-19. 

“We had no idea what was coming,” said Patrick McAlexander, an assistant musical director of a men’s barbershop chorus in Nashville, TN. “As things started rapidly shutting down, we simply canceled our next rehearsal.”

Seemingly overnight, singing with other people went from a wholesome and fun activity to one of the most dangerous things a person could do. As more and more research surfaced showing how the virus spread, it became clear that droplets in the air were of greater concern than surface transfer. Speaking releases many droplets and aerosols capable of spreading the virus, but singing does so to a far greater extent. 

How can an intrinsically respiratory group activity continue amid a pandemic involving a respiratory disease?

It can’t. At least, not as it had before the pandemic. 

In mid-March 2020, choirs scrambled to come up with ways to continue rehearsals while observing safety guidelines. Some groups decided to press pause, hoping to wait out the “two weeks to stop the spread”—the battle cry of the period before everyone realized two weeks would become two months and, now, nearly two years. 

Other groups joined the barrage of new Zoom subscribers and held virtual rehearsals. They planned week to week, believing things might return to the old normal sooner rather than later. 

“Once we actually started planning virtual rehearsals, we knew it would probably be at least an eight-week absence,” said Mr. McAlexander. “We had a show planned for early June, so at first, the goal was to continue to work on new music as much as possible, so we could quickly finish show preparations once we were back in person.”

Early Zoom rehearsals forced choir leaders to get creative and find ways to keep members excited and tuned into the community. Slowly, choir leaders began to accept the pandemic was becoming more of a long-term slog than a short blip.

“It became clear that we were not going to be able to predict when this was going to end, and as a result, planning in-person shows and events was pretty useless,” said Mr. McAlexander. “Our musical leadership team had a ‘big ideas’ sort of meeting where we all agreed that we wanted to make education a bigger priority. Early on, we scrambled to find members who could teach about things they knew well, and our members responded well to that. As the absence became more long-term, we started to establish some multi-week programming.”

Social distancing requirements and government-enforced lockdowns required singers to stay entirely apart, in many cases for months on end. Many singers became burned out by virtual rehearsals. The joy they used to get singing together in-person did not translate to the experience of singing alone in their offices on Zoom. Due to the delay in video-conferencing, all singers had to remain on mute while singing at the same time. 

“I enjoyed being able to connect with people during a time with few opportunities for connection, especially at the beginning,” said Sarah McAlexander, a former member of a women’s a cappella chorus in Nashville, TN. “After some time, though, attending virtual rehearsals felt like more of a chore than an escape.”

Singers grew frustrated that they could not hear other people singing their parts as they would during a normal pre-COVID rehearsal, and some started losing interest in what was once a cherished hobby.

“My investment in my chorus definitely decreased as a result of virtual rehearsals,” said Ms. McAlexander. “I’m a people person and love singing in choruses because of the opportunity to connect and sing with others. Without being able to really sing with my friends, choral music lost a lot of its appeal.”

After over a year of not being able to safely gather and sing, vaccines became available to all adults in the U.S. on April 19, 2021. By this time, over half of American adults had already received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose. Choir leaders began to make plans, cautiously optimistic that in-person rehearsals would soon return. 

As has been the case with businesses returning their employees to offices and churches reopening for in-person services, choirs across the country have each returned to in-person rehearsals at their own pace. 

“We decided to start in-person rehearsals in small groups,” said Mr. McAlexander. “We had two groups that were 100 percent vaccinated, and all of our more risk-averse members were able to be placed in those two groups. The other group was a mix of vaccinated and unvaccinated members, all of whom were comfortable with the risk of rehearsing where not everyone was vaccinated.”

Groups deciding to gather debated which safety precautions to enforce. The College Band Directors National Association and National Federation of State High School Associations released a video in April 2021 recommending that all choral and band rehearsals take the following precautions upon their return to in-person rehearsals:

• Have all singers wear masks.

• Space singers at least six feet apart, per Center for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines.

• Limit rehearsal duration to 30 minutes indoors, 60 minutes outdoors.

• Increase airflow through use of a standalone HEPA air purifier and making upgrades to HVAC systems.

• Encourage good hygiene, including frequent handwashing and use of sanitizing wipes on all shared surfaces.

In many cases, choir leaders disagreed on precautions based on differences in political beliefs and risk aversion. They have had to figure out the best way to rehearse safely without alienating choir members, which is delicate during a period of widespread misinformation and disparate politics. 

“We prioritized soliciting feedback from our members on how they were enjoying their experience,” said Mr. McAlexander. “We had to try to balance the safety of our members, our chorus’s ability to provide a worthwhile experience to our members, the preferences and comfort level of our members, and our chorus’s ability to continue to exist. No one wants to tell a group of grown adults who are their friends what to do when it comes to their own health and safety.”

Choirs who returned to in-person rehearsals had to reevaluate their rehearsal plans as new waves of increasing cases emerged. Now with the Omicron variant looming and much about its dangers still unknown, choir leaders know plans for the future must remain fluid.

“I’m not claiming that we made all of the right decisions,” said Mr. McAlexander. “Sometimes pandemic decisions have been choosing between drinking cups with different poison in them. But I still feel like we did the best we could with the information we had.”