How to create Encouragement, Enthusiasm, and Engagement in these challenging times. It’s Saturday afternoon around 2:00. You’re in your favorite comfy chair. You are probably inside thanks to social distancing. You’ve been invited to an organ recital by a 10-year-old and her twin brothers who are 7. Xoe, Oscar and Atticus. Seems normal. Then the other guests start to appear. 2 from the Philippines, 3 from Chicago, more from Indiana, Colorado, Washington, Arizona, Idaho, and the home base of Forest Grove, Oregon. Wow! What is this? It’s a very heartening event. An organ recital that you didn’t need to drive to, park at, wait in line for, find a seat, get your frequent flyer number entered, go through security. An event you might not have flown across the Pacific, driven across the country, or maybe not even have made it into town for. You get the idea. And yet you could enjoy this organ recital with all the comforts of home... This wonderful "little" recital was attended by people from literally around the world. The sound was great, the visual was wonderful, and the guests genuinely enjoyed the whole event. The only thing missing were the real time cookies, tea, and coffee afterwards. This recital was the result of immersing ourselves in Zoom technology. Jeannine uses Zoom for private lessons, church services, and meetings. I wish I could say everything worked perfectly from day one....it did not. We decided at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, it would take too long for "someone" to make everything work for our business like we'd like it to. For "someone" to tell us how to put all the puzzle pieces together. What we and many many others have learned, is that Zoom is an evolving technology. You learn day by day as it expands and evolves. We made a choice to move forward however we could, to "make things happen." In a previous newsletter, we promised to give you some specific "how-to-meet-these-new- challenges" instructions. You will find those toward the end of this newsletter. Jeannine is seated at Zoom Host Central for a student organ recital. For security reasons, she admits only invited guests to the concert. She then is able to direct the screens to the performers. She also has the capability to keep all listeners muted so there are no disturbances during the concert. Zoom Host Central is also where she leads the musical portions of the St. Bede church service and does her Zoom teaching. I call it her Musical She Shed. Because of the successful first youth Zoom recital, instead of waiting for the all clear to get together for the usual bi-annual Jordan Organ Studio Recital, we are hosting shorter student Zoom recitals throughout the summer. Zoom allows so much flexibility for the performers in timing and location. Last Saturday, Stephanie and Cynthia performed on their home instruments with guests joining from several different states. It was an opportunity for family and friends who usually are not able to attend the recitals to share their work and accomplishments. Well done ladies! Encouraged, Enthused, Engaged. If you are determined to improve your organ playing skills, Jeannine has 3 openings in her Zoom Studio. Her skills at encouraging, creating enthusiasm, and engaging are second to none. Contact Jeannine at jeannine@promotionmusic.org We have found the type of microphone one uses plays a huge role in creating a musically successful Zoom experience. Be ready to spend a good amount of time to make adjustments that will end up being musically satisfying. We use an AKG-C44 USB mic. The USB part is very important since it will plug into your computer and work directly with Zoom. This is high quality mic but is touchy and takes time to find the best placement for reproduction of the actual sound. We use this mic for providing solo organ sound and accompanying a vocal soloist for the St. Bede services Most of our students are using a Samson Go mic USB model This works well for general use. Again, placement and correct settings of the mic are vital. If you are using an Apple product, the preferred mic seems to be a RØde videomic me-L. If you would like more details on using Zoom successfully for lessons and recitals, please contact me. There are so many finite details that I'm afraid your eyes might glaze over if we go into them here. Feel free to contact me. I have some PDF images and directions that I would be glad to share with you. It's worth the effort. It really is. My email is david@promotionmusic.org You might want to check the date changes of our upcoming concerts. It is not a surprise that many of our concert hosts have wisely postponed our concerts to 2021. We are currently taking future bookings for 2021 as well. Please visit Promotionmusic.org Promotionmusic.org Copyright 2020 Pro-Motion Music LLC. All rights reserved.