How to Organize a CCC: Community COVID Choir

Here’s a community program idea inspired by Europe!

Let’s have our communities honour our essential services people. Medical staff, pharmacy, grocery store and food service workers,  police and firefighters, transit and garbage workers, and so many more taking risks out there in our communities to keep us safe.

It’s so simple.  (Just keep the rules about physical distancing.)

The Goal: Everyone on a street or multi-unit building sings the same songs from porches and balconies.

The process:

Choose and date and time.

Choose a champion!

  1.      It can be the library or library board
  2.      You can involve the mayor and council
  3.      You can co-opt a local celebrity (I’m looking at you Drake!)

Choose some songs.  Here are some ideas:

It’s a simple task to search for lyrics, music and videos online and share songsheets/lyrics.

Some folks will need to her the songs to build confidence and to remember the words.

If you live in a faith-based community, there may be some hymns that work.

1.     You Light up My Life (by Debby Boone)

Lyrics: https://genius.com/Whitney-houston-you-light-up-my-life-lyrics

  1.      You’ll Never Walk ALone (When you walk through a storm) by Rodgers & Hammerstein

Gerry & the Pacemakers

Lyrics: https://genius.com/Gerry-and-the-pacemakers-youll-never-walk-alone-lyrics

or Elvis Presley:

3.     When the Lights Go On Again (all over the world) by Vera Lynn (WW2 Anthem)

Lyrics: https://genius.com/Vera-lynn-when-the-lights-go-on-again-lyrics

Marketing and Promotion

Alert the media.

Seek local partnerships / sponsors

Develop and website and social media promotion of the event.

Technical Tips:

  • Maybe you know someone with a musical instrument?
  • Can you point a loud speaker at the street or courtyard/parking lot to broadcast the music?
  • Advise folks to use a whistle to signal the start of the choir. (Lots of people have really loud assault whistles on the key chains.)
  • Advise people that the videos, lyrics, songs are online and through the usual sources they’re already using like Apple Music/iTunes, Spotify and YouTube.  Advanced Community COVID Choirs could experiment with instrumental supports available through numerous Karaoke apps!
  • Tell all that NO TALENT is necessary and this is a way to show admiration and gratitude for our essential service workers.

Let us know in the comments any further tips or advice/ideas/songs.

It’s simple. Here’s one for the kids:

Sing sing a song make it simple to last your whole life long (The Carpenters)