Dr. Gus Sterneman HU Takeover Submission Bring your Rehearsal Plan into your digital world! I write my rehearsal plans in Google Docs. Every element in the Plan has a link associated with it. If it’s a warm-up video, I include a YouTube link. If it’s a tag, I link to its page on BarbershopTags.com. For our songs, I share a link to view a PDF for use during rehearsal (just like we would have a printed copy in our guest book). I double check if anyone in the rehearsal doesn’t have a copy and needs to look at any of the music before we sing each piece. If they do, I share it on my screen while we sing along to the learning track. I email the group with both a link to the Google Doc and a PDF of the Plan early in the week before our Thursday rehearsal. I also share a View Only link to the Google Doc on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, inviting anyone who wants to to join us. Our rehearsals are held via Zoom set up as a recurring meeting every week, so the link never changes. I include the rehearsal link in the Google Doc twice. At the top, I have it as a link in bold red capital letters that says, “CLICK HERE TO JOIN REHEARSAL.” Then in the footer, I include the standard Zoom link with the phone numbers to let members call in. Including the phone numbers has proven especially important with several of my members who don’t have the ability to connect via a smartphone or computer. I even have one member who combines the two: He doesn’t have a webcam, so he calls in for audio, but he connects his computer into the Zoom so he can still see everything we’re doing. Finally, I organize myself before Ibegin. I get all my audio files in a playlist in order ready to go. Then I make sure to have a separate window of my web browser open with all the videos, images, and other things needed, each in their own tab with the tabs arranged in rehearsal order. We will always have, “that point in the rehearsal when you watch me stare at my computer screen,” but anything we can do to help minimize that will make for a smoother rehearsal for our singers!
