<< Previous | 12 of 12 | Next >>

Regular Columns

Faithfulness amid Covid-19

Things I’ve loved about the lockdown: compulsory time with family; rediscovering my Rubik’s Snake; the Q2 cycle route through Hackney.

Music Richard Simpkin
Figure Image
photo: iStock

I’m writing this article in April, but it will be published in late May, so I write not knowing whether we’ll have been allowed back into our church buildings by then (now!). It’s safe to say, however, that this season of change has challenged church musicians in very new ways. Expectations have changed almost overnight, so that now we need to be technologically savvy enough to create mixes of sounds remotely – sounds that have been recorded by varying qualities of phone microphones in kitchens, living rooms and bedrooms. We also have to be visually engaging on a screen, thinking about backgrounds, lighting and different instruments to create variety – preferably splitting many screens on one screen. And now our musical efforts are on much more public display. I have been thrown very far out of my comfort zone.