“The church made the call to put everything online last month,” said 22-year-old Warell, a member of his church, C3 NYC, in Downtown Manhattan. “Even for dinners, we had thought at the time that gathering 10-12 people was safe, but even that’s too many people to have in one place.”

In a time where social distancing is needed to curb the spread of coronavirus, Lachlan and many other Christian churchgoers must now kindle spiritual community over a computer.

For Lachlan, this means attending C3’s pre-recorded digital Sunday services on his laptop. Running hourly from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., the stream lets members like Lachlan follow his pastor with a pop-up digital Bible and send text messages with his friends using the stream’s chatroom.

But for more intimate C3 gatherings like dinner parties that are now done over  Zoom, the transition hasn’t been as smooth.“Before corona, we’d usually meet every Wednesday to have dinner, catch-up with one another, pray, and talk about the last service,” said Warell, adding that he misses the social setting. “It’s kind of awkward trying to single out a conversation in a 15-person Zoom call.”

For other C3 members who attend more than one church like 23-year-old Joo Lee, the switch to online has made the transition between communities easier.

Lee typically starts her Sunday with a morning prayer at her Korean church IN2 in Koreatown, and follows it with a C3 service ten blocks away.

“I now don’t have to go all the way uptown and switch between the two,” she said. “It’s been easier to be a regular in both communities.”

Even so, Lee says the impersonal live streams could dampen a sense of community for older church members.

“For our generation, we’re used to this, we’ve been online all the time,” she said. “But for my parents, they’re really sad about it, they see it as a whole different reality.”

For other Christian organizations that depend on group gatherings like Campus Crusade for Christ (CRU), an organization dedicated towards engaging college students with faith, remote gathering has brought together new perspectives.

“I try to tell everyone that we want to do our best to honor what the government says,” said Sam Gryzwa, a CRU campus staff member. “But we also have to recognize that we share a bond as Christians that goes beyond this idea that we only need to meet in person.”

Prior to the pandemic, Gryzwa set up Bible studies and other CRU events on New York University’s campus. But now, FaceTime and Zoom are the only ways to reach students.
“I keep myself as available and open for discussion as I did on campus,” said Gryzwa. “We just have to get a little more creative to get to God now.”

While groups like C3, IN2 and CRU have postponed in-person gatherings to prevent the virus from spreading, other religious groups across the country have come under fire for ignoring social distancing precautions.
In the last two months, a Virginia pastor died from COVID-19 after defying social distancing, while a church conference in Kansas City sparked 44 new COVID-19 cases and five deaths.

“It’s important to be able to connect with God now more than ever,” said Warrell. “It’s important to do it safely though.”

“We do have the ability as Christians to have hope in all of this,” said Gryzwa. “We’ve just now got to focus on how to share that hope at home and through computers.”

Harrison Tsui is an NYU undergraduate journalism student.

The post Churchgoers find spiritual growth through virtual services  appeared first on Pavement Pieces.

“I usually try to play as soft as possible,” said Borden, a second-year percussion major at The Juilliard School who now must perform at home in Cranbury, New Jersey due to the coronavirus outbreak. “I start on my practice pad when everyone’s asleep and as the day progresses I’ll typically try to start on timpani and snare.”

From finding out which computer angle picks up the best sounds of his drums to reworking an otherwise rigid practice schedule, Juilliard for Borden has never looked so different.

“It’s forcing us to work on our finer techniques,” he said. “Since we can’t go through the motions of in-person rehearsals and lessons, we finally have a chance to perfect our basic skills on the practice pad.”

Ever since music schools were shut down last month, music majors across the country must now come up with creative ways to sharpen their skills.

Noah Lilienthal, 19, is a student at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut.

For 19-year-old Noah Lilienthal, a second-year music major at Wesleyan University, that means setting up a make-shift practice space in his crowded household. He places thick boards of cork in his room to buffer the rhythmic clapping that will happen during his Solkattu South Indian music class. The oil painting from his father that hangs on the wall is now turned towards his monitors, acting as a barrier between his wails on saxophone and the five people living in his home.

“I’m in a New Music Ensemble where my professor has us record some pretty out there and atonal stuff,” he said, laughing. I’m constantly squeaking and tapping on my saxophone and my family wouldn’t want to hear that shit.”

Although Borden and Lilienthal are able to send recordings to their professors, many of their performance classes have turned into lecture style courses.

But even those have been challenging over video.

“The connection just sucks sometimes,” Borden said. “The professor may say some great point during a lecture and then the bandwidth just goes out the window.”

“The delay is the worst in my South Indian music class,” Lilienthal also said. “Normally we’re all sitting in a circle clapping and relying on our professor’s visual cues, but I can’t line up with his beat when they’re delayed!”

While laggy connection has delayed their classes, the situation hasn’t dampened their musical hunger.

“My friend John and I have been trying to push each other to learn a new jazz standard each week,” Lilienthal said. “You’ve got to push yourself even when nobody’s telling you to do so.”

Borden has taken on the same mindset, using the time spent at home as an opportunity to come back to school stronger.

“You’ve got all the time in the world now to practice, so people are almost expecting you to come back better and ready to go,” he said.

“I’ve been working on producing and composing a lot,” he added. “I’ve been making a 2010’s style pop song just to see if I could do it. Now’s the time to show that you’re irreplaceable as a musician.”

Harrison Tsui is an NYU undergraduate journalism student.

The post Music majors make music during quarantine appeared first on Pavement Pieces.