TED Talk 7

Eric Whitacre: A virtual choir 2,000 voices strong

Choir. Singing. Melody. Harmony. On tune. Blend. Although the choir that Eric Whitacre talks about in his TED talk is not a traditional choir, it has several matching traits. Eric Whitacre always wanted to be a pop star. Sadly, when he went to college, he found that there was no tutelage or major for that career. He reluctantly decided to join the choir. The second the conductor gave the down beat, his life had changed. All around him were voices singing together, harmony and dissonance. For once in his life he felt that he was a part of something bigger than himself. Now he is a creator of classical music, and conducts. One day, a girl sent him a video of herself singing one of his songs. This triggered the idea for an online "virtual choir". Just to test it out, he sent out one of his songs, with a free download, and a video of himself conducting with piano music so that each person could record themselves, each in a different voice part. There were even auditions for a solo soprano part. Once he got quite a few videos back, he combined them into a video. It has the "appearance" and sound of a normal choir. 185 voices from 12 different countries singing Lux Aurumque:

Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir- 'Lux Aurumque'

After this, he decided he could do more with it. He decided to do it again, but this time make it even better. Many more people responded, including people with more mature voices, and younger participants also. In this song, Sleep, 2,052 different voices were included, from 58 different countries:

Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir 2.0, 'Sleep'

Then Eric Whitacre explained how he felt once he and all of his collaborators created this masterpiece. All the people in this choir felt a certain bond: a connection, even though they did not even physically know each other. He said it was very intimate, and they felt like a family almost.

I took away primarily one concept from this TED talk. THERE ARE NO LIMITS. As someone once said, "Limits exist only in the mind." This video was inspiring because it showed how someone thought of and carried out a new idea, based on their passion. They did not let physical limits get in the way.

Eric Whitacre's TED talk was very interesting to watch. At first I thought that it would be mildly of interest, and once I started watching, I could not stop. I wanted to keep going to see the end product of his virtual choir, and how he accomplished such a feat. Considering my passions, which are similar to his-although I never wanted to be a pop star-I really enjoyed listening to how he still carried out with his dream, even if it was in a different form than he ever thought. He always wanted to be a pop star, but once college hit, that changed. Despite the walls and rocks he came upon, he made it past those and still pursued what he had a passion for. He became a conductor of a virtual choir. I have never heard of a virtual choir before this talk, and it really intrigued me. Yet again, he did not let limits stop him. He jumped over that wall, and that barrier of different race, origin, and location, and found a way to create a connection between singers around the world. I really learned thoroughly from this talk that limits are only in the mind, and that dreams are never just dreams. They can become reality. Although he did not even say anything about limits, or overcoming blocks in the way, that is the message I took away. I also saw another connection: to intrinsic motivation. He did not start this choir for profit, or because someone told him to. He got this amazing idea from a simple video, and he magnified it into something that he was passionate about, and that he was really motivated to accomplish. Plus, all the people who recorded themselves to be in the choir were motivated all on their own. There was not money or a prize involved for contributing to it. They saw this group and decided that it was something they wanted to be a part of. If it had been for profit or because he had to, then it probably would not have been so amazing or delightful. That also connects back to what Clay Shirky talked about I his TED talk: cognitive surplus. Although it is not exactly the same, because it is not exactly a website with lots of smart ideas on it, it is still the concept of people pooling together worldwide on a non-profit project. The results are magnificent. Just imagine if every person grew up to achieve something that they had a passion of, whether it involved left-brained or right-brained thinking, and they created something totally new off of it. The world would make so much more progress! It would be such a more connected, generous society. Ideas would be shooting out like fireworks. Sadly, because everyone has to do a job to earn a living, life is not like this for every person. Although the world is rapidly innovating and progressing, I think it is mostly because of business. Imagine the change that could occur without all the extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation would "make the world spin faster". By this figure of speech I mean that it would be even faster at changing and progressing. The idea of phony limits can be applied to me personally. I am not like Eric Whitacre, in that I do not really think outside the box to find ways to keep pursuing my goals. I have goals, such as graduating highschool and college, and getting married, and having kids. If I have time aside from raising kids, I would be some kind of designer. I am still striving for these goals, yet I have not really come to the place in my life where these are happening. All the time I am preparing for them though, and choices I make now will affect those goals later. Right now, I can think of ways to get to those goals, such as in school, finding new ideas and new ways of doing work. In education in general, this concept can be applied, because teachers could leave education more open so that students would have to learn how to teach themselves and really learn for their own sake. They could encourage students to go beyond limits, and strive for their goals. And on the students' end, they could try harder in school to surpass those limits and reach their goals, getting help from their teachers. In the world, surpassing minimum limits and finding new ways of doing ordinary jobs would be such a great idea. Like I said, it would make the business and social world explode with new ideas. Plus, it would raise people's determination and self-worth feelings, because they would appreciate themselves after accomplishing something hard, and they would realize that it is not as hard as they thought. The world could make more progress without such tight limits, or in reality, limits that people see, but are not really there.

By watching this unique TED talk, I could distinguish a few main techniques that Eric Whitacre used to make his presentation more effective. First of all, he used a lot of visual and especially audio tools. Because his talk was about this choir that he had created, it really lent itself to the video approach. Every time he would mention a song or a part that was in his choir, he would project a short movie of that on the screen. I know for me it was extremely helpful, because if I had not been able to actually see and hear what his virtual choir was like, then it definitely would not have been so interesting and engaging to me. I have not yet seen any other speakers use short videos in their TED talks, which is why it makes the use of this so different. It helps more than just visual learners. It helps the audio learners too, because they can hear the choir and also see it at the same time, after he explains about it. It is a way that helps get the point across to most everyone. Another aspect that made this talk very distinctive was just the way that Eric Whitacre gave it. Just the implied attitude and passion made me feel just as into it as he was. He made it easy to listen to, and even enjoyable. This was more of a light talk, which I liked, because it was not so in depth that I had to constantly be refocusing my mind, but at the same time, it introduced a whole new concept that I had never though of. I could not stop watching it; I had to see what would happen next. Along with that, the topic was very intriguing. For me, I love singing, and I think choirs are very interesting, the way that so many voices can blend and sound as one. He made it interesting to watch by the techniques he used.

- Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir 2.0, 'Sleep'

Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir 2.0, 'Sleep'