What relevance does AI actually have for choirs? For people who enjoy singing, mostly without any technical support, and thereby support musical education, community, and last but not least art and tradition?
In Germany alone, an estimated 60,000 amateur choirs give 300,000 concerts. Yearly.
Last Saturday, Joachim had been invited by the Kreischorverband Mayen to talk about the current developments in AI and music, and what it could potentially do for choirs (or, on a more general level, volunteer-driven associations).
It was an afternoon with lively discussions, including a blind test of a 5 voices a-cappella composition (https://youtu.be/SNX0uBAEets?si=l9M4I5TS-G-kyWXU) – can you guess how AI played a role in the production (and no, neither text nor song were generated by LLMs or song generators)? The video’s description provides the answer.
We discussed how LLMs and song generators work and how this is different from the classical, ground-up constructive composition approach. We also spoke about various techniques in music production where AI can be supportive without interfering with the genuine composition process, be it AI supported mastering, latest advances in AI-based orchestral sampling, or voice generation.
And we discussed where – as a practical musician who sees music as a craft and art and enjoys the ‘manual’ (or in this case: oral) process in creating it – we would draw a line: this is the core of &ai’s mission, to have a thoughtful discussion about AI ethics and responsibility in music.
But even if traditional choirs usually wouldn’t use AI directly for music, there are more ‘profane’ uses for it – be it support in research or even writing for moderator texts, flyers and so on. Joachim strongly voted for an approach which preserves your own, human voice, and lets you stand behind your writing: don’t let AI generate the text for you. Instead, write the first draft on your own, and then use AI as a critic: for fact checking, language, or even appropriateness for your audience.
We also took a short glimpse at the evolving landscape of apps which support the management of choirs and small associations in general. In the last two years, a flurry of new solutions has entered the market (usually AI-coded). They’ll need to stand the test of time, but some look quite promising and useful.
A conclusion of this afternoon could be: for a typical amateur choir, today’s AI solutions would not interfere with human creativity and the joy of making music on its own. But more and more apps and solutions appear which can make life easier for the many hard-working volunteers who make our musical culture and landscape so rich and unique.
Thank you to the Kreischorverband Mayen for inviting us, we’re looking forward to perhaps a deeper workshop next year!