St. Luke’s very own Henry Jodka ‘20 has been keeping himself busy and his vocal chords warm during quarantine. He has published two videos on YouTube featuring a group of people singing a song a capella (with no instruments). The incredible part, however, is that everyone in the group is Henry himself! Henry recorded himself multiple times, edited the videos together, and sung all the parts by himself. 

The first video Henry released was a cover of the song “The Longest Time,” which he had performed with the Acafellas — the 11th and 12th grade boys a capella group —  during one of their concerts. Henry wanted to produce this video because it offered a way to celebrate his time singing with the Acafellas throughout his SLS career. 

He said, “I really miss the Acafellas, so I wanted to remind myself that I love the group and the music we used to make together.” 

A lot of inspiration can be sparked during this time of social distancing. Although it may be hard to stay motivated, you can always find ways to keep those creative juices flowing. 

Henry explained that he started making these videos because he “never had any time to do so – now that we’re in quarantine, and we’ve got projects to do for chorale, [he’s] got plenty!” 

Henry admitted that putting together multiple audio tracks and videos was not an easy process. 

“I did the videos and audio separately,” Henry explained.“For the audio, I used my school computer mic and lots of tracks in GarageBand – while this is very tricky, there is a metronome in GarageBand that really helps me stay on beat, and it is relatively easy to stop and start over if I mess up during the recording, so the audio part (besides learning all of the different singing parts) is relatively easy compared to making the video.” 

He encountered many issues throughout the process, but his determination paid off to create a very entertaining and professional video.

Henry’s second video was a cover of the “Trebles Finals” from Pitch Perfect. This video includes fifteen different videos of Henry singing a variety of arrangements. In the center, three Henrys stand side by side, each in a different outfit, singing a different solo. Henry mentioned that his production was frustrating at times, as “there was a lot of waiting. . . because each individual video had to be Air Dropped from my phone to my computer.”

Though being in quarantine makes it harder to keep your vocal chords healthy and up and running, Henry has been finding ways to keep his voice healthy. Vocal health is really important for anyone who sings. If you do not take care of yourself, then you could strain your vocal chords, or worse. To take care of your vocal chords, you have to do vocal warm ups and exercises, and not overwork your voice. 

Henry commented on vocal health: “It is difficult to stay vocally healthy because I haven’t been singing every day, that also sort of makes it easier in a way… I also have been taking voice lessons for years (and am continuing them over FaceTime), so that helps a lot too.” Since Henry sings so often, he knows what he has to do to take care of himself. 

Other than singing and making music videos, Henry has certainly been keeping busy. 

“I’ve been spending a LOT of time with my family, playing lots of video games, going for long walks, and generally exercising more,” Henry shared.

If you want to sit down and be entertained for a while, go look up one of Henry’s videos, sit back, and enjoy.