Welcome! My name is Jordan and this is my Conductor’s Notebook. This essay is part 2 in a short series on rehearsal tactics, techniques, and topics. Part 1 is here.
In the world of rehearsal, precision is sometimes lacking in the conversations we musicians have with each other when we try to describe what we’re doing when work together to prepare for a performance. If there is one thing I learned from Gustav Meier, it is that one can always do with a bit more precision. As Ludwig Wittgenstein famously said, “The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.”
Put the two together and point them at rehearsal, and I think we get something like this: precision in the language we use to describe concepts can help us improve our ability to “size up a situation,” “spot problems,” or “come up with solutions” as Gary Klein might say. In his many studies of intuition, Klein points out that knowing what to do is not only about noticing certain aspects of a situation but about noticing what’s missing – something that only a person with real expertise can do.
Now, some of that noticing comes purely from experience which generates expectancies - expectations about what would ordinarily be likely to occur. But some of that noticing comes from learning about what you’re looking for in the first place. Most often, it is some combination of the two. (After all, for all its limitations, books tend to be a distilled form of that same experiential knowledge.)
Increasingly precise language can help to add that second important method of obtaining wisdom. To ask basic questions like, “in a rehearsal, what kinds of things are there? What actions, events, objects, groupings, and regularities can I notice, track, and learn from?”
In part 1, we tried to get a fix on what a Rehearsal Tactic is, and we landed on a modular action or small group of actions that, when strung together, might be a useful solution to a particular problem in some situations. It is not an exact recipe, rather it is a group of options with which to improvise. But what else is there? What about Rehearsal Technique; is that the same thing?
“Rehearsal Technique” • Rehearsal Techniques • Practice • More Techniques
"Rehearsal Technique"
Another term that comes up just as frequently is Rehearsal Technique. The conventional understanding says that Rehearsal Technique just means some sort of generalized quality of the work on the podium, and/or in the rehearsal room, before the performance. This is generally described as a skill next to other skills like conducting, score study, and general musicianship. That’s one possible frame, and it certainly has value. I use the word in this sense frequently.
But it could mean something a bit more, and that’s what I want to press for here.
A Bit More
What is that something more? Let’s start to move in that direction: In a recent episode of Ic2us, host Lisa Tatum discussed the transition from a very “technique-oriented” development as an undergraduate instrumentalist to a heavy emphasis on musicianship in her graduate conducting program. This tracks my experience almost exactly! However, I think embedded in this difference may also be a hidden trade-off that conductors ideally would not be making. That is, instrumentalists the world over take it for granted that in order to be an excellent musician, technique is absolutely critical. Yet, it is possible that conductors, though they might even have an important musical leadership role, are perhaps not always held to quite such a high standard.
So how and where might we usefully cut this term? Separate it from others?
To get there, it might be helpful to notice that Rehearsal Technique (note: singular) might be a good suitcase term to describe your general level of knowledge and skill in the rehearsal room. But for our purposes today, we will put that general term aside and try to get a little bit more granular.
Rehearsal Techniques
Contrast
Rehearsal Techniques (note: plural), then, could refer to a specific category of action in rehearsal.
By contrast, think of Rehearsal Tactics as a category of action focused on what you will ask the musicians to do next. These are all the various ways of asking groups of players and singers to be louder, softer, slower, faster, shorter, longer, earlier, later, higher, lower, and more together, as we discussed in part 1.
Meanwhile, Rehearsal Techniques might be a good home for those methods you use to make it likely that you will select the right tactic, at the right time, and in the right way.
Tactics are about what they will do.
Techniques are about what you will do first.
Pancake key
I began my musical life as a mediocre bassoonist before becoming a well-trained percussionist. In that time, I learned all manner of fingerings to negotiate pancake keys, whisper keys, and all manner of other keys with less charismatic names. When you combine many fingerings together, you come up with scales. When a clarinetist practices certain passages “LRLR” and then again “RLRL” - they are using their two sets of often-identical pinky keys on the left and right side - a simple example of an alternate fingering. When negotiating larger skips, they might practice arpeggios, or even octave slurs (enter whisper key). Collectively, what would you call these and the hundreds of other scales, patterns, trill fingerings, colors, etc? Often referred to as warm-ups, drills, or simply by their individual names, one potential name for the group might be - Techniques. They aren’t about playing an actual musical passage, but about practicing a variety of techniques that a musician expects to be called upon to perform in a live musical setting at a later time.
Tactics might be about the specific alternate fingering you might use to play a particularly tricky passage. Meanwhile - that alternate fingering sits with many others in your bag of techniques that you have learned, practiced, and prepared to deploy as needed - often in the form of patterns and procedures like scales. All of this could be applied to your rehearsal skills, in which your specific tactics are like fingerings, but your techniques are the ways in which you prepare to be able to deploy those tactics.
Wounded
A Tactic is a what. It is an action that performs an operation. If you accidentally cut your hand, I might try some but probably not all of the following tactics:
Give you a washcloth and tell you to keep pressure on it.
Clean the wounded area.
Hand you a can of liquid bandage.
Get out a band-aid for you and help you put it on.
Go to the store to purchase Neosporin.
Depending on the specific situation we find ourselves in, these steps might need to be modified:
Scenario A: Because we’re out in forest on a hike, I don’t have a washcloth, so I offer you my tank top in a pinch.
Scenario B: Because we were home, you had a bottle of Neosporin, so I didn’t have to leave.
Scenario C: Because you are a healthcare worker, I didn’t need to instruct you to use pressure.
Scenario D: Or because you are a young child, I did instruct you to use pressure, modeled the behavior, gave you a chance to do it on your own, and evaluated your ability to maintain pressure before taking additional steps. (See where I’m going?)
So we see that a list of tactics alone is not enough. We explored that last time when we put our tuning tactics into practice. In fact, some additional skill might be necessary to understand how and when to apply each tactic, and to recognize a situation for what it is so that our mind can successfully reach for an intervention that will most likely work to solve the problem.
In fact, you could call these skill-selection skills meta-skills, because they are the skills that help you know when and how to deploy your other skills. But I get a little nervous when people start adding “meta” to things…
So let’s use a word we all know and love and call them Techniques. Again, notice that I’m using the plural to indicate that it is a collection of different actions or skills, rather than a general quantity. However, from here on (and this is why I want to avoid confusion with the previous version of the word) I will talk about both this larger collection, and its members, so if you see the singular technique, it will only refer to an individual skill.
But let’s get away from sophistry and semantics, and make this practical.
Practice
Situation Awareness
Let’s say I’m working on rhythmic precision with my orchestra. Perhaps there is a tricky entrance to coordinate front to back. I might have a variety of tactics to work with that could potentially come to mind:
I might make a gentle suggestion like asking the horns to anticipate their entrance, and/or ask the seconds and violas to listen to the horns rather than follow the stick in that spot.
I might simply ask the affected musicians to play the excerpt in isolation.
If a specific section is at fault, I might make a more specific suggestion to them, work with just them, and or collaborate with the section principal to offer a suggestion.
I might slow the passage down (but carefully!).
If some other issues, such as a part discrepancy, seems to be at play, I might ask the principal horn to see me at break.
With students especially, I might change the rhythm in some way, or get involved with fingerings, bowing, string crossing, diction, breathing, articulation, etc. depending on the circumstance.
And the list goes on.
Most of those are fairly general and could be applied in a lot of cases. But the last one came with a caveat: “with students especially.” Meaning, this may not work in all situations, and that certain situations (i.e. working with student musicians) may be more appropriate. The takeaway? Being aware of the specific situation you find yourself in is critical to knowing which tactics to use.
Finally, with all this in mind, we can now see that Situation Awareness would be an example of a Rehearsal Technique. It is one of the ways Amy Edmondson identifies that leaders can minimize their errors in judgement, and it is one of the reasons that cognitive scientists like Amishi Jha and musicians like Vanessa Cornett so highly encourage people to develop a mindfulness practice.
Other Forms of Awareness
If situation awareness is one member of this suite of techniques, what else is there? It’s hard to know how many there are as no one has really tried to count them, to my knowledge. But here are a few to consider. For todau, I will generally continue to use awareness by way of example, but this is not the only technique base out there!
General Self-Awareness in Conducting: Many conductors underestimate the importance of developing rehearsal skill, and many music educators undervalue of effective baton technique. When I coach my clients or teach my students, I find that many rehearsal problems are actually caused by the conducting information provided. This can be improved, not only through additional conducting study and workshops, but simply and cheaply by adding or angling mirrors in order to be able to watch yourself conduct while in rehearsal (more appropriate for school environments but not out of the question for some other situations)
Awareness of different Instruments and Groups:
String players react to the baton in a fundamentally different way than do winds, vocalists, percussionists, and pianists+harpists+etc.
Percussionists see the stick in a literal and immediate way, which causes them to be “early.” In reality, they are trying to synchronize with you and are “right on time” but no other instrument group plays quite so “on the beat” so they can tend to arrive before the group.
String players do not react well to overly choppy conducting in many situations. They too see the metaphor of baton=bow. If you approach the beat in a choked way, they will create a choked sound. Mr. Meier, if I tried to be too precise on a soft string instrument, would stop you and critique me by saying with a mischievous grin that I was “too clear!”
Wind players are not as “immediate” as percussion, but unlike the strings, are not able to work with an ambiguous entrance. For winds as well as voices, the metaphor is not to an implement but with the breath and then the articulation. Breathe with them, and make sure it is clear where to place the tongue, or the opening consonant.
Pianists and harpists are typically not taught how to rehearse in a large ensemble setting or how to follow a conductor. This is NOT always the case, but many times, the orchestral pianists and harpists who get off to a great start are those who played another instrument in the orchestra first. And because they often only play on one or two pieces, they might require extra help and attention. Always be attentive to their parts, especially if they only enter later on in the piece. They may need extra help. If so, send them to Claire Allen.
Awareness of morale and level of concentration: for all of the effort to help make rehearsal as efficient as possible, it is important not to drive our groups into the ground. “Drill and kill” should be a warning, but sometimes it can be taken as an encouragement, and that’s not ideal! We need to always make sure that we are monitoring our students and not creating our own problems. But if we do, Carolyn Watson counsels from her experience that we try to notice that we’re the cause, and then own it with the musicians.
Put that all together and you have an outline of Rehearsal Technique(s), as the skills that allow the best musicians to select the most appropriate methods for tackling rehearsal challenges.
More Techniques
There are quite a few other techniques that I would broadly lump broadly into this category. Each could have their own essay, and some already do. Here are a few examples:
Knowing when to stop and fix something.
Knowing how to prioritize between competing priorities.
Knowing when to move on from a passage.
Knowing when practicing under- or at-tempo would be (in)effective.
Knowing when to change and offer a different tactic because the first one wasn’t having the desired effect, and how to select the next tactic.
Knowing how to communicate the spot you’d like to rehearse.
Knowing how to keeping your instructions concise but full of meaningful and necessary information.
People Skills: can you communicate in a personable and genuine way that draws other musicians in? Far from inborn, Emotional Intelligence is a character skill, and one we can develop as surely as we can learn to wave a stick or bow a string.
Cultural Literacy: I sometimes hear of conductors, in no doubt a laudable effort to be playful, sincere, and respectful in their rehearsal instructions, nonetheless refer to specific non-Western cultural touchstones in unfortunate and sometimes cringeworthy way.
That is an overview of this second category of skills I call Rehearsal Techniques. What important techniques do you use to help you keep rehearsals moving in the right direction? Let me know!
1. For more, see Peter Keller, 'Ensemble Performance: Interpersonal Alignment of Musical Expression', in Fabian, Dorottya, Renee Timmers, and Emery Schubert (eds), Expressiveness in music performance: Empirical approaches across styles and cultures (Oxford, 2014; online edn, Oxford Academic, 18 Sept. 2014), https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199659647.001.0001, accessed 26 Sept. 2024. Amazon
2. Gary Klein, The Power of Intuition: How to Use Your Gut Feelings to Make Better Decisions at Work. (New York: Crown Currency, 2004). Amazon
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