Summer Roundup
Welcome to The Art of Rehearsal — this is “Issue 1.” If you missed the welcome letter, consider taking a look at the following before moving ahead. (Also, make sure to add this email address to your contacts.)
Welcome to the Art of Rehearsal.
For many in the music world, August is a time of transition back into the routines of the other 9 months of the year. My nephew started band camp for his Junior year of high school last week - we’re very proud.
Let’s get into it. This issue begins with a loose theme around preparation and planning and includes some music-and-cognition book suggestions.
Contents:
Downbeat • Quote from the G.O.A.T. • Rehearsal Roundup • Face the Music
Downbeat
Tactic: Set aside a small, fixed amount of time on your schedule for habitual score preparation.1 Never forget that the number one way to improve any rehearsal, happens long before. To repurpose a phrase, the best time to learn your scores was a month ago, but the second best time is now.2
Here’s a Thought: Lawrence Golan manages his score prep by systematically tackling them over the prior summer, so that as each new concert arrives, he only has to review, but never has to learn from scratch. Jason Caslor recently reinforced this same idea in an interview with Lisa Tatum on the Ictus podcast.
Musicians, conductors, and directors alike can take his approach. But don’t try to do it all at once, just take it Bird by Bird.3 Consider a New Year’s Resolution4 to set aside a small, fixed amount of time each day to dig into your scores without distraction. A simple but consistent score study habit is beachhead from which you can “wage war” on preparing your scores each week.
A Quote from the G.O.A.T.
Never come to rehearsal without a plan. I always have a plan…
…and if your plan doesn’t work in rehearsal, get a new plan!
— Marin Alsop
More: Max Rudolf writes: “Since, as a rule, rehearsal time is restricted and costly, the conductor must put available hours to the best possible use. This entails detailed planning by day, week, and month as part of his preparatory work. It includes seeing to it that properly marked parts in good condition be ready for distribution to the players prior to the first reading.”5
That plan can come in many forms. A written list might work, or a set of carefully organized post it notes directly inside of a score might do the trick. (I use the former. Marin Alsop uses the latter.)
Katie Lewis recommends translucent sticky notes that you can mark on without blocking other information, and then remove before the following rehearsal. I’ve tried them and they are a great tool!
I will cut up much smaller sticky notes to help to define my rehearsal plan.
Pro-tip: This rehearsal plan is not the same thing as the rehearsal schedule that might be posted for musicians or that you write or project for your students. We’re talking about your detailed rehearsal plan: what specifically do you plan to work on with the time available? Which passages, what issues, what methods?
Rehearsal Roundup
Recent Essays and Discoveries6
Essays:
“Everyone’s Favorite Venn Diagram” — The rehearsal process is made up of 5 or 6 smaller (sometimes overlapping) parts, and it’s worth noticing each of them. Here’s a quick introduction to all six.
“Music in the Context” — Musical context in rehearsal: When to take it out, and when to leave it alone. An ongoing “discussion” with the writings of the great Bob Duke.
“Rehearsal Technique: Perspectives from Elite Conductors” — Excerpt from my recently published article in the Journal of the International Conductors Guild. I interview three world-class conductors and share some of my findings.
“Intuition on the Podium” — Or, “Demystifying the Decision.” Every conductor is faced with decision after decision on the podium. How do we make the right one? I checked with some experts.
Books:
Perspectives on Conducting, edited by Róisín Blunnie and Ciarán Crilly.7 I’ve read a few chapters including the one on intuition which I discuss, above. A valuable contribution to the field from an unusually wide variety of types of conductors.
Two recent books on music and the mind. Have you read one of these? Let me know.
PracticeMind for Everyone - By Hans Jørgen Jensen and Oleksander Mycyk - A Non-Violin-Specific version of their violin-focused PracticeMind. Ruth Kurtis highly recommends this.
Music and Mind - A fascinating book filled with scientific chapters interspersed with artists and arts advocates, compiled and edited by Renée Fleming - a clear bent towards use by us mere mortals. She also created a podcast series by the same name that you can check out for free.
Face the Music
Rehearsal video from around the web.
Spring is long gone, but Stravinsky is forever. Here’s a clip of Yu-An Chang rehearsing with HSO Hans Eisler in Berlin. I saw this student orchestra live in Berlin many years ago. Good band!
One Last Thing
The mailing list is full of some of the best musicians I know, including conductors, chamber musicians, public school teachers, opera directors, composers, etc. and I can already tell that it will be a great place to congregate. In the future, I hope to provide opportunities to converse amongst ourselves.
In the meantime, I respect you and want to make Issue 2 20% better than this one, and Issue 3 20% better than that, and so on. I want to make it good enough that you make a point to read it each month because it is worth your time.
Can you help me with that goal? To achieve it, I need to ask you to reply to the survey each month. I ask for no more than 5 minutes of your time, and the reward will come right back to you in the form of something more valuable next time.
Here’s this month’s survey. Could you fill it in now while it’s fresh? (NB: this is NOT the same as the New Reader Survey. This is a chance to respond to what you just read.)
Thank you!
In general, I positively detest resources that claim to be about rehearsal, which nevertheless go on to spend ALL available time and space talking about preparing for rehearsal. Preparation is a prerequisite, but preparation is not the focus here; it is the work that happens in the room, with our musicians. That said, as important as preparation is, I thought I would use this first week only to go ahead and get it out of my system, and to take the time to share my bias. In future weeks, expect the word “tactic” to refer to actual rehearsal tactics!
See 1.
Anne Lamott. Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life (New York: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2007), 19. Link
New school year (or new concert season)!
Max Rudolf, “Rehearsal Techniques,” in The Conductor’s Art, ed. Carl Bamberger (New York: Columbia University Press, 1989), 275–92. Link
In future editions, expect a few articles, papers, or videos on the topic sharing the wisdom of many seasoned musicians, including chamber musicians.
Ciarán Crilly, Róisín Blunnie, ed., Perspectives on Conducting. (United Kingdom: Routledge, 2024). https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003299660