10 Beginning Rehearsal Techniques

While waving your hands in efficient, meaningful ways can take you a long way to beautiful performance, an efficient and effective rehearsal process is crucial to the musical craft. Because conducting is always in service to music, your job as a conductor is to guide musicians through the rehearsal process toward authentic, expressive musical behaviors.

Well before the first meeting of collaborating musicians, the conductor/leader has usually made numerous decisions:

1. Chosen music that fits the mission, musically and otherwise, of the ensemble
   • What is the purpose of this performance?
   • Who is your audience?
   • What repertoire showcases the assets of your ensemble? What might be an interesting but attainable challenge?
2. Completed thorough score study
   • identify important musical moments
   • Identify potential challenges
   • Identify easy wins
3. Established a strong aural image of the final performance – how would your ideal ensemble look and sound? Consider the following musical elements when building your aural image, supporting your decisions with historical, stylistic, or cultural performance practice in the appropriate genre:
   • Forces – what voices/instrumentation does your FP require?
   • Tempo – if a range is given, where will your tempo lie within that range
   • Phrasing
   • Articulation
   • Dynamics

While you have the prerogative as a musician to make many artistic decisions in the score study process, you’ll also be responsible for addressing the technical components necessary for outstanding execution. Depending on the skill level of your ensemble, you will need to consider rehearsal strategies for addressing the following skills:

• Intonation
• Pitch Accuracy
• Rhythmic Precision
• Balance of parts
• Entrances / Releases
• Technical Acuity on the instrument
  • Breath Management
  • Range
  • Resonance – depending on what tone quality you establish in your FP, what strategies are required for executing the appropriate timbre on the instrument?

We can group performance preparation goals into the following categories:

1. Note Acquisition
   1. Does your ensemble read music, use lead sheets, learn by rote, or use some other method to acquire pitches and rhythms? (This will vary depending on the stylistic culture and mission of the ensemble – there is no one right way to acquire correct pitches and rhythms!)
2. Technical Skill
   1. Are your ensemble members already experts on their instruments, or will you need to consider ways to incrementally increase their skill as you approach the performance?
3. Musical Expressivity
   1. Will your rehearsal process be collaborative as you approach expressive decisions, or will you communicate previously determined choices to the ensemble?
   2. Musicians who are still developing their expressive voice may find a list of expressive musicians that seem to be intuitive to advanced musicians helpful. A list of Rules for Expressive Performance, found in the Appendix, were the brainchild of master educator Dr. Judy Bowers. More information can be found in her chapter of Teaching Music Through Performance in Middle School Choir: Bowers, J. (2011). Rehearsal strategies for the middle school choir. In L. Gackle & C. V. Fung (Eds.), Teaching music through performance in middle school choir (pp. 23-38). GIA Publications.

Proactive vs. Reactive Rehearsals

Because the rehearsal process is always finite, the conductor/leader will need to prioritize goals. With a very nuanced Fantasy Performance established, the first rehearsal of an ensemble is often an aural assault of myriad challenges from which you must choose to address. The prepared leader will not allow an ensemble to derail their rehearsal goals, unless those goals are impossible without first addressing something else (we should not add articulation to incorrect notes, for example). Conduct a thoughtful rehearsal, remaining true to your well-sequenced plan, and make note of whatever challenges assaulted your ears to either be addressed in the future or to let go. Perhaps the hardest decision facing every musician encompasses what to let go, as it is inevitable that something will be left behind.

How, then, to prioritize?

Certainly, musicians aspire to high standards in all aspects of performance, and yet… rehearsal time is finite. Establishing your performance priorities by ranking components of music will define your rehearsal priorities, helpfully alleviating decision fatigue brought on by the aural assault of that first rehearsal. A note of importance – your priorities may shift based on the piece of music you’re considering. In some settings, a memorized performance will be crucial to expressive performance, while in others, careful attention to rubato will make the most impact. In short: rank your priorities, and stay on task.

Whole – Part – Whole: The Gestalt Principle of Design

When starting a piece of music, or starting a rehearsal task, musicians greatly benefit from an orientation to the work of some kind. Borrowing from design, we can incorporate principles of the Gestalt Theory, which describes the brain’s perception of complex situations as an attempt to make sense of many individual components by organizing them into a system that makes up a whole, rather than a series of disparate elements. The human brain loves to find patterns and structure to better comprehend our environment. Engaging musicians in a “whole” (an entire piece, a full movement, or a large section of a piece) allows for orientation and contextualization. From there, rehearsal continues in order to refine the many parts that comprise the whole.

Bob Duke’s concept of Rehearsal Frames provides a useful structure for approaching rehearsal sequences to effect positive change in the ensemble. The framework starts with the conductor identifying a target, then taking the ensemble through a series of rehearsal episodes that limit and sequence performance towards the target, then recontextualizing the target. The most effective rehearsal frames, according to Duke’s research, last between 90 seconds to 4 minutes, engaging motivation by offering a frequent sense of achievement to the performers.

Rehearsal Frames in Three Main Parts:

• Identify the Target

1. 1. 1. Error Detection: The Conductor identifies a challenge in need of rehearsal (may involve the entire ensemble, a smaller section, or a single performer)
         1. Prioritize aspects that require attention in order of greatest magnitude of change to the final performance (the following is a list of ideas to focus attention, not a prioritized hierarchy of performance goals)
            1. Tone / Intonation
            2. Rhythm / Articulation / Precision
            3. Style / Character
            4. Phrasing / Dynamics
            5. Balance / Blend
      2. Limit
         1. Reduce the Magnitude and Complexity of the Stimulation
         2. Locate Individuals  or sections who require attention

• Decontextualize / Remediate

1. 1. 1. The conductor asks performers to complete a sequence of tasks toward the goal of remediating the identified problem and thus improving the quality of the overall performance
         1. Determine how far out of context to rehearse
            1. Slow Practice
            2. Partial Practice (only a few measures, i.e.) – if reducing the amount of measures played, consider starting prior to the issue to determine whether the transition is the real issue, and continue a measure or two after the target.
            3. Altered Practice (slur instead of staccato, or on neutral vowel instead of text)
            4. Related Exercise (vocalises or etudes which incorporate the technique)
         2. If the limited section has not adequately performed the target within 2 or 3 repetitions, then further reducing simplicity is required. Repetitions without any sign of improvement are counterproductive to the goal, as repeated mistakes in practice reinforce repeated mistakes in performance.
      2. Encourage Transfer through Successive Approximations
         1. Take the performers through a sequence of repetitions that progress from the limited target to the performance target. For instance, if you limited the target by greatly reducing the tempo, progress through various tempos until the performers can play consistently at the target tempo.
      3. Demonstrate the Target
         1. The limited ensemble demonstrates that they can perform the target successfully and independently, still out of context of the full ensemble.

• Recontextualize

1. 1. The identified problem is performed in its original context by the full ensemble. This step is imperative to completing the rehearsal frames process and allowing the brain that final part of the Gestalt theory – making sense of the whole.

Note: One of the least helpful strategies that conductors use often is to provide disapproval or a correction without an opportunity to implement the correction. Humans need to practice in order to change behavior, and corrective words are only words until they are paired with an opportunity to attempt the change and receive further feedback about the attempt’s success.

1-2-3 Teaching Patterns and Feedback

Conductor feedback is a crucial aspect to effecting change in the ensemble. While the rehearsal frames sequence provides a powerful structure to rehearsal, the manner in which the conductor responds to the individual performance episodes provides the most impactful stimulus for approaching the fantasy performance.

We can categorize conductor ensemble interactions into 3 steps, referred to in education contexts as 1-2-3 Teaching Patterns:

1. Conductor Instruction
2. Musician Response
3. Conductor Feedback
   1. Approval/Disapproval
   2. Specific / Vague
   3. Related or not to the initial instruction

Conductors and teachers who engage this three step teaching pattern argue that it matters not what the musicians do in step two – it really only matters how the conductor/teacher responds. Responses to performers are most effective when they contain specific feedback that is related to the initial instruction. Unrelated feedback is a bait and switch tactic with the ensemble. For instance, an instruction has been given regarding tone but feedback concerns phrasing. Especially early in the rehearsal process when cognitive load (the amount of new stimuli the brain can process) is high, unrelated feedback is demotivating to musicians whose focus of attention was elsewhere (hopefully on the conductor’s initial instruction).

Conductor Dr. Tucker Biddlecombe, director of Choral Activities at Vanderbilt University, developed an elegantly simple feedback scale to both quantify and qualify conductor feedback. Biddlecombe, T. (2012). Assessing and Enhancing Feedback of Choral Conductors Through Analysis and Training. International Journal of Research in Choral Singing, 4(1), 2-18.

The scale categorizes responses on a linear scale, which progress from severe disapproval on the left to robust approval on the right.

Nonspecific Feedback:

This scale’s linear progression highlights an interesting quality associated with nonspecific feedback. Notice that specific and nonspecific feedback are not symmetrical in their relationship to 0: nonspecific positive is a +1, while a nonspecific negative is a -2. The feedback generally progresses to a more positive connotation as you move from left to right. Nonspecific negative is generally unhelpful, as it points out that something is wrong, without any details about what is wrong or how to fix it.  Nonspecific positive feedback is usually offered before telling the ensemble what to fix. The conductor stops the rehearsal, offers “Good!” and then proceeds to say what to work on next…. But what was good? If you paused and asked each member of the ensemble what was good, they would probably all say something different. (Personal aside: In fact, this exact situation happened to the author in graduate school – I stopped the ensemble, said “Good!”, and my professor paused and went down the front row of the ensemble asking what they thought I was referring to. Every person had a different response! This was a moment I’ll never forget, and truly illustrated how crucial specific feedback is to keeping an ensemble focused on the same thing at the same time. Additionally, watching video of those rehearsals demonstrated that I said “Good!” with the same pitch and duration (high and short) every time I stopped an ensemble, effectively reducing that feedback to filler.)  So while nonspecific positive feedback tends to be useless filler,  nonspecific negative feedback actually reduces morale. When you tell an ensemble they are mistaken/imprecise/flawed without any specifics about how or why, there is no direction for where to go next. The conductor’s leadership role requires offering direction, which the nonspecific negative feedback effectively eliminates. However, nonspecific feedback may be appropriate when the instructions before a rehearsal attempt were precise, or if you’ve been rehearsing the same target for multiple repetitions and the ensemble very clearly understands the goal.

Specific Feedback

Specific feedback, both positive and negative, provides clear focus for the direction of rehearsal. Negative feedback, when given calmly and with explicit detail about what to address next, is necessary for productive rehearsal. Even better when that specific feedback is accompanied by a rehearsal strategy or teaching tool to allow the ensemble members to focus on the target. Specific positive feedback increases retention between repetitions, as musicians know specifically what to repeat next time. Often when conductors first make a concerted effort to include specific details when offering feedback, they use more words than necessary. You do not have to sacrifice quickly paced rehearsals to include specifics:  “Great tone!” is enough.

Anomalous Feedback

The 3s on the scale are anomalous moments of feedback, where the director demonstrates a stark change in behavior and pauses the momentum of the rehearsal to deliver a hearty approval or a stern criticism. Anomalous (out of character) indicates that these types of feedback should be used rarely. Novelty engenders high attention in humans, so rarity in certain times of feedback can be very powerful – musicians will distinctly retain those high positives and negatives. Use judiciously and thoughtfully. +3’s are especially useful as the ensemble approaches exhaustion from deep concentration or a long period of cognitive load or physical effort.

Black Dot and Star

For a conductor who values the common humanity of their ensemble, the black dot moments should simply be avoided. A short temper resulting in personal attacks or physical outbursts may improve performance in the very short term, but the long term ramifications are dire. The resulting poor morale, fear, and anger are not only adverse to the creation of beautiful music, they are likely not factors that drove you to become a conductor in the first place. The -3 is distinctly different from the black dot. While the negative three indicates an urgent need to fix something, the black dot simply attacks a human. Avoid at all costs.

The star, on the other hand, likely encapsulates every reason you became a musician. The aesthetic response to music – chills, tears, shared satisfaction after a tremendous performance – is impossible to legislate, (“We’re going to have an aesthetic response on Friday at 2pm…”) but fundamental to the very nature of humanity. When you experience an aesthetic response, stop and revel. Call it out! While these moments happen most often in performance, aesthetic moments during rehearsal can hold equally high magnitude and deserve the spotlight.

Frequency vs. Magnitude

Each point on the scale lives in an inverse relationship between frequency and magnitude. Feedback that is given with high frequency hold little magnitude, due to its regularity and familiarity. However, small, incremental changes, or baby steps towards a goal, can move the target quite effectively. Low magnitude, frequent feedback is the staple of an efficient, effective rehearsal. As stated earlier, nonspecific feedback is least effective, so should be used quite rarely. The most frequently applied feedback should be specific (positive or negative.) Feedback that pauses the pace of instruction (+/- 3), should be less frequent in order to hold greater magnitude and maintain a briskly paced rehearsal. Black dots, as previously stated, are to be avoided at all costs. Star moments will be those which hold the greatest magnitude and sustain musicians through the sometimes grueling process of rehearsing towards greatness.

About the author

name: Lesley Mann

institution: Belmont University

Lesley Maxwell Mann serves as the Coordinator of Music Education at Belmont University, where she teaches Secondary Choral Methods, Conducting, and Middle School Methods, supervises pre-service teachers, and directs Bel Canto. Dr. Mann’s teaching career spans roles at the College of Central Florida and William R. Boone High School. A versatile vocalist, she has performed with Vocal Arts Nashville and Walt Disney World. A proud alumna of Florida State University with degrees in Choral Conducting and Music Education, her research focuses on Teacher Education, Conducting Gesture, and Vocal Technique in Choral Settings.