In rehearsal, don’t start by offering a solution to a problem.
I’m going to spend some time tomorrow brainstorming strategies for improving some things in rehearsal tomorrow.
But first, we have to agree on the problem. I think that too often we, as educators, tend to focus on solving a problem before we’ve gotten every student to agree on it.
Some students might not agree it’s a problem. Others might definite the problem in different way. Still others might not even be aware that something is a problem.
This is true for so many aspects of our music-making. From vowel matching to dynamic choices to accurate rhythms and pitches to balance to tempo to behavior….if we don’t stop and first say, “This is the problem I hear. Do you agree?” then we’ll never get to a solution the entire group is invested in.
Early conducting, ear training, and education courses place a necessary focus on error detection in an ensemble. But unless we can get an ensemble to really hear it with us, they’ll have trouble correcting it.
Start by agreeing on the problem.