Know how to recognize that.
Sometimes I’m talking to the whole ensemble. Sometimes I’m talking to one person through the ensemble, so they don’t feel singled out. Sometimes it’s in between.
To know whether I’m talking to you, you have to be engaged in the rehearsal. You have to have skills of self-assessment, and an ability to listen to the entire ensemble to hear what I’m hearing.
If I say, “Tenors, can you make the tone brighter here?” then you can ask yourself:
- What’s the overall brightness of the tenor section?
- Where do I fit compared to the overall? Am I brighter? Darker?
- Does my tone tend towards brighter? Then maybe it’s not me. Darker? Maybe I should adjust.
- What made the director say that? Is it vowel, or blend, or tuning?
I want to be the singer who is anticipating where the conductor is going, so I can get there faster. And I want to be the conductor whose ensemble moves as one entity. Knowing who the director is talking to is an essential part of crafting a nimble ensemble.