Sometimes I think I’m not enough of a jerk in rehearsals.
Wait, that’s not right. Sometimes I think that my rehearsals don’t have enough jerk.
Jerk, in physics, is the rate of change of acceleration. Just as acceleration is the rate of change of velocity, and velocity is the rate of change of position.
Velocity is how fast we master new music.
Acceleration is the change in our rate of mastery – so, how much faster we grow in March than we did in October.
Jerk is how fast we get better at mastering music.
My ensembles are both moving at a quick clip now, mastering music so much more quickly than at the beginning of the year. But did we have enough jerk? Could the ensemble have gotten to this pace in January instead of March? In December?
I think that an ensemble’s jerk really depends on a director’s knowledge of what the ensemble is capable of, and then holding them to it.
Do you need to be a jerk to push an ensemble to achieve their potential? Absolutely not. Do you need to increase the jerk? Definitely.