I’m watching a play for the third night in a row. But I’m seeing it for the first time.
At least, my challenge to myself is to watch it like I’m seeing it for the first time. Of course, that’s a challenge that directors face – only several orders of magnitude greater.
If you don’t watch it like it’s the first time, you’re liable to miss things – poor diction you still understand because you already know what they’re saying, say, or fast plot pacing that will lose the audience but not you, because you know what’s coming.
Learning to watch objectively is an essential skill for directors, and not an easy one to develop. And it’s also one to bring into the choral rehearsal room.
Diction faces the same problems in a choral ensemble as in a play. But also consider: listen for tempo as if it’s your first time hearing the piece; listen for balance, listen for tuning, listen for musical phrasing. In all cases, we can risk hearing what we expect to hear rather than what is actually happening.
Take a page from theatre directors and listen to your choir like you’re hearing them for the first time. See what you hear!