I sometimes think my fatal weakness in rehearsal is my instinct to widen the scope. I am all too willing to pivot from talk about a specific issue to a reflection on principles and ideas. I know other conductors who are able to stay vigilantly focused on the specific goals of the day.
I think it’s my fatal weakness but I also think it’s a strength.
It’s a weakness because it takes time away from the task at hand. Could that time be used to fix issues? Certainly.
It’s a strength because after the next concert is done, the music will be put away. But the ideas will remain, and if I can spend time using specifics to spur thinking about bigger ideas, then I’m building success on a much longer time scale than the concert season.
So I go back and forth; reining in my instinct to widen, and then letting the reins back out.
What about you? How do you decide this balance? And what’s your fatal weakness in rehearsal?