I’m playing nightly Scrabble games with two precocious young people these days, and I’ve been reminded of the most common trap in Scrabble. It’s focusing entirely too closely on the letters in your rack and not enough on fluidly reacting to the board and the words played on it.
Of course your seven tiles are crucial. But they’re not singularly crucial. Finding a place to play, using available letters on the board in combination – these are just as significant.
Of course the music you select for your ensemble is crucial. But it’s not singularly crucial. Ensemble cohesiveness, musical skills, and 1,000 other considerations are just as significant.
And I could write the same paragraph for every aspect of ensemble leading that I have focused my attention on over my career. Each one is vital, but only as it relates to every other one.