What is your “worry priority” in rehearsal?
I led my annual marathon reading session tonight – 45ish songs in 4 1/2 hours (with breaks).
As I reflect, I’m thinking about this question: What do you stop for?
First, we stop for student needs – if they don’t understand something, need extra support. They’re students learning and we help them.
Second, we stop for if we’re in different places – in the score, in our sense of time, etc. But only if it’s far apart enough to not be recoverable. Because we want to practice that recovery.
Third, we stop if there’s any kind of egregious error in parts that needs to be fixed. A missing sign, disagreement about form, something like that.
Beyond that, we want to keep going at all costs. Because the rehearsal is already long enough, but also because we want to practice righting the ship as we go, because that’s what we’ll do in performance tomorrow.
Mistakes happen, and with professionals, the best strategy is to keep going. That’s how we get back on the same page, making music on the fly.