Don’t Shoot ‘til You See the Blanks in Their Eyes!
Dr. Don R. Campbell
How often have we as directors marveled at how well a rehearsal went—or, conversely, how badly another one went? Both rehearsals had the same guys, essentially the same music, and fortunately or unfortunately the same director.
One way to increase the number and frequency of exciting and productive rehearsals is to communicate to the chorus the plan and goals for the evening. Educators call this “set theory.” Learning takes place more efficiently when the educator and learner are mutually clear about what is expected. Don’t assume the chorus knows what those plans and goals are. Each man comes to the rehearsal with his own set of issues. Our initial job is to focus the collective mind of the chorus on improving as many aspects of the craft as possible. I don’t know about you, but when I get on a plane, I like to know the pilot is headed for the same place I am. In the same way, the chorus needs to know where you are going.
What I’m talking about is more than listing the songs of the evening. What would you like to do with each song? Have you thought of the unique problems each song presents in terms of chord progressions, awkward voice leading, pronunciation problems, key changes, tonal concepts, mood, and interpretation? Have you isolated the most pressing problem or do you “shoot from the hip” and try to correct anything you hear at the moment?
Below are some suggestions for communication the learning “set” for either the evening’s rehearsal or an individual song.
- “You are doing great in each of the section in ‘Song A.’ Let’s see what we can do to smooth out the transitions between each.”
- “We all know how necessary it is to tuning to have us all agree on how to shape our vowels. Let’s sing measures 9-16 making sure the ‘ohs’ look like ‘ohs’ and the ‘ees’ look like ‘ees.’ You’ll be amazed at what happens to the sound.”
- “Our main focus tonight is to develop the flow of the show. We’re doing great on the songs individually—it’s time to see how they connect.”
- “We are going to introduce two new songs tonight for our show. Let’s read them through so you can get an idea of the challenges. Then we’ll break into section rehearsals.”
- I listened to the tape of last week’s rehearsal on “Song B.” Let’s see what we can do to make the ending consonants cleaner.”
These suggestions are by no means exhaustive. As you think about how to “set up” the learning, remember to keep your comments short, positive, and focused on working together to raise the quality of the chapter step by step.
-DRC