I thought we had an excellent rehearsal yesterday. we concentrated and focused on just a couple of tricky spots. These spots were tricky for they both involve some awkward notes to play, and extreme dynamic ranges.
But by the end of the rehearsal, I thought both spots became comprehensible and manageable. I hope you guys keep working on those spots on your own though, because these are NOT something that will stick with you after just a couple of hours of work.
We still need to work on listening to each other. Certain things can become manageable just by listening to your fellow section-mates play, or listening to other parts of orchestra to see how your part fits in in relation to them. I did notice these things happening a little bit. But I want this kind of thing to be second nature for everyone in this orchestra. Continue your practice with a metronome.
My thoughts that were inspired by yesterday's rehearsal is this:
In an orchestra situation, often times, the easiest part that you have can easily become the hardest part for the whole orchestra. When you have a long held note, or a bunch of repeated notes in the same rhythm, or just quarter notes on every other beat, or even a rest(!), it is soooo easy for us to zone out. And when we zone out, we are not listening, and we are not concentrating, and not thinking about well, anything, and certainly not about playing together with the other players. We think it's easy, therefore we think we can afford to zone out. When we have rests and long notes, and we zone out, we are not able to come back in with accurate rhythm. When we have easy notes, and we zone out, we get off from one another, and you won't even notice because you are not listening.
I am saying this because we were getting off every time someone had an "easy" part!
Unfortunately, there is no "easy part" in orchestra. There is no such thing. It does NOT exist. I believe that in most educational environment today, and especially in this country, there is not a whole lot of emphasis on group effort, and how to work as a unit, a team, and it is so easy for us to look at our own part and say "my part is easy" and dismiss the whole effort. But the way it SHOULD work is that, if you have an easier part to play, then you should be more responsible for unifying the group. You should be the one leading the group in rhythm, balance, sonority, articulation, and intonation. You should be the one "listening" the MOST.
I've only encountered musicians who complain about how easy their parts are in educational environments, and never in a professional setting. I believe that is because those people who do so in professional environments do not last very long as a "pro".
When we make music, our intentions are to make "good" music. And that means always listening and thinking "what can I do better to make this orchestra I belong to, sound better". Repeated eighth notes can be played in one-hundred different ways, which one is best suited for this particular moment of this particular piece, am I providing a good rhythmic foundation, am I in tune with ____ (a section of orchestra), is my sound providing the right character for this piece, am I too loud/soft, etc etc etc.... These are questions you can always be asking yourself.
And I hate to say it, but it is quite obvious for a listener to know whether this person in the orchestra have practiced this "easy" spot or not. So you must practice everything, no matter how easy it may seem. And when you practice easier spots, you can practice them at a higher level!
Next week, we will have another sectionals! Again. come in with full of technical questions!
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