Conductor's Notebook
Writings, including academic papers and music criticism, as well as videos, audio, notes, and other content.
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Essay
…This is the type of practical analysis that interests me: the kind that aims squarely at enhancing the performer’s ability to consistently perform a desired shape. Tabuteau accomplishes this by first asking the performer to extending her mind - “offloading” musical thoughts onto the score for safekeeping. But it isn’t merely a way to store information; it is also a way to refine our musical thinking in the first place.
…With this view of the classroom came other ideas: that students are empty vessels to be filled; that students just need to sit still in order to learn…. However, even as the Wachowskis were writing, selling, and filming The Matrix, the first stirrings of a new milieu around human cognition and music education… these new ideas portrayed students… as capable (en)actors and co-creators of knowledge and skill…
According to Preston Smith (no relation), the core aspects of comedy improv include:
1. Listen – As simple as this seems, it is probably one of the most difficult skills to master. Listening will free you from having to think of what you are going to say a head of time.
2. Agreement (Yes, And…) – Assuming you have listened, you will be able to agree with what was said AND add information. Agreement is what allows a scene to progress!
3. Team Work (Group Mind) – Improv is a vast mechanism of give and take and support. The group mind is greater then the individual.
… students can get a diploma in music from a reputable institution without ever receiving any training in rehearsal technique…. It’s just not a thing.
It is for the conductor to decide, but how can a conductor know? Some of this boils down to expertise, having a plan, and having an easy-to-read clock to help stay on the plan. That said, it’s helpful to have some idea of what the norms look like, perhaps with a heuristic or model or guidepost.
. There are at least three categories of activity to think through on paper when aiming at professional reflection:
What worked/didn’t work this time?
What should we work on next rehearsal/class?
What should I work on in the meantime to improve my rehearsal technique/teaching?
“No, it’s not a record,” not really. It’s working. You have to work on paper and this is the paper. Okay?”
— Richard Feynman
There is a terrific new article in American String Teacher (produced by the American String Teachers Association) called “The Case for Rehearsing at Performance Tempo.” In it, author and teacher Paul Trapkus discusses a common solution applied by many conductors to improving difficult technical passages, that of working under tempo.
