Klarinet Archive - Posting 000085.txt from 2009/03

From: "Lelia Loban" <lelialoban@-----.net>
Subj: [kl]Getting lost during rehearsal
Date: Sun, 15 Mar 2009 09:24:32 -0400

Gary Truesdail's band student asked him,
>>I was wondering if maybe you would address the issue to the band about
getting lost.>>

Gary, I thought nearly all of your answers to her were excellent. In
particular, the orchestra and band directors in the schools where I grew up
(in the days of the dinosaurs) also let kids who got lost take some some
time to get on the same page before stopping and re-starting the whole
group. I agree with you that figuring these things out on our own when we
can is a useful part of learning to play in a group and I think you're right
to give the ensemble a chance to re-group instead of just smacking the baton
on the stand and roaring for silence the minute someone's out of sync.

My violin-playing husband's adult amateur chamber music partners all learned
the same policy over the years. (He plays three or four times a week with
groups that rotate locations and personnel as a sort of musical floating
craps game). Getting lost is fairly rare among those people because they're
all good musicians, but sometimes it happens, especially during sight
reading (and more especially when Brahms goes nuts with the syncopation).
Anybody who gets lost gets about three or four bars to flounder before
someone starts rhythmically yelling, for instance, "Bar EIGHT-one AND three
AND four...!" Generally the group won't stop cold unless the pianist stops
or one of the strings starts waving the bow in the air and loudly begging
for mercy. As in golf, it's up to the perpetrator to call the foul.

But one paragraph in your response did strike me as odd:
>>3. Players of like instruments that are not sitting together
>>are not helping each other in times of insecurity (or getting
>>lost, weather it is their fault or not), nor can they create a
>>collective balance for their section. We currently have that
>>situation on the Euphonium section. I sure wish you guys
>>would sit together.

Why do you have to resort to wishing? These are kids, right? This is a
school classroom? As the teacher and conductor, isn't it up to you to
*tell* the euphs where to sit? You could solve that part of the problem
right now by making seat assignments. They can decide where to sit when
they're old enough to vote.

Lelia Loban
http://members.sibeliusmusic.com/Lelia_Loban

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