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Re: Chair Placement?

Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2016-08-30 23:35

I conduct a small (40-45 piece) youth wind ensemble for a local organization that includes 3 wind ensembles (of progressive ability - mine is in the middle), 2 orchestras and 3 young string ensembles as well as several chamber groups. I also coach a young clarinet quartet (grades 6-7 from the younger band).

I've always moved the clarinetists in my wind ensemble around among the parts, but have had one strong player whom I kept in the 1st chair. Even then, I have assigned the solo passages to different players, so 1st chair is more a visual perk than a musical one. Usually, I haven't had the 6-8 players physically move - they are all sitting near enough to each (in two rows) other to hear the other parts.

In the clarinet quartet I make sure to rotate the players through different parts for each piece, which means I need to have at least four pieces in the repertoire at any given time.

I do need to be more careful about who is assigned to the top parts when there's real difficulty involved. Realistically, some of the kids do play better than others. But by making sure even the weakest players get a chance to be "first" on something within their ability for success, I think they all benefit.

The top orchestra in the organization actually rotates the entire two violin sections - each of the two sections play 1st for half of the program and 2nd for the other half.

I think mixing things up this way works well. It's a little more work for the director but more kids feel ownership of the performance.

Karl

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Chair Placement? new

Matt74

2016-08-30 19:29