Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2019-05-16 21:16
I do check my phone for texts and, when the Phillies are playing, the game score (not the play-by-play) during rehearsals *if and only if* I have enough time on my hands with nothing to play to manage it. That means a tacet movement, a string passage that the conductor is drilling, a really long block rest in music I know well enough not to have to count measures before my next entrance...
I do think it's disrespectful of the conductor to be checking a phone while he is talking to the entire orchestra, and it's disrespectful of colleagues to try to jam in a quick look when there isn't enough time so that you miss playing something.
More than quick checks for emails and texts, my biggest phone annoyance as the conductor of a local youth band (older middle school and high school players) is playing games on the phone. It's beyond annoying to have a player miss an entrance because he/she is so involved in a game that entrances are completely forgotten. This, I think, is more typical of students than of adults in community bands and orchestras.
You didn't ask about concerts, but I'll add that phones shouldn't be anywhere in sight during a performance. And that includes using them as tuners (which, notwithstanding the possible exception of Ursa's tuba player, I think is a universally bad idea).
Karl
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