Rehearsal In the Round
Posted by dougbutchy on November 4, 2010
Earlier this week, I was trying to come up with ways to help my ensembles to become better listeners. Most of the students in the groups (both Senior High and Jr. High) are pretty good individual musicians, but I have found that they are lacking in good listening skills. They do not yet fully comprehend how to listen to something other than themselves when playing in an ensemble.
In an effort to “shake things up,” I used a technique that I had used in the past. I asked the students to get up out of their seats and go and sit by someone who did not play the same instrument as them. Of course they were excited to do so, as many of them got to sit by their friends, and it was something different. But aside from that, this was truly a great learning experience for them and me.
The first thing that I think we all noticed was that the band did not sound nearly as good as usual. I believe this is due to several factors. First, those in the group that tend to “hide” behind the better players in their section were not able to do so. Second, since they were not able to sit with their sections they were much more timid with entrances and just playing their parts in general.
However, I found this exercise to be beneficial, as it forced them to hear other parts of the ensemble that they had never heard before. Hopefully, this will lead to better listening across the ensemble during rehearsals and performances.
This led me to another idea. I had often heard of this, but never tried it. I thought that another neat way to get the students to hear others in the ensemble would be to put them in a circle. I had to have two rows due to the number of students I have and the space constraints, but I still think it achieved it’s purpose. I had upper woodwinds in the inner circle and the brasses and saxophones in the outer circle. Unfortunately, I had to leave the percussion where they usually are. I still had the students sit in sections, because I think it’s important for them to be able to hear their section. But, now we were all facing each other, and playing at each other. I stood in the center. Again, I believed this helped the students to hear each other better, and since we have been working on balance and blend in the last several weeks, this worked really well. They were able to hear across the group, and throughout the rehearsal, their blend and balance truly improved.
Another interesting thing I noted from my perspective in the center of the circle was that I was able to hear parts better. Usually we are in curved rows, four deep. I find it difficult to hear those trombone and trumpet parts sometimes when they are sitting in the back of the ensemble. The circle seating arrangement allowed me to hear more clearly what was going on. Additionally, I had much better proximity to every student and section in the group, which I liked. It was almost a more intimate setting.
We kept the chairs set up like this for a few days. I obviously would not leave them like this permanently, but it will be great to do from time to time. I am anxious to hear what the group will sound like tomorrow back in our “normal” seating arrangement.
Overall, it was a great exercise for the students and myself. I will definitely come back to this from time to time!
November 4th, 2010 at 4:58 pm
I remember doing this when I was in high school. Sitting next to different instruments definitely helped. You hear the other parts and learn whether to play louder, softer, when you come in, etc. It’s like muscle memory for the ears.
November 10th, 2010 at 12:55 am
I use this rehearsal technique at least once before every performance with most of my groups – as you note it is great for waking up the students ears and letting them hear different parts. It can be really useful for the conductor to get out from the middle of the circle and walk around (as otherwise you always have your back to someone). This encourages the band to start themselves off, breathe together and take more responsibility for the music in general.
Challenging activities (as part of the warm up) for the circle are “passing around” the tuning note (or any given pitch) where at a set tempo each person plays a pitch for one whole count, tenuto, before the person next to them takes over – it should be seamless so that only the timbre and octave change. This is an excellent exercise for creating agreement on tone quality and intonation (and pitching for younger brass). From this you can then progress to passing around a scale (much harder, they have to be very good at passing one note first!!).
There are lots of variations of this that are fun:
1) Large circle, sit anywhere – Get them to sit with their stand partner, but not in their section. They truly get to hear things they haven’t heard before, but it also forces them to still listen across the circle for the other members of their section. In this way it actually strengthens their section playing.
2) Concentric circles (what you did due to space) – get different kids to sit in different circles.
3) Multiple small circles – set up lots of small circles (I do mixed instruments, but you could do each section as a circle) all facing inwards and get them to all start together (more advanced, but they’ll come away with lots of learning!). I’ve seen a middle school band pick this up very quickly.
4) Single outward facing circle – I have only done this once as a player and I’m not sure of the value as much as the other set ups as you feel much more isolated, but boy you listen so hard it’s as if your ears will catch fire!
February 8th, 2011 at 10:10 pm
Hey Doug!
Rehearsals in the round are such a nice change of pace. It does take some emphasis off “chair placement” and allows students some more choice in rehearsal while at the same time forcing them to listen to parts they might not normally attend to. Friends pair up – which is good for morale and synergy. I have done this with some frequency over the course of rehearsals to change rehearsal atmosphere, pacing, structure – even did it once while getting observed (I thought we had a great rehearsal, but it was deemed too “outside the box”…I did point out it was a circle…but I digress). After we get done with one song, I will ask them to change again and find someone different to sit next to.
Percussion can always be an issue because we would like them to attend to other parts. Earlier this year when we did it – with quite a bit of effort we moved the percussion to the exterior. In certain songs where auxilary percussion played a more prominent role, we relocated them to right in the middle next to their best friend in the band – the director.
Great ideas Doug! Continue to write, inspire, and move our profession ahead!