Please, never do this
In the area of
Conductor Musical Shortcomings;
Please never:
In the area of
Conductor Behavior & Attitudes;
Please never:
In the area of
Rehearsal Techniques
Please never:
In the area of
Conductor Musical Shortcomings;
Please never:
- Make the student/orchestra feel as if their progress is a by-product of the teacher's/conductor's marvelous work.
- Step in front of us if you don't know the score well enough. We can tell, and it really turns us off when a conductor blunders through a rehearsal. Just stay at home if you don't know the score.
- Feel too tired or overwhelmed to put your heart into the music.
- Auutomatically blame the students for a mistake but think of what you could do differently first and then help the students improve if that is the actual problem.
- Conduct like a robot.
- Tell a more advanced student that s/he isn't allowed to attempt more advanced fingerings, bowing, etc. because the other students are not able to.
- Get sloppy with the beats. If I can see beat one I can follow anything and focus more on dynamics. If I can't tell which beat is which, I get lost and I just want to go home.
- Ignore any instrument because you do not know that much about it. Instead, take the time to learn about it so you can help the students you typically would not spend as much time with.
- I hate when conductors ask people to play parts by themselves, unless its a section leader. Most conductors do that because they KNOW the person is unprepared, and I think that's mean and discouraging.
- Don't just come in and "wing it"; it happens from middle school to grad students at Juilliard; have a game-plan for rehearsal. When you don't, we notice, and turn off.
In the area of
Conductor Behavior & Attitudes;
Please never:
- Lose your temper at the students.
- Break your baton and throw it at us. (Yes, I have seen this happen).
- Demonstrate physical violence in any way (no chair throwing, no shoving, etc); if we're not doing really well, it's probably your fault.
- Be timid.
- Fail to achieve certain level of control. You will never get that control if your students don't respect you, and feel you don't have any control over them.
- Point out that a specific person is making a mistake. It's not productive to embarrass that person - it emits negative energy.
- Yell. All that does is create tension and kills the passion for the music being rehearsed.
- Tell us that we are wrong or act like we know nothing. Do not lounge around or not care ( what you do, we do). Do not leave us to figure out things that need a leaders help to figure out and do say make us feel discarded or not useful. And never say "Do not!" If you say e.g. Do not sit back, all of the students will hear sit back. Say sit up or be tall and proud.
- Ignore the golden rule.
- Switch roles in your mind. if you wouldn't want something done to you, more then likely, it's the same with us.
- Lose your temper, treat us as children, and treat us with a lack of respect.
- Go against your word.
- Be demeaning or under-appreciative of our time and effort. Sometimes bad days happen, and encouragement and a few laughs in rehearsals really brighten up the moods and attitudes in the room.
- Point one student out unless you know them and know that they are comfortable with it. It is the worst to have a fear of going to orchestra because of fear of embarrassment - this does not promote creativity and joy of music.
- Don't make any human being lose hope and confidence in themselves.
- Publicly humiliate anyone.
In the area of
Rehearsal Techniques
Please never:
- Let the players play from repetition and without emotion.
- Simply point out mistakes and not say how to fix them.
- Ignore the violas!
- Yell or raise your voice if we do not do something exactly to your liking.
- Do not begin rehearsal talking about the calendar/schedule/rehearsal schedule for 15 minutes. In the best run orchestra I have experienced, the rehearsal order is emailed out prior to the rehearsal with the expectation that those spots/pieces have received special practice attention and that the music is in that order upon arriving to rehearsal. This saves so much time!!
- As far as discussing the schedule, if this conversation must happen, do it at the end because I won't remember what you told me after rehearsing Tchaik for two hours.
- We play as an ensemble so please treat us as an ensemble.
- Tell us we can't do something. I was just told this by a teacher, I'm now on a vendetta to prove him wrong, but playing the piece is no longer enjoyable.
- Make your rules so strict and your classes so militant that the music isn't fun any more.
- We're in a creative mindset, so we're going to be more likely to talk and goof off because the mind is harder to control, but if we aren't allowed that, we can't be creative and the music won't be as good.
- Don't say or imply that a thing should be done just because you say so. If everyone knows why things are being done a certain way, they'll feel better connected to it.
- Change who you are to get us to like you or listen to you. Be yourself and show us you are proud of who you are.
- Keep conducting when the orchestra is lost.
- Overlook players in the back of the string sections, or in secondary woodwind/brass parts; the entire section is important and needs to play together.
- Lose your patience. This makes all the difference in the world!
- Say you're going to do something and then not follow through. If you tell the violas that you're going to hear measures 5-14 next week: DO IT! if you do not follow through, the members of your orchestra lose respect - even if it is only subconscious - and neither the music nor the mood will be good.
- Let the back of the section get away with anything- rotational seating is always a good solution for this even if you just flip the section for one rehearsal. Also, I enjoy when the conductor just randomly moves people around. It keeps players on their toes and its fun to watch the concertmaster get moved to the back every now and then!
