Pick a Card
PICK A CARD
Recently, I was looking for something fresh to do with my a cappella group, Eleventh Hour. They are a small group, and part of what makes them successful is being trained towards independence. I allow them a voice in picking music, setting a show order, and what projects we do.
This is a wonderful thing... until it isn’t. Sometimes you get groups that aren’t used to that level of responsibility, or just can’t seem to agree much. They aren’t bad students, but they are students after all.
One thing that my current EH suffers from is paralysis by analysis. That is to say, they search for the “perfect answer” and so don’t suggest anything. It slows the process down.
For a recent rehearsal, I labeled several index cards with defined tasks and time limits. I also threw in some “fun” cards. Examples are:
-10 minutes: pick the next two songs you want to sing
-10 minutes: name three projects you are most passionate about
-5 minutes: each person name a song they could solo well
-5 minutes: each person say out loud something they like about this group
-5 minutes: listen to a newly-mixed song from our upcoming album
-10 minutes: rehearse “Change Is Gonna Come”
We started rehearsal and they had no idea. We went in no order. Whatever they picked is what we did, against a timer. Time’s up? New card! Not only was it fun, but with a time limit, they quickly came to consensus on the topics that required their input. I took away the option of spinning their wheels.
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On the heels of this success, I did a similar plan with my middle school chorus. This time, the cards were more geared towards a general rehearsal:
-10 minutes: rhythm sight reading
-10 minutes: solfege sight reading
-5 minutes: play “Simon Says”
...and so on.
In both cases I found that the anticipation of “what’s on the next card?” combined with a time-limited task created focus, urgency, energy and joy. Since the director is in charge of the cards, a productive agenda is guaranteed!
There are many ways you could use this trick in your rehearsals, perhaps even to the point of having some student-created cards. How can you shake up rehearsal and have some productive fun? PICK A CARD
