Everybody's Doing It
It’s a typical rehearsal. The choir is divided along the standard normal distribution curve. There are singers who are physically engaged and almost unnervingly attentive. There’s a bulk of the singers who are ranging from above average to “almost there.” There are a few singers who are... not quite with us.
Before we go any further, let’s assume good intent. Of course everyone has a bad day. Maybe those singers who are off-course are having bad days. Maybe they are confused but embarrassed to ask questions. For the purposes of this bite, we aren’t going to question motives. We are simply going to address behaviors.
There are many behaviors that set up success as a choir singer. Good posture, proper breath management, vowel formation, impeccable diction, the visual tracking of music, appropriately marking the score, and paying attention to the director are among them. That’s a lot of stuff to do! Frankly, it’s difficult. No wonder singers can sometimes either miss out on one of these components or find it difficult to do them all well. Nonetheless, it’s imperative that everyone tries.
One thing that I have found effective is to ask the choir, “If everyone in here was doing things they way YOU are doing them, would the choir improve, stay the about the same, or get worse? In other words, what if we traded this choir for 50 of YOU?”
Of course I could say “great job” to some of the singers (and I do), or “everyone please fix X, Y, and Z,” (and I do) but by listing the many ways a singer must be involved in rehearsal and then asking THAT QUESTION... it’s a different vibe. It’s non-threatening. It inspires introspection and self-evaluation. It brings focus to the fact that every singer has value, and their contribution matters. It also highlights each singers’ responsibility to the group as a whole, again in a non-threatening way.
Another way to approach this is to ask “What if I (THE DIRECTOR) approached this rehearsal the way YOU are? Would you get more of what you need or less? I’m on this team. What level of engagement do YOU expect from ME?”
Everyone has a job to do. What’s good for ONE is good for ALL, and everybody’s gotta do it.
