My 4 Steps to an Effective Rehearsal

Several years ago a parent came up to me at the conclusion of a band concert with a question. "It is amazing how much the students have learned! Some of that music seems so complicated, how did you do it!" I had to pause for a moment before answering the question. After all, I spent four years of college, plus many years of experience as a musician to learn how to take kids from opening the case at the beginning of the year to a polished performance. How could I answer "how did you do it?" in just a short conversation. Then it occurred to me. I told the parent, "I did it by teaching them one thing at a time."


In my university training I took a course called "Video Micro-Rehearsal" in which we worked on this "one thing at a time" technique. We used a 3 step process in that class in which we taught one thing at a time: set, follow-through, response. I added a fourth step to the process for the purpose of teaching good rehearsal habits to my students at that is "STOP" between the follow-through step, and the response step. Another instructor summed up the steps like this: "Tell them what to do (set), let them do it (follow-through), tell them how they did (response).

Let's look at each of the four steps of the process in turn:


Step One "Tell Them What To Do":

This seems simple enough. Before you want your band to play something, you need to tell them what you want them to play, but if you want them to actually learn something you need to go a bit deeper. Simply telling them to play the same song over and over again will not do. We could go a step closer into what appears to be rehearsal by asking them to play specific parts of a piece that may be problematic. But if we truly expect them to learn anything, we must make that instruction more specific. It is not enough to have them start at letter B and hope that any problems might fix themselves; instead we must ask them to start at letter B and properly subdivide the dotted rhythms, or articulate the beginning of each set of slurred notes clearly.

Just as I told that parent after the concert those years ago, I teach by teaching them one thing at a time. Sometimes, upon hearing my band play something that they don't know well the number of things that need fixing is a bit overwhelming. If I were to ask the students to "begin at measure 22 make sure that you play all of the B's flat, mind the piano dynamic marking at 24, listen to the background part in 27 so that you can properly subdivide the rhythms in the melody,...." they would easily be so overwhelmed that they would remember little more than "begin at measure 24" if they remembered even that. In video micro rehearsal we called this a "split set." However, if I were to work on each of the many things in that split set one at a time, not only would the students absporb each of these concepts in turn, it is also possible that some of the simpler problems may fix themselves through the repetition of the passage while working on the more complex things "one at a time."


Step Two: "Let them do it."

This is what we called "follow-through" in video mirco-rehearsal. Again this one sounds like a no-brainer. Have you ever in rehearsal told your band about some nuance in measure 216 only to then instruct them to begin at measure 227? We called this one a "broken set" we told them what to do in 216, but we never "let them do it." Music is a skill that is best learned by actualy doing it. We could lecture our bands about rhythm, tone quality, intonation, articulation, and nuance all day long, but if we never let them do it, it is unlikely they would grasp any of these concepts. Imagine coaching a football team and teaching them a play in the dressing room, but never letting them try it on the field until a game. It is unlikely they will be able to properly execute the play.

Step Three: "Stop."

Obviously the music will stop eventually, and most condcutors have a good sense of pacing so that they know when to stop. I have included this as one of my four steps for the benefit of the students. Of the four steps this is the one that they students must be most responsible for. When the conductor signals the cut-off, the students must stop, look, and listen so they are ready to hear stop four. If the stop doesn't happen, or doesn't happen quickly enough, the students will have forgotten what you told them to do it step one, or what they actually did in step two, so that step four will have very little relevence.

Step Four: "Tell them how they did."

We called this "response" in VMR. In order for this response to really do any more than a verbal pat on the back, you need to make sure that the response has some relevence to the set that you gave back in step one. If I tell them to articulate more clearly in step one, then in step four I must tell them how well they articulated, not just tell them "good job." If I tell them to observe the key signature and play all of those A's flat because we are in the key of E flat, "well done," will not suffice. I'll need to tell them "That's right, it sounds so much more like the key of E flat when we play those A's flat!"

It's this process of teaching just "one thing at a time" that gets the band from making those first unpleasant squakings in september for a musically pleasing performance come concert time.

Most successful concuctors use a process an awful lot like this whether they know it or not. I have choosen in my rehearsals to not just use the process, but teach it to the students as well. In the first week of school (and as often as is required for review during the year) I deliberately teach my rehearsal process to the students as well as their specific responsibilities during each step. When they are aware of what the steps are, they are less likely to add their own extra steps. Does your rehearsal every look like this:

1. Tell the students what to do
2. The students talk until the band director yells at them
3. The students play something resembling the direction given in step 1
4. The students stop playing and talk amongst themselves until the band director shouts at them
5. Tell the students how they did.

Teaching the students how you intend to do things can solve this and make your rehearsals more effective.