I think, as a child, even though I played tennis, I wanted to play team sports more, I thought that was more fun. And I always played doubles when I was on a tennis team. So that was part of the benefits of having me on the team, I suppose. And I feel a lot of kin… at least I try to do that, I think, in my own work. Maybe sometimes one of the greatest differences between being a coach and a teacher say is that you might be as a coach igniting things that people already know.
And so when I when I meet with a group, I will sometimes be really going through the score. This dynamic is different in this register or in this specific moment or harmonic indication than anyplace else.
Merry And then I do what I call a more organic type of coaching. And maybe the best way to do that is to give them some exercise to enhance their communication, and progressive listening or proactive listening, I should say.
Merry I wonder too, if coming back from not having been able to make music in person together for so long, will make us more cognizant of that, and maybe more sensitive to being with others. In the last three months as in, I actually did coach in person throughout the pandemic, because where I was working had a very strict protocol, and it worked, it was for a limited number of students. And then of this over the summer, where I was at the festivals I were working, they were creating bubbles or rooms, at two festivals, and so we were able to do that.
And but it was very interesting to observe these groups who are come back from not having been able to play with others for for like a year or so their lives, and especially these teenagers, and what it meant to them and, and they put a lot of importance into it.
Merry At any rate, so so first thing you do is you tune and then you put and you try to play as much as you can. And then I would get out your iPhone, your iPad, whatever timekeeping device you might have, and set it for anywhere from five to seven minutes and have each individual member run the rehearsal for those five to seven minutes. So some people may feel like, well, Merry said, we got to go faster.
And someone said, nope, Merry said, we got to go slower. After having been, especially in a quartet with the same people for so long, I know that perception can sometimes be an illusion. But you can hear that other stuff that can help take some of the guessing out of it. And then we can see if our perceptions are aligned in alignment at all. And the other two were just trying to stay on the sidelines away from this. So yeah. You mentioned something about practice listening that I wanted to follow up on.
Merry Absolutely. I think that this is an advent really of professional and consistently supported chamber music performance practice.
And the idea of, of what happened before that is that chamber music was a social activity, it was very spontaneous in the moment. I think some people do more, some do less. And sometimes I feel if you know, to whom in your ensemble, you want to send your energy, and of specifically or particularly poignant way.
And if you know, from whom you want to receive as much energy or information as possible, that can be very helpful in helping a group pull together and really feel connected. I mean, I have basic things I think one should do to prepare to be able to listen that way, a little more proactively. This past summer, I read chamber music with different people.
A lot of happy accidents, I approve of happy accidents. I would say and in addition to that, your individual preparation and like you do this, this and this, I do have some basic score study, things that I like people to do.
You know, as the very basic thing is go through and know every place you have the same rhythm as another voice, go through the music and know every place that nobody plays. Grand pauses are sometimes the hardest things to get together and to come off of. And then also to write rhythmic cues into your part, really figure out what you should be listening for, if you have a melody, should you be listening down to the lowest pitch?
Or should you be listening to the smallest subdivision? If you have a pedal? What do you think you should be listening for there, write some of that or indicate some of that into your part. Merry Okay, well, I never went to Juilliard.
But I, my quartet played for him and off, off and on. And he was such a huge influence on so many musicians in the 20th century, and 21st century. So I became obsessed with playing off the score.
Fortunately, I had really great eyes back then. And I could play off of a score. And I really believed in it. I did it for three seasons. And then it was somewhere in the end of the third season, I think that we were playing, playing something sort of complex, you know, with a lot of polyphony.
I think it was either Bartok or Beethoven. I was really imagining, based on what I was looking at. So I just as an experiment, got out the part.
Yeah, so different people, different personalities. And for a string players, certainly we usually have many people playing the same part, and that is another challenge, playing together with others in a section. Noa Maybe this is not an important question. Merry I think it was a combination. They got prepared in such a much more polished way quicker.
I also feel like I think it was a mentor, who was in the audience. In fact, it might have been a member of the Juilliard Quartet. A lot of people listening and producing and tweaking mics makes you nervous. You know,. Noa I wonder if you can say more about recording now cuz I was curious, you know, yeah, there it is recording fit into, like, I have a concept now more clearly, of how recording ought to fit into like an individual practice session in preparation for performances.
But yeah, how does that fit into an ensemble setting? Merry I think we had, of course, in different chamber music curriculum, we did different things. But I know that there were several festivals and music schools that had students that were unable to be in a place where they could meet in person to play together.
So they started adopting, recording in layers, which is, you know, more like the way a popular music group would record. So we had to start thinking it all became about synchronization, you know, are we lining up?
Are we together. And what your surroundings are, what your acoustic is, as of course it does, then the the level of preparation and your performance level. That can be really, really wonderfully helpful.
So you have to learn to use that medium. We each had our own mic, then there were like, probably another four, or five or six mics throughout the room to get the resonance of the room. But you have to replicate the same kind of dull, clean, clear recording file, if you will. Noa There was one thing you said that kind of made my ears perk up. Whereas in reality, it may not. And teachers can kind of identify that for you, and the recording certainly can.
I wonder if like, I mean, does that mean that maybe recording oneself as a part of practice and a rehearsal or an ensemble is maybe not quite as necessary as it might be in an individual situation because you have those other listeners? Here's how to solve that problem, for good. Sometimes things just don't go according to plan. We can write the best lesson objectives, have the highest hopes and the most open heart and it can still fall to pieces.
Those days when nothing is working. Suddenly it's like the last five rehearsals didn't happen and you're back to square one. The musicians are restless and all the attention is anywhere but on the task at hand. How do we respond to this and come out better, rather than broken?
I received this question from a colleague at the end of her tether, wondering what she should tell parents who were hounding her, and students who wanted to play endless concerts of Harry Potter, Star Wars, Pharell Williams and Beyonce. Rehearsal Planning. Articles to read:. How will I go? Top tips for returning to in person rehearsals Going back to in person rehearsals?
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