Taking Questions During Rehearsal

"Since time is the one immaterial object which we cannot influence, it is an imponderably valuable gift."
      - Maya Angelou

With daylight savings time coming up on March 13th, we thought it would be a good time to talk about the topic of time management. So we're officially designating March 2016 "Time Management Month"!

The ability to effectively manage one's time, both in and out of rehearsal, is a critical skill for every choral conductor to have. Sadly, many conductors have a relatively poor ability to manage time (Krishan: I struggled with time management for years, before getting my act together while working on my Master's).

As we go through the month of March, we'll present several posts on this topic- each dealing with a different aspect of time management. In today's post, we want to address the controversial topic of *questions during rehearsal*. What does this have to do with time management, you ask? Read on!

A colleague of ours once made the astute observation that many of the questions asked during choral rehearsals were not actually questions at all. Rather, they were either passive-aggressive statements about what other singers were doing (or failing to do), or they were suggestions to the conductor about how to run the rehearsal. "Shouldn't measure 21 be piano? Because that's not what we're doing." "Did you actually want a hard 'rrr' at the end of 'Father'?". "I'm hearing a lot of disagreement in our 'oo' vowel. How closed do you want it?"

Certainly these are all legitimate concerns. The problem, though, is that it's the conductor's job to address these issues in his or her own good time. When listening to the ensemble, the conductor has certain priorities in mind; the issues raised by choristers may be so far down the list at the moment that they're raised, that the conductor has to address more pressing problems before these.

This is where time management comes into play. The conductor is ultimately responsible for managing the flow of rehearsal. If he lets himself get sidetracked by every little thing, he's not doing his job. We've seen situations where one or two choristers have essentially hijacked the rehearsal to insist on drilling notes that they already should have learned, while the rest of the ensemble has sat idle. The conductor has to have enough sense of purpose (and backbone) to keep things moving toward a common goal, and enough planned for rehearsal that stopping to field every single question isn't even an option.

Every conductor has a list of priorities for each ensemble. When time is precious, questions should probably be discouraged. When working with a new ensemble, particularly one comprised entirely of volunteers (such as a church or community chorus), building trust might be the conductor's top priority. In such an environment, the conductor may need to subject his or her artistic agenda to the human concerns of the community being served; the conductor may then decide to address any and all questions as fully as possible, so that the choristers really feel the conductor is attentive to their concerns. In an educational environment, students might very well be asking legitimate questions about aspects of the notation that need to be clarified before they can even attempt to perform what's on the page.

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KRISHAN: When working as Chorus Master on Odyssey Opera's Boston premiere of Massenet's Le Cid last year, we began the first rehearsal with our excellent Chorus Manager asking the chorus to kindly hold all of their questions until the break. I had been brought in on relatively short notice to prepare a chorus of about 65 high-level choristers in 3+ hours of Romantic French opera that none of them had ever sung before. We had three rehearsals before we saw the conductor and the orchestra- a schedule that had been set before I was brought on board. I knew that rehearsal time would be extremely tight, so I asked my Chorus Manager to enact a no-questions policy. At the time, I had only recently moved to Boston, and I didn't know any of the singers in the chorus; so I had absolutely no idea what kind of questions might come out if I called on an individual. Furthermore, we were singing this opera in French, which meant there would be lots of differing opinions on pronunciation. Sensing that there was a real possibility for these rehearsals to turn into a free-for-all, I requested a no-questions policy in order to ensure that our time together was focused and efficient. I spent each break discussing questions with choristers (which I was happy to do), and our rehearsal time was extremely streamlined and productive.

With my church choir, however, it's an entirely different scenario. Efficiency isn't the priority there- relationship-building is. So I take time in my church choir rehearsals to solicit questions, and I try to make sure that everyone's really on the same page. I often have to check my natural tendency to plow ahead, and take a step back. This is a growth area for me as a conductor; I believe that listening is an important skill that many of us lack proficiency in, so I'm grateful to have an opportunity to work on that in an environment which is somewhat less urgent than what I'm used to.


KIRSTEN:  I loved being in my college chamber choir more than just about anything. The conductor was kind, funny, and knowledgeable, and the whole group was a family. However, looking back on the four years that I sang in that group, I realize that I definitely qualified as a "section police" choir member. I liked being able to raise my hand and ask questions about things in the music I noticed we weren't performing. I was at a stage in my development, both personally and musically, that I wanted the room to know that I noticed these things. Being the "section police" was my way of truly trying to help the group that I loved singing with sound better.

It wasn't until after I graduated from school and began singing in several other groups (community choirs, church choirs, professional groups, teaching high school choirs, etc.) that I realized just how unhelpful "section police" are in a choir - especially in the middle of rehearsal. From experience I understand that the comment/suggestion may be well-intended, however it can come off very differently. Once I noticed this quality in other singers, I began to quiet my questions during rehearsal, and only asked the conductor privately before rehearsal, after rehearsal, or during break.

Choristers: I would encourage you to think about a few things before asking questions in rehearsal.
"Am I confused about this, or is my 'question' really a suggestion about how the choir should sound?"
"Is this something that I am very sure that the conductor will not address at any point during the rehearsal process?"
"Is this question so dire that I need to ask the conductor now? Can I wait until the end of rehearsal or break time to ask, in order to avoid interrupting the conductor?"

I try and ask myself these questions to circumvent my natural tendency of wanting to be "section police." However, it's important to note that any question-asking policy is going to be situational. Could one of my high schoolers go an entire rehearsal without knowing where they are looking on the page? Yes. However, I would never want them to feel like they couldn't ask that question, as that would be detrimental to their experience. My policy on answering questions in rehearsal varies depending on the level of singers that I am working with.

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For every singer who truly needs to ask a question and have their concerns heard, there is another singer who's keenly aware of how much rehearsal time is being wasted in fruitless debate. We all want to be seen as kind people, but this desire can sometimes make us overindulgent when fielding questions during rehearsal. Being too easily distracted from our planned rehearsal trajectory can result in an unfocused, fatiguing rehearsal- especially for those more introverted choristers who really crave strong direction and purpose during rehearsal.

One good compromise we've discovered is to allow questions in rehearsal, but to use "ask me again at break" as a default response (unless the answer requires zero thought). There's nothing worse than watching a conductor get sidetracked for 5 minutes of rehearsal as he or she fumbles around trying to answer an unanticipated question (that, more often than not, has nothing to do with the issue at hand). Inviting questions during break time, especially in a professional choral setting, is a great way to encourage those choristers who truly want to contribute, without having to interrupt the rehearsal flow. It also allows you as the conductor to recognize that chorister in a public way: "Mary raised a great question during the break. Everyone take a look at measure 98".

Have you worked with conductors who absolutely refused to address questions during rehearsal? Or have you had the opposite experience, where rehearsals turned into a free-for-all? We'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments section!