Practice vs. Rehearsal

Last week, I teased this post with a line about how one note can save your choir, but I’ve realized that was putting the proverbial cart before the horse.  So instead of that post, I will go back way before you sing one note.  Also, please note* the word “choir” here can refer to either a Byzantine or Western choir.

This week, we will look at how an age-old phrase, professional orchestral musicians, and classical music excerpts, to makes steps forward for your Liturgical choir

The old adage of “How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, practice, practice” holds many truths to professional musicians.  Yet, notice that the phrase intentionally is not “rehearse, rehearse, rehearse.”  Why is that?  Do musicians not need to rehearse?  Don’t they need to slave hours and hours together to make a Beethoven symphony get an audience to their feet?  To answer this question, let us briefly look inside the life of an orchestral musician.

Typically to audition for a symphony with open auditions (some are by invite only), one must work up around 20 or so excerpts.  These are excerpts from serious symphonic works and are to be played as a solo in front of a (usually hidden) judges panel.  It should also go without saying that these excerpts are never easy, even if they are slow and soft, which are usually the hardest ones.  To win an audition, a performer “sells out” to these excerpts, sleeping in practice rooms, and neglecting their friends and family to take the audition.  Then, once they show up to the audition, there are several levels of eliminations until a candidate or two are chosen to sit in with the rest of the orchestra so the conductor and group can see how well the new person does.  Finally, after all that, a person is selected to perform temporarially for a season and then may work towards tenure if invited back.

WHEW!  Aren’t we all glad we don’t have to do that?!  However, notice how little time is spent on rehearsal.  Many professional symphony orchestras rehearse less than 20 hours a week.  So you may be saying to yourself, “so we don’t have to rehearse as a church group?  Good because that’s what we were doing anyways!”

WRONG!  You have to rehearse every week if you are even remotely serious about being a contributing musical group, either professional or amateur. Rehearsal is a given in the professional world.  Of course there is going to be rehearsal.  There always is rehearsal.  It is not even given a second thought, yet in church groups, rehearsal seems about as mandatory as Orthros. (see what I did there?)

It does not matter if you do the same music every week.  Does your group know about the history of their music, about the composer, the tradition, hymnology or the typikon,or the cycles of the Liturgy?  Do they sing their thirds in tune, have balance and blend, good cut-offs, breathing, or are the Zo’s natural on the way up and flat on the way down for your chanters?  If you answered no to any of these questions, then you need to rehearse.  The thing is, only God is perfect, so unless you are working on getting better, you are getting worse.

How should we all look at the information above and conclude anything remotely concise from it?  Basically, practice and rehearsals are two completely necessary and completely different things.   Rehearsal is the bringing together of many parts, not practicing for individuals.  Practice at home alone; rehearse together.  Again I say, rehearsal is a given, but not only that, the members of your group should have practiced before coming to rehearsal.  The reason professional orchestras do not rehearse so much is because every single member has practiced their part!

There is hope for your group!  If you are just starting out, need an overhaul, or have not given some of these points a thought yet, here are some steps to you get started on a very productive and spiritually fruitful path.

-First and foremost, establish a consistent rehearsal schedule that works for the most people.  You may not be able to get everyone there at one time, but do the best you can.
-Insist that rehearsal is mandatory for every member.  If certain members are frequently not at rehearsal, they should not be allowed to participate in Liturgy.

-Hand out hymns, through email or the week before at rehearsal, to your members for them to practice on their own.  You can also record the hymns and make a dropbox folder so they can listen to the hymns, if some cannot read music, or do not have a keyboard at home.  Working ahead of the curve by getting materials out early is the name of the game.

-Start and end rehearsals on time.  Respect your members’ time always, and they will respect yours.

-Last but not least, resist the temptation to be easily satisfied.  This is the Lord’s work and it has sometimes the most noticeable impact on visitors.  Most non-Orthodox churches take their music WAY more seriously than we do and our lack of preparation can turn away some.  Do you want someone thinking “If that is what they think about their music, what do they think about their spirituality?”

So, rehearse, practice, and be consistent!

Next week we will for sure (it’s already saved as a draft) look at how singing one note can save your choir.  Just work on getting them to rehearsal until then!

Thanks for reading, and as always, you can email me at david@ecclesiasticalconsulting.com or find me at dwalkmusic on twitter.