CREATING A HEALTHY REHEARSAL ATMOSPHERE MATTHEW DOCKENDORF

Many factors go into the ability to create a healthy rehearsal atmosphere for our student musicians. We want our students to be progressing technically, developing as individuals as well as an ensemble, and ultimately, we want our students to experience music EVERY rehearsal. These desires affect our choices in rehearsal techniques, prioritization, and even how we speak to our students.

Throughout my career, I have worked with ensembles that have wide variations of ability levels within the ensemble. This differentiation of instruction I must deliver is paramount to assure they have a musical rehearsal and not just a “practice notes/rhythms” rehearsal. My goal is for the most accomplished musician and the least accomplished musician to be challenged and have a fulfilling experience.

I start to create a healthy atmosphere by simply trying to keep the rehearsal about being together and making music. I try to limit distractions, occasionally have music playing when they enter the room, and be respectful of everyone so they know this is a safe space for making mistakes and making music. Once we build that trust with the musicians that we will always do our best to help them perform rather than put them down for making mistakes, we can cultivate the ensemble relationship. The students also begin to understand the expectation and standard and realize pointing out room for improvement is part of the caring process - “students don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care…”

My ears and my conducting gestures are two of the most utilized rehearsal tools and one of my strongest assets to create a musical rehearsal atmosphere. When we think about it, conducting is simply human interaction. We are trying to convince and inspire other musicians to change the way they are playing based on preparatory gestures, gestures in real-time, and reactionary gestures. If we are able to gesture vividly and convincingly, then we do not have to stop the music in order to rehearse and fix or change something. Everyone could imagine a buoyant and fluttery trill or a low brass and bass drum accent that feels like a

Matthew Dockendorf is Associate Director of Bands and Director of the “Golden Buffalo” Marching Band at the University of Colorado Boulder. An Assistant Professor of Music, Dr. Dockendorf conducts the Symphonic Band and teaches instrumental conducting as well as music education courses at both the undergraduate and graduate level.

Dockendorf maintains an active teaching, conducting, and clinician schedule with engagements throughout the United States. He has guest conducted high school and middle school bands in Colorado, Georgia, Minnesota, Missouri, South Carolina, and has presented clinics at various state music conferences, the Texas Music Educators Association convention, and the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic.

Dr. Dockendorf holds a Doctor of Musical Arts in Conducting from Michigan State University under Dr. Kevin L. Sedatole; a Master of Music in Conducting from The Ohio State University under Dr. Russel Mikkelson; and a Bachelor of Music Education from the University of Minnesota.

20-pound sack of potatoes. Chances are, if you demonstrated both of those sounds your gesture would change and your facial expression would follow without even thinking. These types of musical concepts are what I use to develop gesture, to speak to the ensemble, and to get those musical ideas to stick with the students. We are very quick to say “louder, softer, longer, shorter”, but quite often our gestures do not reinforce those feelings and are occasionally contrary to how we ask our students to play – thus mixed messages and the loss of our greatest asset as conductors –gesture. Also, consider the mindset of students who constantly hear “shorter, shorter, shorter” and never anything more vivid - they tune out and become disengaged.

Disclaimer: Development of gesture and translating those gestures to changes in the ensemble takes work from us as conductors and takes TIME to train the ensemble how to react. Start with your warmup or other music the students have memorized to manipulate the sound and start making changes in volume, balance, style, length, emotional content, tempo, etc.

Creating this connection with the ensemble is crucial to the music and immediately benefits the atmosphere of the rehearsal. When the connection is strong (read: the students are able to respond to us) then the ensemble becomes much more responsive to our musical ideas – IF WE HAVE THEM.

Admittedly the score study process can be tedious and subjective, but this is music. If we expect our students to have prepared the notes and rhythms for the music, then we must also have prepared the technical aspects AS WELL AS the musical/emotional aspects. It becomes our responsibility as conductors, teachers, leaders, MUSICAL INSPIRERS to have an idea of WHAT the music can be – not just the notes and rhythms.

I often have discussions with colleagues about how to get to the “music” faster and often the reply is: “we are working on the notes and rhythms, then we will be able to add more of the music.”

My response is often, “why can’t you be working on the music right now and incorporating those elements of phrase, emotional content, style, feeling, evaporating the last note to complete silence, RIGHT NOW?”

There will ALWAYS be notes, rhythms, balance, and intonation to fix, but when you were sitting in ensembles, I am certain your least favorite rehearsals were the ones where the conductor stopped frequently and only addressed mistakes. Now, think about a rehearsal taught THROUGH the music with musical ideas, analogies to demonstrate sounds, and gestures to reinforce those sounds. A rehearsal that holds students to a high standard, but always keeps pushing them to find out what’s next. A rehearsal filled with inspirational “can it be more like this…” rather than punishing, “don’t do this or that…”. A rehearsal where we use a variety of rehearsal techniques that are scaffolded appropriately and directed toward the success of the students where everyone is engaged. A rehearsal where every student finds success at MULTIPLE times throughout the rehearsal and gets enough disguised repetition to work on technical issues as well as musical issues. These are the types of rehearsals that I try to achieve every single time.

My challenge to conductors/teachers/ leaders/inspirers is to:

• Look more like the music.

• Give musicians the CHANCE to succeed.

• Provide a musical piece of feedback and technical piece of feedback every time you stop the ensemble.

• Always question yourself… WHAT’S NEXT?

» Even with younger students, this is never complete. We can inspire and motivate our students to dive deeper into their own musicianship and foster ensemble skills that engage students beyond the notes on the page.

Creating a Healthy Rehearsal Atmosphere, Matthew

Dockendorf, cont.

Look more like the music – Practice gestures while recording yourself or signing the music and moving in a way that is reflective of the sounds you wish to emulate. Yes, gestures must be in time, however, beating time (because we think our students need it) is largely a crutch for us not knowing what we want musically. You can also practice musical gestures to recordings or by simply telling your ensemble to continue playing while you give them musical information. The easiest way to start is with a march or a piece with a steady pulse but lots of room for interpretation.

Give the musicians the CHANCE to succeed – Think about the pace of your rehearsal. Do you tend to play a few measures, stop and talk to the ensemble for a minute? Do you stop immediately after the first note is not performed together? Consider how this pacing and instruction negatively affects the psyche of your students. Give your students a chance to succeed. Refrain from stopping after every little mistake. Give them the opportunity to play, then make a few comments and go back and do it again. This will also give you the opportunity to prioritize your thoughts so you can efficiently give them feedback.

ensemble and the person that picked up their instrument again after 2 years of not playing. It was crucial that I was able to differentiate my instruction for all ability levels – chances are you have the same issue. After a while, every student benefits from the musical analogy or unattainable palette of sound, they may have not understood it to begin with, however, they could still strive for it … it always gave them a musical goal – in addition to giving reminders of key signature, air, or embouchure formation.

Always question yourself… WHAT’S NEXT? – This is a challenge. It is easy to accept correct notes, rhythms, tempo, balance, intonation, and move on to the next thing. Are we able to have an idealized image of what is the next layer of music? It is important to praise students when they are doing well, however, it is our responsibility to provide the next level of instruction and ask what the music can be, not just accept the status quo.

In my rehearsals, I have five simple guidelines that I like to use to engage the students and keep them thinking about the big picture of musicality while also mindful of the technique.

1. Care about your sound.

2. Evaluate how your sound is interacting with others.

These verbs ensure that students are active somehow with the music. For example, think of how many issues can be improved by simply reminding your students to CARE about their sound. Now, yes, this does take some training to understand what that means, but if we model or provide sound models for our students, they do try and emulate. This simple reminder (which I give multiple times throughout a rehearsal or isolated passage) gets them closer to a characteristic sound, thus being more in tune with others, and feeling better about what they are doing –this simple change affects the entire rehearsal atmosphere.

The other guidelines put the ownership on the students to be engaged with what is happening around them. As long as we have programmed music that is within their capability, they will be successful in evaluating these other guidelines. If your students are engaged with the pulse/momentum of the music, then we DO NOT need to beat time for them. We can be freed to show musical ideas while they are engaged with the pulse.

Provide a musical piece of feedback and technical piece of feedback every time you stop the ensemble – This strategy started from the necessity of instructing the music major in my

3. Be engaged with the pulse/ momentum of the music.

4. Search with your ears.

5. Be musical, always.

Oftentimes I challenge my students to perform a passage again and be more musical than they were before. Generally the line has more shape (or some shape at all), dynamics are more extreme, and students take risks – all of which are vivid characteristics of music making. We can then have a conversation about what type of shape we would like to explore and make sure everyone is contributing. I remind them “Music is not what comes after the technique, it is what develops while the technique grows.”

All of these discussions can happen with either line #28 from Standard of Excellence or the Hindemith Symphony, just to varying degrees. However, it requires us to set up the environment for these teaching ideas to be successful and nourished.

I’m hopeful some of these thoughts are helpful in creating a healthy rehearsal atmosphere for your students. As a wise principal I once had would say, “Keep the main thing, the main thing.” In all teachers’ cases, it is the students, and in our case we also need to find a way to cultivate the rehearsal atmosphere to make room for the other “main thing” - the music.

Creating a Healthy