Student Led Rehearsals: Penultimate Recap

See that big gray cloud? The one that feels like falling into a pit of question marks? You don’t need to know what’s in there. All you need is the vision you’re holding, the clarity it takes to find the next spot to step in, & the willingness to keep walking. #emilyonlife pic.twitter.com/H39LBNM3AW

— Emily McDowell (@emilymcdowell_) November 16, 2018

Although our student-led rehearsal experiment started out feeling a bit like that, I must admit, it is exciting watching and listening to these students as we head into the final stretch!

Working hard in our final rehearsals before Wednesday’s big concert! 7pm, right here in the SCHS auditorium- join us for an evening filled with festive music and great aural feats! #RCSArts #RCSPride #WeAreSC pic.twitter.com/NDaRFOCC8Y

— SCHS Bands (@SCHSBands) December 10, 2018

Our Winter Concert is tomorrow and all three ensembles have not only some great music to perform, but have made some really remarkable progress.  Musically, conversations about "what do you think?", "How did that sound?", "Let's try this", etc. permeate rehearsal time. Most of all: It's absolutely inspiring to hear kids reflect, problem solve, and discuss what they want to create and perform instead of doing the bare minimum to create the right note at the right time. It is audible that they are starting to understand the difference between actively making music and passively playing music.

     "We didn't do enough with the dynamics; we need to make the dynamics more dramatic."

     "We need to do it all the time, not just after being reminded." 
     "So should we do more reps?"
     "Yes. Let's go back to 9 and make sure we do it again when we get to 27." 

     "Make sure you write it in! Do you need a pencil, because I have one!" "Me too!"

     "Should we do something more with the grandioso section?"

In terms of teamwork, students have begun to rehearse more effectively than ever before, both when I am on the podium and when they are running a rehearsal for themselves. Accountability is high, and they have developed a level of comfort in calling each other out for not being present (using cell phones, side conversations, etc.) and show interest in performing their music well...

     "You're not hiding anything. We can see you looking at stuff on your phones from back here (in the percussion section)."

This isn't to say that everything along this journey has been rainbows and butterflies. We've had a lot of messy moments to push through. Just like any team sport or group activity, it's not always easy navigating conflict, differences of opinion or philosophy, or problems with trust/respect. It's all still there, and we've had many times when we've had to step back and assess what did or did not help our rehearsal time to be productive for the day: needing to adjust our playing/discussion ratio, knowing when a sticking point is no longer beneficial for progress toward our goals for the day, or finding ways to hold each other accountable that is still supportive. But we push on-- making progress as we can along the way.

I'm so excited for these students to perform their pieces (and all of our music) tomorrow night! They have come an incredibly long way, and can't wait to see where they will take everything they've learned from here.