Hello friends!

Welcome to AVIDduo's blog!  For today's post, I wrote down all the things from my own chamber experiences that have helped me become a better musician.  Most of these qualities apply not just to chamber music, but also ensemble music and solo repertoire.  

I hope you enjoy and, as always, feel free to leave feedback!

BP

                                                10 Qualities of a Successful Chamber Musician

1.  Flexibility.  In regards to availability for scheduling of rehearsals, it is imperative to be as accommodating as possible with dates and times.  It is also important to be flexible in trying new things musically, including dynamics, shaping the phrase, where to breathe, and giving and taking time throughout certain passages.  Be adaptable and willing to rehearse or perform with a short or long warm up.  Practice all times of day.  You never know if your next gig will be early morning or late at night.

2. Preparation.  Organize your music before rehearsal.  Knowing the music includes being comfortable with all notes, rhythms, dynamics, phrasing, where to carry the theme, any secondary themes, etc.  Setting up for rehearsal includes having your instrument in good working condition, having your materials including a playable reed, and being warmed up.

3. Resourcefulness. Use all of your resources as a musician, whether they are intellectual or tangible.  It is a valuable skill to be able to change something immediately in the music and keep the consistency of the change.  It is also essential with a group working with little rehearsal time to make the best of each session.  Another skill set in practical musicians is the ability to make connections within the music and also, in regards to professional ensembles, connections through networking to find opportunities for the group in performance and community outreach.

4. Consistency. Strive for consistency within the music.  Once an issue is resolved within the music, make it fixed every time, so that the group can move on.  This saves rehearsal time and causes the group to move forward and achieve goals.  In addition to being dependable with the quality of performance, be constant with the attitude brought to rehearsal. 

5. Self Improving. Have a thirst for self improvement in all areas of life- music, physical fitness, and health are just a few.  Contribute new ideas to the group concerning repertoire, performance opportunities, and musical suggestions.

6. Motivation. Be ready and excited to work and put into rehearsal the preparation achieved in practice.  Do not rely on outside sources for motivation, be self-sufficient.

7.  Positivity. Bring a positive attitude to rehearsal.  Do not create self doubt, compare yourself to others, or give negative talk aloud or in the privacy of your own thoughts.  The importance of a promising outlook on the music and the accepting of constructive criticism compiled with a thirst for knowledge and self improvement is unstoppable.

8. Strong sense of tonality. Know the structure of music.  Remember back to your theory classes about how the seventh scale degree usually pulls to the first (ti-do) or the fourth scale degree falls to the third (fa-mi).  Add a few simple folk tunes to your warm ups.  Use piano accompaniment, when possible, and commit them to memory to enforce what you hear.

9. Knowledge of the instrument. Know the “quick fixes” for small problems like leaky pads and loose springs, but also learn how your instrument works!  It is difficult to learn the craft of instrument repair because not many universities offer classes in repair and those that do mostly offer basics. To really delve into repair, it is necessary to find a teacher and take on an apprentice like relationship.  If you have not done it, I recommend picking up a version of your instrument from a pawn shop and taking it apart/putting it back together again.  This offers insight into how the mechanism of your own instrument works and will help you conquer the quick fixes.  As a chamber player, you’ll be a valuable asset when someone has a leaky pad or spring out of place.

10. Listen. Become a fanatic music listener.  Listen during rehearsals to fit your part into the piece, but also listen to everything you can find relevant to what you are preparing.  Preparing Mozart?  Listen to baroque recordings and note the typical style, phrases, and harmonic structure.  Recordings are wonderful resources, but also find live performances and attend as many as possible.  Support your local chamber groups by attending their shows.  Do not be afraid to bring a pencil and paper and take notes as to what you are hearing and how you can incorporate what you hear into your own practice or rehearsal time.  Listening is the most important element to creating a successful player.

Hello Friends,

I'd like to discuss the musical techniques AVIDduo uses for optimization of rehearsal time, which is necessary when we live on separate sides of the United States!  This post is divided into two parts; Part 1 - Rehearsal Ettiquette and Part 2- Rehearsal Techniques.  I hope implementing these suggestions into your own chamber groups will improve your rehearsals.

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Part 1 - Rehearsal Etiquette

Before we cover rehearsal techniques, I’d like to address etiquette. If you’re preparing for a rehearsal at the high school or undergraduate level, rehearsal etiquette isn’t always discussed in lessons because you’ve just begun your chamber music experience.  It is important to remember that chamber ensembles are much different from a concert band or an orchestra, so it’s important to review procedures to ensure efficient and successful rehearsals!  One great thing about chamber music is that there are fewer members in the ensemble, so as a result there is more freedom in the structure of rehearsal time.  This can work in your favor or against it depending on how you choose to use that time.  Here are a few preliminary suggestions that can help make the most of your time.

1. Turn your cell phone off!  No sending text messages, no phone calls, and no “vibrate mode”.  Not only is it rude to take up valuable time sending a message, checking your email, or answering your phone, but it’s distracting when your phone is vibrating against something in your bag.  So power down for the hour unless you have an emergency situation where you need it on.  In this case, tell your group ahead of time and apologize for the inconvenience.

2. Clear your mind of distractions.  As a student or professional musician, we all have a million things to do at any given moment during the year, but the music doesn’t care!  While in rehearsal, your mind should be focused on the music and reaching the goals your group has set.  In other words: Stop thinking about what’s for dinner, how you’re going to pay your bills, or the homework you have to do when you get home and actively participate in the group!

3. Do not gossip in rehearsal.  It’s unprofessional, inappropriate, and wastes time.

4. Be positive. This means bringing a good attitude to rehearsal no matter how you actually feel. When you step through the door you aren’t sad/happy/sick/heartbroken/hyper/nervous, etc.  You are an artist with an instrument ready to succeed.

5. Do not eat/drink/chew gum in rehearsal.  Water is acceptable, but no one wants to see you bring a soft drink or bright red sports drink that’s going to end up IN your instrument.  (This causes further problems like sticky pads and gummed up mechanics.) 

6. Bring all of your materials every time.  No one likes to wait for an ensemble member to retrieve music, find a good reed, or warm up their chops.  Warming up is part of bringing your materials.  Arrive early or work at home to make sure you are warmed up mentally and physically and ready to rehearse.

7.  Be on time.  Arrive early, but never late, and stay for the entire time allotted to rehearse.  Remember that you’re not just wasting your time, but also every other member of your ensemble.  Punctuality is a good habit to have in all aspects of your life.

8. Prepare your part ahead of time. I cannot stress how important preparation is for a rehearsal.  To know your part intricately means to not only feel comfortable with the notes, but also phrasings, dynamics, where to breathe, potential tuning issues, tempo changes practiced ahead of time with a metronome, and where to use any alternative fingerings for technical passages.  One of the reasons AVIDduo rehearsals run so smoothly is the preparation each of us puts into our parts.  We never need to stop to practice something individually, all of our time is spent putting the music together, resolving any tuning issues, and matching up our ideals of phrasing and dynamics to create what the composer envisions.

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Part 2 - Rehearsal Techniques

Kyle currently lives in Minneapolis and I live in Dallas, so we must prepare differently for our rehearsals.  It's important for AVIDduo to make the most of our limited time; we do not have the luxury of meeting weekly or even monthly to discuss and rehearse our repertoire for upcoming performances.  Our schedules require we rehearse a few times a year with long intense sessions lasting about a week to ten days.   Whether preparing for your high school ensemble competitions like the U.I.L. Competition in Texas, or for your university chamber group, every ensembles has the same issues scheduling against the obligations of every member.  This means many ensembles are forced to meet less often than would be ideal, just like AVIDduo.  I hope these tips will help you make the most of your valuable time! 

1. Listen actively. You are not only responsible for your part, but it is ideal that you listen to everyone else to fit your sound within the group.  Remember that there is a different approach to chamber music than with solo repertoire.  Each member will most likely have the main melody or theme at some point and the other members of the group should act accordingly.  Kyle and I always go through the score and make notes as to who should be louder or carry the phrase to the next cadence.  It is important for the musical communication that everyone is on the same page to create consistency in the ensemble.  It will save time if you can identify on your own whether you have the theme or not. if you aren’t sure, take time at the beginning of rehearsal to go through the score as a group and discuss what is important.  Kyle and I are always listening as we play- it's a sort of hyper-awareness that is beneficial to AVIDduo because of the intricacies of the music we perform.  We have to be consistent or AVIDduo simply couldn't play the high caliber music we love!

2. Work in small sections. Working in small sections gives us a chance to analyze the piece and create music.  After several sections are put together, we like to perform the entire piece slightly before it is at performance level.  This gives us a chance to practice recovering from any mistakes.  This is a difficult skill to build because it requires trust between ensemble members.  No one likes to have moments that are unsteady in a performance, but if there is a bond of trust within the ensemble, those instances of uneasiness either don't occur or they are fixed before the audience hears them.  This process creates a strong performance every time we pick up our instruments!

3. Record sections of the rehearsal.  After AVIDduo successfully puts together a piece of music, we record ourselves and analyze the recording.  After talking about what we hear, what we want to hear, and making notes in the score, we then record again and repeat this process until the piece is where we want it to be.  I imagine this step is slightly different for us because most of our repertoire has never been played before- we play mostly commissioned music, so we are able to create a standard for what the piece should sound like.  With other ensembles, the repertoire is established and there are often traditional pieces that should be played certain ways.  For pieces like this, I recommend listening to live performances whenever you can.  Recordings are great resources, but it is important to keep in mind that the integrity of the recording isn't always fair and could be compromised with age, editing, or wear and tear to the CD.  There is simply nothing that replaces a live performance, so look out at your local colleges, universities, or classical radio station for announcements of chamber groups.

4. Try everything and check your ego at the door.  When Kyle and I put a piece together, we often have initial differences of opinion on how a phrase should sound.  It is important when situations like this arise, that the ensemble tries every suggestion.  We try the phrase both ways and then pick which fits the music.  It is important to remember that the music is the only thing that matters in rehearsal.  Ego should be left outside the rehearsal space because musical concepts are the only thing that matters to the composer.  

5. Connect with the composer.  One of my favorite aspects of playing new music is that we can remain in contact with the composers.  When premiering "Synergy" by Chris Reza, we simply put the piece together, sent Mr. Reza a recording, and were given valuable feedback within a day or two.  Then, we recorded again and did the same thing.  Composers usually love this process.  Most work with computer software that gives them a MIDI file that consists of computer generated sounds, flute/saxophone in our case, and they write based on these sounds.  After the composer hears the actual instruments, he may want to change, edit, or rewrite sections to match what his image of the music presents.  The process is extremely rewarding and requires the musician to be flexible with interpretations of the music.

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This concludes my post on rehearsing!  Please feel free to leave comments or feedback about your own rehearsing techniques or if you've tried any of the above!

Have a happy and safe Spring Break! :)

BP