Planning Effective Rehearsals
An edited extract from my new book Planning Effective Rehearsals: Tools to Boost Learning & Engagement
How will I go? Top tips for returning to in person rehearsals
Going back to in person rehearsals? Congratulations! Excited? Scared? Me too! Here's how to manage yourself and mentally prepare for going back, without burning out
How can I plan for success? Top tips for returning to in person rehearsals
Going back to in person rehearsals? Congratulations! Here's how to plan for success, manage challenges and be realistic in your expectations.
What will rehearsals be like? Top tips for returning to in person rehearsals
Going back to in person rehearsals? Congratulations! Here's what to expect from your musicians and how you can help them get back in the groove.
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The 5-minute hack to boost your rehearsal efficiency
Learn a simple 5-minute habit that will drastically improve the productivity and planning of your rehearsals, whether you're super-prepared or haven't thought about the group and the music since your last rehearsal.
A Simple Formula to Maximise Rehearsal Time
Feel like you spend too much time working on the easy stuff, at the expense of mastering the more challenging parts of your repertoire? This simple formula helps you allocate rehearsal time easily and effectively so you don't get caught out.
7 Ps of Meaningful Audition Experiences
Help your students prepare healthily and thoughtfully for auditions so they'll get (and recognise) the benefits long after the results are posted.
When the what and the how is gone, get back to why
In a world where rehearsals are online, performances are on hold and the future is uncertain, what are our ensembles for?
Why your ensemble is like a house plant
If we thought of our ensembles as plants, we might find it a lot easier to tend to their needs and understand our responsibilities.
Back to rehearsals: Setting expectations and trusting in your process
Spinning your wheels because you're still in holiday mode? Frantic because you have an important performance soon? Learn three strategies to replace short term thinking with long range development that will make your ensemble better.
Conducting Success in 2020: How to ditch old conducting habits, and make new ones
Do you have a bad conducting habit that's been annoying you for a long time? That thing that you remember once for 3 seconds when you're on the podium, then then next time you think of it is an hour later? Here's how to solve that problem, for good.
How to recover from a bad rehearsal
Sometimes things just don't go according to plan. We can write the best lesson objectives, have the highest hopes and the most open heart and it can still fall to pieces. Those days when nothing is working. Suddenly it's like the last five rehearsals didn't happen and you're back to square one. The musicians are restless and all the attention is anywhere but on the task at hand. How do we respond to this and come out better, rather than broken?
Why Can’t the Students Pick Their Own Music?
I received this question from a colleague at the end of her tether, wondering what she should tell parents who were hounding her, and students who wanted to play endless concerts of Harry Potter, Star Wars, Pharell Williams and Beyonce. "We like that music, why can’t we play it in band?"
Why does my band look sloppy onstage?
You’re at festival with your band and as you walk onstage you wonder: why Ethan in the 3rd clarinets is shuffling his music around? why are the trombones always the last to stand for the conductor? why did the percussionist just drop something? why does Emily always wear white socks with black pants and shoes?
