Rehearsal Hacks: Tips and Tricks to Engage and Energize Your Ensemble

Save time, engage students, and make great music with these everyday rehearsal hacks for energetic, quality rehearsals! These are a few favorites from my essential rehearsal strategies that I use every day with my own students. Each of these topics could be its own blog post, but I really wanted to give you a one-stop list to help with as many aspects of your rehearsal as possible. Enjoy, and may you be rejuvenated with energized rehearsals!

Hacks to Establish Rehearsal Procedures

Start with the basics! Train your students to enter the room quickly, quietly, and with purpose. They are expected to be in their seat warming up 1 minute after the bell rings. Rehearsal procedures need to be taught, and expectations need to be established and re-established often throughout the year.

• Start rehearsals the same way each day (i.e. when the director gets on the podium, the ensemble should get quiet) and start on time.
• Start with playing! Music is why they are in your classroom and it needs to be their motivation to be ready to start quickly. In some situations, it might be helpful to have a student lead tuning or a daily warm-up so the director can deal with broken instruments, etc. No matter what routine you chose, train the ensemble, and set high expectations.
• Practice starting and stopping when the director cuts off and make it a timed competition or a challenge. I often pick a piece they can play through and cut them off at least 10 times throughout the piece. After I cut them off, then I continue immediately on in the music. I use verbal reminders such as “Two people are still playing” or “We can be faster than that” the first few times so that by the time we finish the exercise they are stopping immediately and without talking.

Hacks for Achieving Correct Posture and Position

Model, model, and model some more! Students need to see correct instrumental posture and position on a regular basis. Here are some ideas for providing students opportunities for movement and for getting them in the right position

• “Do what I do.” Use nonverbal instructions by having students mimic you as you perfect their position by tapping your pinky, shaking your arm to relax it, etc. Give them 3 seconds to get from their very best couch potato position to perfect playing position.
• Be a swaying ensemble as you warm up in order to release tension. Don’t forget their bodies!
• Stand and play for instruments where this is appropriate. It is difficult to play with a correct arm position if the body is not grounded and relaxed, so don’t skip this step!
• Play lots of position games . Have them grow an inch, use starbursts on violins to keep them parallel to the floor, use a pencil to practice fingerings to help curve fingers, etc.

Hacks for Teaching the Notes

• Slow the music down. This is basic, but often overlooked. This will also give all students including the slower readers a better chance at learning the passage. Challenge the more advanced students by layering skills. For example, play it slower but challenge them to play it with the correct dynamics, with great tone, with better intonation, etc.
• Separate skills and simplify passages with singing, clapping, pizzicato, removing all slurs, fingering along while singing, etc.
• For those tough spots that students need to hear use echoes by measure in a tempo. This requires no talking and is just measure-by-measure echoing the teacher in order to quickly break down passages.
• For fast passages, change the rhythms at least 6 different ways and then return to the printed version (i.e. swing it, change eighth notes to dotted eighth and sixteenth note patterns, add slurs, remove slurs).
• Improve finger coordination by practicing piano sections forte, marching in place while playing, emphasize accidentals by standing anytime they play the accidental in the music or kick out your left foot. For string players, my students’ favorite is sticking out their tongues at me while playing.
• Use disguised repetition such as one stand partner point and the other play, play a section in a different moods or styles.
• Require them to have a pencil on their stand and write in fingerings, shifting, and reminders. This will save a ton of time in the long run and will help set the standard for an efficient rehearsal.
• In class playing checks are a great way to encourage practice in-between playing tests. Quickly hear one stand, one section, or one row at a time to check for learned parts.
• Walk and teach —get off the podium and walk around the ensemble. You will hear better what needs to be fixed in the back of the section and it will encourage greater engagement from students in the back of the ensemble.
• My new favorite note reading tool for beginners is Staff Wars and Staff Wars Live apps!

Hacks to Improve Intonation

• Use drones to improve intonation by having some sections play a drone, and the other sections tune a scale to the drone. You can also use a tuner and have them try it with their eyes closed to increase their focus on listening. There are also many drone loops online.
• Play the scales in different octaves as is done in the Sound Innovations series .
• Use a method book that utilize chorales !
• Don’t forget with younger players to practice manipulating the pitch so they physically know how to raise and lower the pitch. When I point up they raise it, when I point down they lower it, and when my hand is flat they try to match it perfectly. At first young students will change it drastically so work with them to alter the pitch just slightly in order to refine the physical and aural skill.
• String players need to practice all pizzicato passages arco for intonation accuracy.

Hacks to Practice Rhythm and Tempo

• Use rhythm flashcards to teach rhythms before introducing them in repertoire. These are easy to make on Finale or by hand. Review them in warm ups with aural echoes and on scales. Rhythmic reading skills can also be easily learned with the new SmartMusic Sight-Reading Builder.
• Work on subdivision by have one section play repeated notes while the rest of the group plays their rhythm or changes a printed passage to all eighth notes and no slurs. For example, if there is a dotted quarter note they would play three eighth notes instead. This will force them to feel the rhythmic subdivision.
• To learn rhythmic figures in repertoire try separating the skill by clapping it, marching it, saying it, singing it, and then playing it. Practice with a metronome or rhythmic beat such as the Drum Beats+ or Beat Maker Go apps or YouTube Drum Loops .

Hacks to Teach Musicality and Artistry

• In order to improve dynamic range be sure to teach the technical aspects such as stick technique, breath support and bow distribution.
• Play reverse dynamics for an entire piece so if they see a printed forte, they play piano, etc. This creates awareness and is a lot of fun for all any level of ensemble.
• Play “ Follow the Crazy Conductor,” where the director or student conductor gets to make up the dynamics as they go and the ensemble must follow! This can also be used for tempo, style, phrasing, etc.
• Use descriptive words, analogies, and imagery such as “mournful,” “somber,” “wistful,” and “tranquil” to help achieve style and mood.
• Demonstrate phrasing by speaking a sentence and putting the emphasis on different words. Have the ensemble make up their own sentences and try speaking it how they think the phrase should be played. Then play the phrase each way to experience the difference.
• In order to work on balance, ensemble skills, and following the conductor, have students move seats and then listen around the room. They can also spread their seats out across the entire room, sit in circles, or with section leaders in the back of the ensemble.
• Follow the leader can be used to work on ensemble playing. Teach them how to lead as they play and then pick students from different areas of the ensemble to be the conductor from their seat as they play!
• Student conductors can be used to work on watching, following, and leading. In order to force them to watch, put a student conductor in front of each section or one for each half of the ensemble and they have to follow them even though the other part of the ensemble is doing something completely different!
• " Mystery Detective" is my all-time favorite hack for any level of ensemble! I have students close their eyes, then I walk around and tap 5-10 students on the shoulder. Have them open their eyes and anyone that was tapped has to play incorrectly (slightly out of tempo, with the wrong style, out of tune, etc.). Play a few phrases or a scale and then they have to raise their hands and guess who the mystery people were. Be sure to encourage finding students across the ensemble! It gets them watching and listening in a new and critical way.
• Finally, video and audio-record the ensemble so they can listen to and see themselves and realize they need to exaggerate musical concepts for them to be effectively communicated to an audience! As they give comments after listening, teach them to start with positive comments because junior high and high school students are experts at finding the negative and we all need to learn to find the positive in ourselves and our performances too!

If you are like me, it is helpful to keep lists like this handy for inspiration as we lead students into excellent music making. Here is the same information in a printable reference list format. Happy rehearsing and music making!