1) Preparation:
Organize yourself; write out your goals for this rehearsal; communicate these goals to the choir. What format and sequence will help you best achieve these goals? What needs the most work this week? (Let the choir know why you're rehearsing pages 6 and 7 and not even touching pages 3 and 4.) How's the atmosphere in the room where you'll rehearse? Lighting and temperature? Start on time! Plan accordingly, but do not accommodate late comers.
2) Application:
Think carefully through the pacing of your rehearsal; ups and downs, immediate and long-distance, new and familiar; where will you place announcements (if any) in the scheme of things? Think “communication” from you to the choir. What do you look like? What do you sound like? Can you develop some “shorthand” for the choir to use in marking their music? Be sure your gestures are consistent and recognizable (visual “shorthand”). It also helps to visualize your sound … make this phrase sound like a smile; make this one sound like it's in parenthesis; make this one sound “royal blue” and very weighty.
3) Evaluation:
What needs work? What techniques were successful? Which weren't? How was the pacing of the rehearsal? What will you never do again? Where are you on the “Can't-wait-to-do-this-again-next-week” scale?
More from Marty Parks:
