Rehearsals can be less boring
Patrick Lencioni compares meetings with movies in his book The Five Dysfunctions of a Team.
He posed the first question: How many would rather go to a movie than a meeting? We'd probably all choose the movie.
He then posed the second question: Why do we hate meetings? The answer is: They're boring.
I'm curious what happens when we substitute "meetings" with "rehearsals" for these two questions. Well, we'd probably also choose the movie. And I've heard a lot of musicians say that rehearsals can be boring.
Lencioni explains why we'd choose the movie: "Every great movie has conflict. Without it, we just don't care what happens to the characters." He adds that meetings can be "loaded with conflict, and they won't be boring."
Could rehearsals sometimes be boring because they lack conflict?
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What are the musical conflicts in a rehearsal?
Musical interpretation is full of conflict. The melodic, harmonic, and structural stories are told in conflicts. What did the composer really mean? What did the composer intend to create? What did the composer hope we'd feel?
Just like in films, without this conflict, we don't care about what happens to the characters. In music, the characters are the themes and motives. Their personalities and quirks are pitches and rhythms all combined.
Without discourse about the conflict, we are not invested in how the plot plays out. In music, the plot can be something like the formal and harmonic structure. It can also be the little to big transformations of the themes. Each specific order of events or arrangement of the musical elements can lead to a surprising twist, a profoundly satisfying feeling, or a very funny moment.
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How does this conflict help a rehearsal feel less boring?
When we see, engage with, and discuss these conflicts, we see that the story can play out in so many ways. It is meaningful and fun to consider all these ways - together, as a group.
More often than not, the conductor seems to be the only one that is expected and given space to consider these conflicts. Sharing these conflicts in conversation with other musicians make for very interesting rehearsals (like in chamber music).
In the rehearsal, a conductor can take one moment to:
Share a conflict that's on your mind
Invite commentary from the group of musicians about the conflict. Their thoughts, their ideas, or their possible solutions.
Allow space for there to be some discourse between musicians in the group, even if it ends in agreeing to disagree.
This quick process guides us to focus on one conflict and the consequences of the nuanced choices that can be made about that conflict. It helps us simply notice and be aware. It also helps us invest in the outcome together as a group. Even if not everyone agrees on what the solution is, there has been dialogue that offers open clarity in what the decision is and what we are all doing to execute it.
We are not bored when we feel a sense of specific purpose, progress, and motivation.
This can take as little as 2-3 minutes, which may feel like a lot - though it may just make the other 50 minutes way more productive. And way less boring.
Not all rehearsals are boring, of course, and this is not the only fix. Regardless, remembering that "every great movie has conflict" can inspire us to level up our meetings - and rehearsals!
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