I tend to move at a breakneck pace with my auditioned choir and push them as hard as I can. For several years now I have wanted to push the limits of what middle school singers can accomplish, and as a result I feel constant pressure, most of it coming from myself, to keep my Prairie Voices working every minute of every rehearsal. We only get 45 minutes a day, and it's gotten worse this year because we have lost 20% of our rehearsal time this year due to this homeroom/character education class that meets every Monday. This school year I have felt like I am constantly under the gun, and that I cannot waste a single second of rehearsal.
Yesterday though, I made a conscious effort to slow down. I didn't start warming them up immediately at the bell (though most of them were standing in their spots on the risers at the last bell...finally...after weeks of me trying to train them to do that), but instead I moved at a more leisurely pace. I talked to a some individual students, told a few jokes, just tried to get a more relaxed vibe going compared to our usual speed.
Then I started addressing them as a group. I hadn't really planned to do this, but the words just sort of spilled out: I told them how hard all of these changes have been for me, the changes in our start time, the changes in losing Prairie Voices on Monday, and that I've noticed a lot of my students struggling with the changes as well. I said only now, almost five weeks in, am I starting to feel like I'm adapting to the new schedule. I addressed the just overall "down" atmosphere to the start of the year that I had been feeling from some of my students, particularly my eighth graders: continually wishing that last year's eighth graders were still here, an abundance of self-deprecation and negative self-talk, acting like the year was a lost cause when it had barely started.
I told my kids that I understood that they had real struggles in their lives and that I did not want to dismiss their struggles as insignificant or invalid. However, I also wanted to challenge them to focus on the things within their control to try and make positive changes to what they could control, like their reactions to situations and how they approached each day.
Then we had rehearsal, and it was awesome! The energy totally shifted...things hadn't been bad before, but all of a sudden the choir felt more connected, more positive, and the rest of our rehearsal went really well. It wasn't the most musically productive rehearsal in history, but slowing the pace of rehearsal allowed me to be a human being with them and to show them some care and attention that I'd been neglecting lately in favor of pushing them through the rep. While I wasn't initially planning to do so, I was also able to address something that needed to be addressed with my students in a positive, proactive way. The result was an important step in building the culture of my choir, something that I highly value in my program. I need to remind myself more often that while I have a tendency to think that the culture of my choirs has already been built and is firmly in place, it will only stay that way if I tend to it and nourish it throughout the year, every year.
So the lesson here is that as choral directors we need to remember to just slow down every now and again. The concert, that end product we're always working towards, won't be affected much one way or another if we take 5 minutes, 10 minutes, even an entire class period every once in a while to change up our pacing and be present with our singers in a different way. The positive impact that this small amount of time can make, however, may end up being far greater and paying the kinds of non-musical dividends that make your choir healthier and happier in the long run. This is not groundbreaking by any means, but when we are feeling under constant pressure to make sure our choirs are performance ready, it can be astonishingly easy to forget.
Perhaps if you haven't taken a little time for your singers out of your rehearsals lately, and if you have an October concert like I do then I certainly understand why, maybe this can be a reminder to take some time in the next few rehearsals to slow things down with your choir and just enjoy them and the moment.
Yesterday though, I made a conscious effort to slow down. I didn't start warming them up immediately at the bell (though most of them were standing in their spots on the risers at the last bell...finally...after weeks of me trying to train them to do that), but instead I moved at a more leisurely pace. I talked to a some individual students, told a few jokes, just tried to get a more relaxed vibe going compared to our usual speed.
Then I started addressing them as a group. I hadn't really planned to do this, but the words just sort of spilled out: I told them how hard all of these changes have been for me, the changes in our start time, the changes in losing Prairie Voices on Monday, and that I've noticed a lot of my students struggling with the changes as well. I said only now, almost five weeks in, am I starting to feel like I'm adapting to the new schedule. I addressed the just overall "down" atmosphere to the start of the year that I had been feeling from some of my students, particularly my eighth graders: continually wishing that last year's eighth graders were still here, an abundance of self-deprecation and negative self-talk, acting like the year was a lost cause when it had barely started.
I told my kids that I understood that they had real struggles in their lives and that I did not want to dismiss their struggles as insignificant or invalid. However, I also wanted to challenge them to focus on the things within their control to try and make positive changes to what they could control, like their reactions to situations and how they approached each day.
"This year can be a great year, but only if you make it great."
Then we had rehearsal, and it was awesome! The energy totally shifted...things hadn't been bad before, but all of a sudden the choir felt more connected, more positive, and the rest of our rehearsal went really well. It wasn't the most musically productive rehearsal in history, but slowing the pace of rehearsal allowed me to be a human being with them and to show them some care and attention that I'd been neglecting lately in favor of pushing them through the rep. While I wasn't initially planning to do so, I was also able to address something that needed to be addressed with my students in a positive, proactive way. The result was an important step in building the culture of my choir, something that I highly value in my program. I need to remind myself more often that while I have a tendency to think that the culture of my choirs has already been built and is firmly in place, it will only stay that way if I tend to it and nourish it throughout the year, every year.
So the lesson here is that as choral directors we need to remember to just slow down every now and again. The concert, that end product we're always working towards, won't be affected much one way or another if we take 5 minutes, 10 minutes, even an entire class period every once in a while to change up our pacing and be present with our singers in a different way. The positive impact that this small amount of time can make, however, may end up being far greater and paying the kinds of non-musical dividends that make your choir healthier and happier in the long run. This is not groundbreaking by any means, but when we are feeling under constant pressure to make sure our choirs are performance ready, it can be astonishingly easy to forget.
Perhaps if you haven't taken a little time for your singers out of your rehearsals lately, and if you have an October concert like I do then I certainly understand why, maybe this can be a reminder to take some time in the next few rehearsals to slow things down with your choir and just enjoy them and the moment.
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