Baton down the hatches
Pet peeves about conductors’ rehearsal techniques:
1) not letting us get a sense of the movement as a whole before the picking starts.
2) picking too much. TRUST US (have we heard this before?)..
3) talking too much in general, but then, when there’s a funny story to break the tension, telling it in a soft-enough voice that only the first few stands of string players can hear it.
4) addressing remarks that are meant for the whole orchestra to the first violins alone.
5) addressing remarks that are meant for the whole section to the principal player alone.
6) making all the beats look the same.
7) starting the first rehearsal with the most delicate slow movement.
8) not acknowledging that someone has taken a conductor’s suggestion and actually done something to said conductor’s liking.
9) dwelling on a player’s mistakes. Give us a couple of tries.
10) not helping the players fix intonation. Sometimes you need an outside ear as a referee.
11) not fixing things that are obviously not working (ensemble, for example).
12) not wondering if a wrong note that gets played a third time might actually be a misprint.
13) keeping the rehearsal order a deep, dark secret.
14) wasting rehearsal time having us mark our parts.
15) doing pretty much anything that causes anxiety in the players, such as glaring.
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