Yearn for the Sea

This chapter concludes the book with a range of advice and reminders for the conductor/educator. These recommendations include guidance about professional behavior, how to cultivate a growth mindset, effective approaches to taking over a choral program from a colleague, and the imperative to reach out for professional support and assistance when necessary. The author examines the importance for conductors to reconnect daily with the passion that first drew them to their chosen field. Finally, the chapter draws inspiration from a letter written by a fifteen-year-old who credits acquiring the joy of discovery in all learning through her experiences as a choral musician.

The Ringelmann Effect

This chapter examines the myriad ways that individuals in a group can function. In a rehearsal environment, conductors who understand group dynamics can endeavor to counteract the common negative effects of group work, and elevate the positive aspects of working within a team. The chapter further explores methods to create accountability in the choral rehearsal, with the goal of inspiring each individual singer to consistently put forth their full effort. Additionally, the author discusses various methods for designing effective assessments that will encourage practice and accountability. This chapter also examines the role priming can play in setting up a positive rehearsal environment, and considers the positive and negative effects of stress on one’s ability to learn.

Identifying Ways We Learn

This chapter examines the validity and relevance of two frequently discussed educational theories: Multiple Intelligence Theory and Learning Styles. Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence Theory encourages educators to look beyond the standard IQ test as a single measurement of a student’s potential. Rather, he encourages educators to look at students more holistically as defined by eight different intelligences. The chapter continues by explaining that scientific studies do not support the commonly held belief that students learn best through their preferred learning style. Instead, research demonstrates that information learned through multiple sensory entry points will have more triggers for recollection, thus increasing chances for recall. The author shares a variety of exercises created to take advantage of this brain principle in the choral rehearsal. This chapter further explores the brain’s affinity as a pattern-seeking device to respond to structure, and ways to use that affinity as an aid to learning.

Score Study—Look at Your Fish!

This chapter explores various methods for thoroughly learning a score. Although not the focal point of this book, having a well-prepared score before stepping onto the podium will provide better opportunities to design engaging and productive rehearsals. Each broad category of score study (such as text, time, architecture, harmony, etc.) includes sample brain-compatible rehearsal strategies. The chapter concludes with a consideration of frequently asked questions regarding how best to prepare a score for rehearsals and performance. Topics include methods for marking a score, how much or how little to listen to recordings, use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, and how to introduce a new score to your ensemble.

The Write Choice

This chapter examines the use of writing as a tool for learning and retention in the choral rehearsal. Writing ensures a level of participation in analytical exercises not guaranteed during discussions, where students can easily disengage without notice. This chapter also notes the opportunity that writing can afford to the more introverted students, or those less likely to speak up to share their insights. The author suggests numerous ways to incorporate writing into various points of a rehearsal, such as during the opening minutes, at midway points, as exit cards at the conclusion, those occasions when singers need to sit out, or as journal entries written during or outside of rehearsal. No matter the type of writing activity, whether reflective, predictive, analytical, or summative, the chapter investigates exercises that keep students mentally engaged, encouraging creative and active participation in rehearsal.

It’s All in Your Mind

This chapter explores strategies to maintain student focus in a world of ever-shrinking attention spans. The author examines the use of mindfulness as a rehearsal tool both to encourage sharpened attention, and to reenergize a lagging rehearsal. The chapter looks at research that supports mindfulness as a significant strategy to improve focus and skillfully deal with distractions, which can thereby yield benefits to rehearsal engagement and enjoyment. This chapter also explores the importance of maintaining a positive atmosphere in rehearsal, and ways educators can avoid unintentionally creating an environment of learned helplessness, the situation where students’ repeated, perceived failures discourage future efforts. It discusses how maintaining a high level of focus, positivity, and creative flow in rehearsal will more likely result in concert performances that reflect these qualities as well.

The Search for Meaning

This chapter explores research findings that the brain more easily remembers information it deems useful, relevant, or meaningful. In addition, the brain will pay particular attention to information containing emotional content. The neural mechanisms underlying emotion, motivation, and learning intertwine. The author shares various exercises to take advantage of this aspect of brain function, encouraging singers to find meaning and relevance to their own lives in the texts and music they perform. While perhaps difficult to achieve in an algebra class, the choral classroom provides an ideal environment to encourage an emotional connection to learning by encouraging singers to develop backstories and a deep personal understanding of the texts they sing. Humor is included in the range of emotions that will help encode memories and can be another useful tool in rehearsal.

Fooling Father Time

This chapter discusses varied methods for achieving what psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi calls “flow,” the feeling that all members of a team are working smoothly and effectively together. In order to achieve flow in rehearsal, instructions must be delivered clearly and efficiently. Based on music education research and the author’s many years of experience, this chapter examines the mechanics of giving short and cogent instructions. It further explores lessons from thin-slicing research about the importance of one’s tone of voice when delivering instructions and the impact of non-verbal behaviors. Conductors can benefit from research on interleaving, which involves taking advantage of spaced practice and the mixing of learning activities when structuring rehearsals. The chapter further examines how rehearsal efficiency will increase when conductors understand the primacy/recency effect, the phenomenon that people remember best what happens first in a learning episode, and they remember second best what happens last.

Problem Solving

This chapter examines how to design rehearsal strategies that take advantage of the brain’s natural tendency to learn efficiently through problem solving. After a brief discussion of the science of learning, this chapter offers pragmatic exercises and ideas to increase singer engagement through the embedding of problem solving throughout the rehearsal process. Areas explored include how to begin rehearsal with a problem to solve, encouraging autonomous decision-making from your singers, experimentation with tuning forks, and teaching your students to self-monitor. It also looks at ways to allow for singer analysis and experimentation, create provisions for follow up, incorporate reflective exercises, use the Socratic method, and utilize collaborative problem-solving techniques in rehearsal.

Conducting Tips

Since efficient and communicative gesture enhances good rehearsal technique, this chapter presents twelve conducting tips to encourage an extensive and varied gestural vocabulary, with the goal of eliciting a full range of expressive responses from singers. Additionally, the chapter explores implications for conductors of the “chameleon effect,” the tendency of people to unintentionally mimic the behaviors and expressions of others. From postural alignment to the shape of their lip position, research has shown that singers will unknowingly imitate a conductor’s physical behaviors. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the pros and cons of conducting concerts completely from memory.