When I left the symphonic world and started dealing with folks in the nine to five world, the difference in how people interacted was a major shock to me. A typical work week of a major orchestra is 8 services, or about 21.5 hours. Sounds like part time, but believe me, that’s a grueling, rip everything out of your guts schedule when you are expected to work at peak performance every single second.
There is nothing worse than being all pumped and “in the groove,” making stuff happen, only to experience “workus interruptus.” That’s why rehearsals, with a conductor stopping and making changes, were always less preferable than performances. Rehearsals, of course, are the symphonic world’s version of a meeting.
Rehearsals are generally viewed as an evil necessity. They are expensive and don’t produce any revenue, and so as little time as possible is allowed for them. This means management had to make maximum use out of every single second of rehearsal time.
In that culture, the mere idea of wasting even a second of rehearsal time is considered to be a cardinal sin. Any hesitation immediately lessens energy levels. Over-rehearsing takes away energy that could be used for the show. “Don’t wear it out– save it for the show” was a common phrase directed at people who rehearsed or practiced too much.
Anyway, since “meetings” for pro musicians had certain elements that I thought were highly superior to the average meeting, I thought I would share a few of these items just for fun, to wit:
Musicians are experts at subtle changes in time. Time is all. Therefore time is not to ever be wasted. A leader who wasted time lost all respect. So:
1) order the agenda so that if any one item on it concerns fewer people, schedule those last, so the others not involved in those items can leave early.
I confess, I was always jealous of tuba players and percussionists who got to leave rehearsals early, but at least I didn’t have to sit around playing cards during the concerto. Anyway, the pieces that used the most players were always rehearsed first, allowing the people not concerned with smaller instrumentation to leave. This was partly a discipline thing; if people have nothing to do and are getting bored, they inevitably cause trouble. Their lower energy (or noise of reading the paper) can infect the group. Do what they need to do and get them out of there.
2) Be ultra-organized with the paper elements.
One thing I absolutely loved about Boston Pops rehearsals was that the sheet music (12-15 pieces of many disparate shapes and sizes) was all in the folder IN REHEARSAL ORDER. You didn't have to focus on something other than playing the notes. (And before the show they would come and make sure it was all in program order for you.) Also any "cuts," etc., were all done for us by the librarians.
3) Treat time as a scarce commodity, even if it doesn’t seem to be right now.
(In symphony hall, dead center stage, there is a camouflaged cupboard. When opened, it reveals a huge digital clock which the conductor can't help but see.)
It may sound like arbitrary time limits may cause people to leave out important things, but in fact it often plays to your advantage– if there is a sense of urgency, this lifts the overall energy level. It also gives you an excuse to interrupt people who go off on tangents. This way the topic being discussed is always being compared to the amount of precious time left. If you treat time as cheap, then everyone feels enslaved. If no one, no matter how boring, can't be interrupted, then everyone gets bored, and focus and energy drops. Ugh.
There was an element of harsh rudeness in the realm of these union orchestra rehearsals. If a conductor got behind and ran out of time, that was his problem. The personnel managers were utterly heartless re: ending rehearsals on time. See you tonight. Good luck.
4) Start on time
We have a phrase in music which is “downbeat at eight o’clock.” That meant, whatever you have to do to get there, get tuned, get warmed up, whatever, that’s outside the start time. Be ready to start. If you let latecomers delay your start, you are disrespecting the very lives of those who came on time.
If you start on time regardless of who is there, after a while you will get a reputation, and even chronically late people will make the effort to be on time to your meetings. I played pops for 18 years and I never once saw a rehearsal start late. I only saw one person ever show up late. I am late to everything else, but I was never late to a Boston Pops rehearsal. Not once. If you start late, you are training people to show up late. (Of course, in Pops there were actually fines for being late.)
Time is precious. If you waste people’s time, you are displaying disrespect not just their expertise but also their existence. This inevitably leads to lower levels of performance. Why? Because by being careless, you are performing at a low level yourself, and your followers are mirroring that back to you. Followers always mirror the leader. Show respect for your follower’s time and they will have more respect for you. The more you save people’s time and energy, the more focused they become. Also they will be a lot more forgiving when that inevitable day comes when you screw up and accidentally waste a lot of their time.
There is a lot to be said for taking a lot of time on a given task, but that is more true of individual effort. In many cases, especially of a group doing a repetitive tasks, taking too much time to do a task is the enemy of group intensity and focus.
You can use time, e.g., releasing folks early from meetings, as a reward for greater intensity of focus. Don’t let the amount of time you have determine the level of focus and intensity. Aim for early dismissals whenever possible. Time is precious and a gift of extra time is a great bonus for the folks in your group.
© Justin Locke
