Mr. Ryan's Summer Adventure Part 4- Rehearsal, rehearsal!

This is a picture of the schedule we used to organize our rehearsals with the participants about their "miniatures".  These pieces were written in six days during the festival.  We had only three days to learn and rehearse them before the concert!  

When learning a new piece (or several), a musician (young or old!) is likely to feel panicked and disoriented because there is too much new information for the brain to deal with all at once.  I certainly feel this way sometimes.  This feeling is called "cognitive dissonance", and it can be very uncomfortable.  Personally, I strongly prefer to practice in ways that minimize the amount of cognitive dissonance.  This means that I stick with one section or one element of the music until I am comfortable enough to add more.  For instance, if I wanted to learn to juggle while riding a unicycle, my first step would definitely NOT be to jump on the unicyle with flaming torches in my hands!  Of course, some cognitive dissonance is desirable because it lets me know I am working just at the edge of what I am able to do.  However, if those feelings become painful, I treat that as a signal that, perhaps, I am trying to do too much at once.  I believe students should look for their ideal balance of comfort vs. discomfort while learning their instrument to keep permanent frustration from setting in. 

Sometimes the cognitive dissonance can grow so painful that I eventually blurt out, "I hate this piece!"  Even if I'm not saying it out loud, I might be thinking it.  This can even happen to audience members who are listening to a piece for the first time.  The problem is obvious: although the discomfort comes from the newness of the piece, we might mistakenly assume instead that we don't like the piece.  Hardly fair to the composer!  

Sometimes the stress got to us.

Discomfort in the beginning stages is something the quartet is careful to keep from influencing us when preparing new works.  Whatever our initial impressions, we are careful to give each piece our best preparation and even our best imagination.  Without fail, each new work has grown on us as we become more familiar with it, and after good preparation on our part, the composer is able to offer surprising insights into their piece which really open up the music!  Personally, I concentrate on judiciously limiting the scope of my workload so I have the brain space to really understand what is happening in a piece.  

Happy practicing, all!  More on Dakota Chamber Music in a few days.  

-Mr. Ryan