Lesson video

Hi there everyone, and welcome to this final lesson in our unit where we will be rehearsing, performing, and appraising our minimalist performances.

This is from our compose and rehearse unit where we are combining and creating minimalist cells.

My name is Mr. Croughan and I'm looking forward to hearing how your minimalist performances have developed over time.

Let's go.

By the end of this lesson, you will have rehearsed effectively for a performance and then made improvements after receiving feedback.

Looking at today's keywords, we have practice, to deliberately make an effort to improve our skills, in our context, musical skills.

To rehearse, which is to practice in order to prepare for a performance.

When we perform, we're presenting, we're presenting music, we're playing, or we're singing for an audience.

And when we appraise, we're listening actively and critically in order to evaluate a piece of music.

And then evaluate, that's assessing the quality and the enjoyment of a musical performance, taking into account things like stage presence, accuracy of playing, and our musicality.

We'll warm up because we are all going to be performing together today and we want to make sure that our minds and our bodies and voices are all alert and awake.

So you're going to pause here, use the backing track, have a leader, I imagine this might have got slightly more complex over the weeks as you've played.

So have a leader leading those four actions that you can respond to once you are watching everybody keeping in time to the pulse.

Then you can practice your posture, your yawning and sighing and all the rest of it, to make sure that you are fully engaged and ready to perform.

Off you go.

There are three further warmups on this page.

You can sing "Rise Up O Flame." You could sing "Fruit Canon" in as many parts as you wish, and you might play "Who Stole the Cookie from the Cookie Jar?" You're gonna decide what's useful in your classroom.

Are you thinking about keeping that steady pulse? Are we listening to each other while we're singing? So pause here, warm up further with what's gonna suit you best, and we'll come back and crack on.

Off you go.

So if we're feeling focused and warm and ready to play as an ensemble, let's move on.

There are two learning cycles.

The first we will rehearse for our performance, and the second one, we'll evaluate and improve these minimalism performances.

Let's begin with our rehearsal.

We'll start by listening to "Ellis Island" for two pianos.

This is the piece we've heard before composed by Meredith Monk.

Now the sounds of the two pianos overlap seamlessly and as she describes it, to create one stream of sounds like water flowing gently down a river.

Pause here and have a listen.

Lovely, so for that to take place, those two pianists would need to both practice and rehearse to prepare for that seamless performance.

Now, Jun says, "When I need to improve my part in an ensemble, I practice on my own to work on the tricky parts and to tidy up my playing." And then Izzy says, "When I can play my part, I rehearse in my ensemble.

So once I've got it by myself, I can bring it to the ensemble and we work together to prepare for our performance." Now, this might be useful for us.

We're going to practice, we'll rehearse as an ensemble, we'll perform, we'll appraise each other after we've listened to them, and evaluate, and then we'll be able to have an opportunity to play again.

So think about your part.

What bit might you need to practice on your own so that that rehearsal altogether can be successful? What bit is it? Is it if you are playing the rhythmic cell, you can play it, but when you're repeating it, does it stay quite as neat? Maybe it's that bit.

Is it how you're playing a xylophone? Is it just neatening the sound? Is it your control of an instrument when you're playing the drone, think about what it is that you need to work on.

And you'll take some time to practice your part on your own.

There's some pointers there for you to think about.

Are you playing the instrument correctly? Is your rhythm or your tune accurate? Is your tempo controlled? You're not quickening or slowing down, or it's erratic, it's keeping a steady pulse underneath.

And can you control those changes in your dynamics? When is it when you're playing and think, "Oh yes, after a while I get louder," or whatever it might be.

So pause here and take a moment to neaten and practice those bits individually.

Off you go.

And so now we're ready to bring those parts together and rehearse as an ensemble.

We think about rehearsing because when we're performing, if it's in front of an audience, that can be quite nerve-wracking.

There's people watching us, expecting us to get it right, and we want to, we want to entertain the audience.

We want to give them a taste of the music that we've created.

So rehearsing can help settle our nerves because we feel more prepared, we know what we're doing.

And when we rehearse, we can listen to our sound and we can make improvements.

So we're listening, we're playing all together thinking, "Am I too loud? Is that sound balance just right? Are we in time together?" And it also helps us to understand our part.

"Oh yes, it's this bit when I play and it's this bit when I stop and then I come back in again a bit later." We can see how it fits in to the bigger picture.

Also rehearsing our dynamics together.

So if we are changing dynamics at the same time, like there's a moment when we all swell, it gets louder, we all get quieter.

That rehearsing together really makes those bits magical.

And of course, remember, it's supposed to be fun.

So some effective ways to rehearse together might include play it slower first.

If there's a bit that you're playing, your monodic cell repeats, and it's a tiny bit challenging and the rhythms just need to be a bit neater, or your accuracy on your instrument, slow down, play it slowly, then play it quicker.

There's no point in rushing and not being accurate.

Choose a person not to play each time your five, or however many of you there are, are rehearsing.

Choose one person not to play and they just sit back and listen.

That cell will be missing, but as long as everyone knows what they're doing, they can hear and concentrate on the sound and then be swap out, and a different person could do that too.

You could choose to focus on the tricky bits first.

If there's an easy bit, why do you keep playing that? Why don't you focus on the tricky bit, nail that bit, master that, then put it all back together.

Following a leader is really useful too, especially with that dynamic changes.

So Lloyd in the paraorchestra, he was leading and bringing people in and really helping by being an ensemble leader.

If you have a leader, certainly choose one for the dynamic changes and what simple gestures they're using for getting louder or for getting quieter.

And is the sound balanced? You could decide on a signal for when you come in.

Is someone holding up a finger? Is someone giving a one, two, three, four? And what is it that's going to help you know when to come in? Also, a last thought is when you're performing on stage, you want ideally people to hear you and to see you and for your performance to look and sound neat.

So deciding on which order you sit or stand in, whether that's flat or in a semicircle, or whatever you might want to lay it out, is going to be helpful.

And you can always just check then from that position, can you hear each other and can you see in your sight lines your fellow musicians, so you are playing well in time together? True or false? Practicing and rehearsing, that's always the same thing.

Is that true or is that false? Interesting question.

I wonder what we think, give us a thumbs up if you think, "Yeah, I'll go along with that." Or a thumbs down if you think "Not so sure." Are practicing and rehearsing the same thing? Well, it's been described that to think of practicing as improving your ability to play your part and rehearsing as that preparation for a performance when we bring it all together, almost similar to when an actor goes and learns their lines before coming into a rehearsal to rehearse it all together with everyone else.

As an ensemble now, this is your first practice task, you are going to rehearse your minimalist piece effectively for your performance.

Thinking about positioning yourselves well so you can see and hear each other.

If you've got a leader that's bringing you in, keeping you in time, showing you the dynamics, make sure you can see that person too.

And rehearsing each entry so you all know when you begin and when you finish.

If we're thinking, "Oh, we must wait four bars of the main melody before that rhythm starts," "Oh, we must remember that the drone goes all the way through," whatever it is, make sure you all know, each individual player, when you begin and when you finish playing your part.

And if there's that ensemble leader or your counting to know, "Oh, I play the flourish at this point, oh, and later on I wait a bit and then I play the flourish at the end," whenever, it's just really good to establish that you clearly know that.

Before you begin.

Everyone's ready, everyone's about to start.

But how do you all know you're going to play at the same tempo? I think it's gonna be useful to, for someone, maybe an ensemble leader, to count you in.

Or if everyone is clearly seeing the steady pulse, even if you're in three beats in the bar, everyone's going "One, two, three, one, two, three, bum!" So we can feel that steady pulse.

You can rehearse at different tempi.

You can go slower and speed up to decide on which is the optimum tempo for our performance.

And then the balance of sound, especially if someone can't step out and just have a listen, are those dynamics working? That bit where you get louder, is it just right? When we're playing quietly, has the drone got quiet enough? What do we think? What do we like? Balancing the sound will really elevate your performance.

So enjoy that, enjoy your rehearsal, and I'll see you when you're done.

Great stuff.

I'm sure you were very effective and efficient in your rehearsal.

If you were, you're probably feeling confident and ready, hopefully excited to perform.

And you know what you're doing.

You understand your part in the ensemble.

You've probably decided on an effective layout for your ensembles.

When you're setting up for that performance, everyone knows where they're sat or stood.

And that you can now play your part with ease and you can concentrate on how that fits into the ensemble.

You know your part so well.

You're adding in those dynamic changes together.

You know when you're starting and stopping.

And it's clean.

And that you're all happy with the structure.

How does it go? The tempo? Yep, that's the right tempo for us.

And the dynamics.

Oh, I like watching the leader that shows us when to get louder.

All of those things indicate that you've rehearsed really well.

So onto our second learning cycle is where we evaluate and improve our minimalist performance.

Now this idea of evaluating and improving, we can listen to other people and it can sometimes be hard to take on board if someone's saying that they didn't just love it.

They might say, "How about this? How about that? That little bit could do with a bit of neatening" or whatever.

And we have to constructively take that, knowing that everyone wants everyone else to do well, okay? We're starting from a good place.

We are actively listening to each other's music so that we can evaluate it.

So we're not looking for faults or that wasn't very good.

We're thinking about everyone and how to make the whole performance even better.

So it could be things such as, "Well, when you get loud, make sure everyone gets loud" or "That bit, I think you're starting to speed up.

So if everyone keeps watching that ensemble leader or you're feeling that steady pulse, it's gonna sound even better." Whatever.

And when we're evaluating, we're thinking, "How successful was this performance? Did it do what we want it to do?" And as an audience member, you're thinking, "Those performers really engaged me.

I really enjoyed listening to their piece.

The performance was accurate.

They were all neat and in time and I liked its minimalist style and they looked quite neat the way they laid themselves out there.

That was good.

I wonder what other suggestions I might offer if they were to do it again." Quick check in before we do that, just match the musical term to its definition for me.

You've got practice, rehearse, appraise, and evaluate.

We've got four different verbs on the side and I would like you to have a look at the descriptions on the right and match them up.

I'm gonna pause here.

It won't take you a moment.

Off you go.

Lovely.

Let's see how you did.

I'm sure you did very well.

The practice is when we make an effort to improve our musical skills, often independently, I'll work on my bit before bringing it to the full rehearsal.

When we rehearse, we're practicing to improve and prepare for our performance.

That's when we have come together and we are building our performance as a ensemble.

To appraise, that's when we're listening in order to evaluate it.

So I'm appraising it, I'm listening actively, thinking what I really liked, and where ideas can be developed further.

And then that evaluation, what was that performance like? High quality.

Really enjoyed myself.

All those things.

Very well done.

You are now going to take it in turns to perform your pieces for your class.

So each group, each ensemble is going to perform theirs.

Everyone else is going to be active listeners so that you are ready to critically appraise and evaluate the performances you hear.

So what will happen is a group will perform and then you might use sentence starters such as, "Oh, I really connected with this piece because that sound was" whatever, "This piece made me think of a flowing stream," whatever it might be.

"The most striking part was that drone because it drove the music forward," whatever.

"What I found interesting was the instrumentation you used or the use of dynamics were really effective here because." Okay? There some ideas.

Listen to each group in turn and then give that constructive feedback after each one.

Off you go.

Great.

So now it's up to you.

In your ensembles, you've heard that feedback.

You heard what people really enjoyed.

You might have heard some ideas of where they thought some neatening could happen or "Did you mean for this" or, "I really like that the dynamic change happened there." What bits are you gonna just keep and take on board and are the bits that you think, "Well, I actually don't quite agree with that.

We wanted it loud for ages at that bit," or whatever.

You don't have to alter it necessarily for the audience.

You are taking on board the constructive feedback to make your performance more how you want it to be.

So as an ensemble, listen to each other, take on board that feedback and have a chat about it.

And then rehearse for a final time preparing for your bigger performance.

Just use that feedback you've received to structure your rehearsal time.

If someone picked up a specific moment, maybe rehearse that specific moment first and then put it back into the full piece.

Pause here and reflect on that now with your final rehearsal.

Off you go.

Wonderful.

Really well done.

Now this final task might be something you do in the lesson or it might be something that you schedule to happen at a later time.

For example, you might go and share this with another class, or perhaps it's something that you're going to perform it in an assembly or a sharing, or even inviting people in from the wider community, families at home, all that sort of thing, to come and enjoy what you've created.

Whenever you perform it, make sure that you're warmed up, that everyone knows the tempo that you're playing at, and that everyone can see, follow a leader, and really enjoy the work that you've created.

Best of luck.

Off you go.

Fantastic.

Well done, well done, well done, well done.

So reflecting on your performance then, were there some changes you made from that first performance to the second one? Did you take some feedback on board? And what did you enjoy about having that second opportunity to perform? Did it give you an extra chance to still have time to improve and to listen to feedback to make your performance even better? And if you performed again, anything more you would change? We always are refining our performances.

What might you change next time? And think about yourself.

What are your strengths as a performer? Is it that ability to lead, that ability to stay in time, that you are listening so well to the whole ensemble to help get the balance of sound right? What are your strengths? And really well done for thinking about that.

Lastly, any areas of performance that you would like to work on further? What is it that you're building on? Think of yourself.

"Ah, I need to listen more to what's going on around me.

I need to concentrate on my steady paths.

I need to make sure that I'm being accurate with the instrument that I'm playing." Whatever it might be, think about where you are going next and how you continue to improve as a musician.

Great job.

In summary for today then, effective practice and rehearsal, quite likely gonna lead to a successful performance.

And when we rehearse together, it's helpful to think about our rehearsal techniques.

How are we rehearsing? What bit are we doing to make it better? Is it practicing the tricky bits? Is it starting off slower and getting quicker? What's gonna help us as an ensemble? Successful ensemble players, they really understand their role in their ensemble.

They know exactly what they're doing and they can feel confident.

And then as part of your wider team of your ensemble, you are all feeling more confident and prepared together.

And getting that feedback.

That's a really helpful way to try new things and to make improvements.

"Oh, I hadn't thought of that idea.

Oh yes, we'll definitely improve with that." And performing can really help you realize where your strengths and even your weaknesses in a piece of music that you are playing lie and help you develop more as a musician as you go on.

Very well done for this unit and I'll see you again soon.

All the best.

Bye for now.