Now this doesn't mean that if you're conducting along and you
hear, you're calibrated, let's say for balance ,or rhythmic ensemble, or
a specific issue of rhythmic ensemble between these voices and the
way the chords are balanced in the clarinet and bassoon line.
You're, and then something else goes really
wrong rhythmically or pitch-wise with the double basses.
It's not that you ignore that, because well, no, I'm
listening to that and I don't care what happens anywhere else.
Of course you can stop and say, oh well that popped out too.
Because your brain is going to be listening to more things at once.
But don't be too intimidated by the idea that,
I don't think I can listen to everything at the same time.
You're not expected to, especially early on.
Through your planning, you're going to calibrate your ears to listen selectively.
So what do we do in a concert or on a run-through?
What do we choose to listen to there?
Well, there we're calibrating for big picture sort of issues.
Are we together?
Are we shaping the phrase in the right, in the right way?
Are there wrong notes and rhythms that are popping out that we need to fix?
These sorts of things and you might calibrate a little more generically.
So you might go more towards 4% on that, 4% on
that, 4% on that, 4% on that, because we want to monitor everything.
We just have to accept that we can't
monitor everything at full power, unless we know.
Okay, we're going to run it, but I've got to be
very aware of how those crescendos are working, and the strings.
Very aware of that so we calibrate that way.
So get in the habit of thinking like
this, and planning in advance what you're listening for.
And of course, not only planning in adv, in advance what you're listening
for, but what you're expecting and looking to come out of the ensemble.
It' snot simply enough to say, I'm calibrated to listen to phrasing in
the second violins or in the violin line or in the melody line.
That's not enough.
You have to know what the phrase is
supposed to sound like, what you think based on
your score study and based on your own musical
instincts what that, what that line should sound like.
Calibrating your hears to listen selectively.