Case Study

Ensemble is all about communication

Five post-graduate music college students, all very fine players in their own right –one wind quintet. They had only played together once before the coaching session. Watching their rehearsal, it was clear they were struggling – five very different personalities, disagreements over minutiae, inertia, little evidence of cooperation, and no apparent concept of the bigger picture.

They needed something to shift them out of their present way of looking at things. So I suggested they should stand up, move with their music stands to a different corner of the room, and face the wall, their backs to their colleagues. They needed to find a way to start playing together without normal eye contact, relying only on their ears. Coming together again, still standing so that they had more freedom to move, their playing showed immediate improvement. But there was still a long way to go. The next step was to play as much as they could from memory. They could only manage a couple of lines but their listening and co-operation as an ensemble had leapt forward.

The rehearsal continued, and personality issues really came to the fore again.

William let Emma know that she had not come in at the right time, telling her what she should have done instead. She became defensive, and from then on her playing deteriorated. We stopped the rehearsal and I asked Emma how she had felt about how William had spoken to her. She said it made her feel angry and she had not wanted to co-operate with him. I asked Lucy, the only other female student in the group what she would have done if she had been spoken to in the same way. She said that she would have done what she had been asked to do, but then at the end of the rehearsal she would have hidden away and cried. Everyone was surprised at these revelations, and each learned something from the incident. William saw how to heighten his awareness of what he might be expressing unconsciously, as well as how his words and actions were perceived by his ensemble partners. Emma learned how not to let anything disturb her own internal equilibrium and focus on her playing. Each learned how to notice the group dynamics, identify what was needed and then act upon that awareness – all taking responsibility rather than handing responsibility (or blame) to just one person.

At the end of the week’s coaching, the quintet performed their concert. They played standing up, with total freedom of movement, good eye contact and communication, and superb playing that was a credit to each one of them. More than that, it was true ensemble playing of the highest calibre.