I'm not the one starting up an orchestra.
Since I'm working up in Portland I thought it would be fun to see what's going on in the local music scene. At work I saw a couple flyers for a string orchestra centered around employees and emailed the conductor.
A couple weeks later, I started attending rehearsals. Though the music is really easy, its nice to keep playing my violin on a regular basis. The biggest change since then is that we're becoming some sort of dual entity. Because we don't have enough players in general, the conductor has navigated lots of obstacles to turn the orchestra into a combined work-affiliated orchestra and a youth symphony.
Last week, we did an exhibition and had local kids come in and rehearse with us. It'll be interesting to see if there is any decent local talent. It also takes me back to a previous college symphony orchestras I've been in.
I'd always come late to rehearsal because of work. I end up walking in looking like a bum and sit in the back of the 1st violin section. Because attendance at rehearsals always varied, I'd always sit with different people and then figure out who my stand partner was right before the concert. It would also turn out that my standpartner would sometimes need help.
If you're not familiar with the organization of orchestra seating...there are several different sections composed of different instrument parts. For string instruments, you usually have 1st and 2nd violins, violas, cellos, and basses. I have played in 1st and 2nd violin and viola sections before.
Typical 1st violin mentality: "I have a solo...all the time. It's not me that's rushing...it's everyone else that's lagging."
Typical 2nd violin mentality: "Damn 1st violins are rushing again."
Since I'm primarily a violinist...it's not that fair for me to project upon violists. When I play viola I think: "Love the mellow sound...wish I had more solos."
My imagination of the mentality of a cellist: "Man...another boring rhythm section. When that section solo comes I'm going to wail away on my cello with a tortured look and break the heart of that cute guy/girl in the 3rd row."
My imagination of the mentality of a bassist: "Wassssssssssuuuuuuuuuuup. Hear me rumble on my basssssssssssssssssssssssssssss."
Sections are usually laid out in order of ability. Better players in the front, closer to the conductor...lesser players in the back. This can be detrimental if there is a wide range of talent in the orchestra. Having played in the back of several sections due to my lateness, I can safely say that a common mentality of players in the back of a section is:
"I don't want to come in at the wrong time so I'm going to start playing after see people in front of me start playing."
What happens then is that there is a lag between the front and back of a section. For a section to minimize that lag, it is even more important for players in the back to start playing on time because it takes a little longer for their sound to travel to the audience.
Anyway, when I would sit in the back of a section and come in on our cue at the right time, it helped other people around me come in on time too. Some of my 2nd violin friends used to say that they'd listen for me to figure out when to come in because they knew I was reliable. Or at least...not afraid to screw up. Since I didn't depend on the section leader to for cues and did my own counting...I'd come in when I thought it was the right time. Invariably, I'd mess up my counting sometimes and have my own solo before the rest of the section would start playing.
In any case, I used to coach my standpartners a little bit and so I'm looking forward to helping out high school and middle school kids. Mentoring can be a big responsibility and time commitment. Doing in orchestra is less of a commitment and seems like a good way to get my feet wet with teaching. I'll probably try teaching kids someday but have declined all inquiries thus far because it is too much of a responsibility in my eyes. Why?
When I give pointers to adults, I can talk in their language and they typically have a desire to get better. When people teach kids, they typically have to turn things in games in order to encourage and motivate them. This is something I need to learn how to do because I was not like this as a kid. I remember enjoying music and wanting to play more songs rather than having to be motivated to play games. I remember my parents playing music CDs and tapes all the time and wanting to play more difficult pieces. All those things that teachers do for their students, like putting tape markers to mark where the fingers go...I bypassed that stage pretty fast. I wonder if the biggest difference between my family and other families at that time was...somehow we were encouraged by a love of music from a young age.
Rather than having to make up games to motivate kids to play, I'd rather figure how to inspire a love of music in kids.
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