Music Is Not All Tears

I had my first rehearsal for a gig I do every year with a training orchestra here in town.  It's a lovely group, and the conductor is fantastic.  I played about half a movement of a piano concerto and Jupiter my time with his group ten years ago, and every year there is something really interesting going on in the group.  I have fun when I go to rehearsal, and this year is no different.  However, I was thinking about all the posts I see on Tumblr about crying and practicing and the like.  I wasn't perfect, but I wasn't crying.

Learn To Laugh At Your Mistakes

If you are laughing at your mistakes, you tend to get over them faster.  You are not to be so amused that you do not appear to care, but you should be able to laugh at yourself and say "Maybe I'll play that right next time" or "Oh, I actually played it right that time."  It won't be wrong at the next rehearsal, and you can enjoy yourself while in rehearsal.  Remember, I'm getting paid, and I'm laughing at myself...because I know what I'm doing.

Interact

Be interactive in rehearsal.  You cannot sit there and say nothing, and you cannot be the person who picks out every little perceived problem on the part.  You need to play your part well, ask questions if they really need asking and pipe up every now and then to let the conductor know you're still alive.  This is more fun because piping up leads to some fun banter between you and the people around you or even the conductor.  I was doing an Austin Powers impression in rehearsal...I don't know about you, but that's way more fun than sitting there all stone faced and angry because there might be a wrong note in this new part and I am going to theoretically analyze it to prove I'm right when I bring it up because how dare the conductor give us parts with wrong notes on them.  Just a tip--SHIT HAPPENS.  Play well, take it seriously, but have fun.

Don't Be Shy

I'm not necessarily advocating messing with the conductor, but I am advocating playing out until you get told to shut up.  You will have some nice exchanges over the quality of your sound this way.  You can see how far you can go, and you will learn how the group sounds.  This is especially important if you have not really played with most of these people before.  I play loud enough to get one dirty look from a flutist in front of me every rehearsal, and I love it.  They're not used to it, and I'm not playing out of tone, so it usually works :)

Don't Take Critiques Seriously

It's just a critique.  Like, I played the same passage out of time a couple times in this last rehearsal because I didn't want to insert as much space as was required because there was a phrase marking on the paper.  I tried to play it in a cute fashion, and it didn't work.  He got on my case ever so slightly, then I said I would stop playing it cute and it was fine.  That's all.  No hard feelings.  This conductor is a great guy.  Sidenote:  You can tell when the conductor is actually being horrible to you...make sure you discern the difference.

Don't Be Too Prepared

What I mean is, you are not so prepared that you can't flow with the group.  It's like the freshman who says "this is my spot."  That doesn't work...you need to know your part, but you need to flexible so you can move with the group and the feeling you get from the music.  This is NOT like playing excerpts for auditions (which is a flawed system in and of itself because it never accounts for musical feeling.)  This is just going with the flow.  If you're thinking that you have to railroad everyone to play your tempo, that won't work.  You need to follow everyone else.

Remove Anxiety

Well, that's what we just did.  Get rid of the anxiety and you are going to have more fun.  Playing your instrument is fun...even if college made you forget that.