Today was the first rehearsal of my sixth season in (silly name redacted for privacy) orchestra. Here are some things I know, going into my sixth year, that I didn't going into my first.
-The first rehearsal after the summer break and the first rehearsal after the winter break are the best your chops will feel all year. Eventually you just come around to feeling like sore and beat up is normal, and fresh and rested is an unusual day.
-Lipping up all the time wastes your face, and playing loud all the time wastes your face, but lipping up while playing as loud as you can is a great way to be toast after five minutes.
-All the method books work on getting the fronts of notes to speak right, but most of the time on the job it's the ends of notes that make you feel silly.
-Don't eat or drink anything during the rehearsal if you can help it, and try to go pretty light on the lunch in between
-Even if you don't like chapstick, you still have to wear chapstick
-You have to be able to distinguish the genuine conductor feedback (stuff they actually heard and want fixed) from the stock phrases that they trot out because they're up in front of everyone and feel like they should talk. Nod appreciatively at both, but you don't have to actually do anything different if they start going on about "playing right on the stick."
-Stay hydrated. Don't drink too much coffee.
-80% of your missed notes won't be because you're doing something wrong technically, just because you aren't quite focused. So drink enough coffee to be alert.
-15% of your missed notes could have been solved by sitting down with the part ahead of time and giving it a thorough enough look to figure out where the problem spots are going to be.
-But if you only have an hour to practice and a bunch of folders of new music, it's better to spend the hour on keeping your fundamentals up. Because you can't play anything when your chops are messed up.
-99% of the time you don't need to play as loud as you think you do.
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