their heads in the score, and those who have the score in their heads"!
Study the individual voice parts, so as to find out so far as possible beforehand where the difficult spots are and mark these with blue pencil, so that when you want to drill on these places, you may be able to put your finger on them quickly. It is very easy to lose the attention of your performers by delay in finding the place which you want them to practise. It is a good plan, also, to mark with blue pencil some of the more important dynamic and tempo changes so that these may be obvious to the eye when you are standing several feet from the desk.
Decide beforehand upon some plan of studying each composition, and if a number of works are to be taken up at any given rehearsal, think over in advance the order in which they are to be studied. In brief, make a plan for each rehearsal, writing it out if necessary, and thus avoid wasting time in deciding what is to be done.
In case you are a choir director, learn also to plan your services weeks or even months in advance,[1] and then keep working toward the complete carrying out of your plan by familiarizing your musicians with the material as far in advance of the public performance as possible. In this way the music is absorbed, as it were, and the singers and players are much more apt to feel at ease in performing it than when it has been taken up at only one or two rehearsals.
DISCIPLINE IN THE REHEARSALIt is impossible to conduct well unless you have the absolute attention of every singer or player. Hence the discipline at all rehearsals must be rather strict and the performers must be trained to keep their eyes on you practically all the time. (In the case of choral music, it would be well to have a great deal more of it entirely- ↑ The complete list of works to be given by leading symphony orchestras during the entire season is usually decided upon during the preceding summer, and somewhat the same procedure might profitably followed with a church choir or an amateur orchestra.
