My eldest daughter, Grace is in an orchestra project called ‘Bandwise’ in Nottingham.
It’s extraordinary.
It’s a model of management and delegation for people with the correct attitude and skills and I only realised how wonderful it was for the first time on Saturday.
In the midst of an extremely busy work/life schedule, my wife had volunteered to help at one of the Bandwise rehearsals but because of our domestic commitments, it turned out to be me that went to help. I was struggling with it because I had a million things to do and five hours out of a Saturday afternoon to help at an orchestra rehearsal that I knew nothing about, having never played an instrument in my life, seemed like a big deal. But as is often the case in these situations, it flipped around to be something quite incredible.
Bandwise is extraordinary because you sign up to be involved in it and there are three levels of proficiency of musician – Bandwise 1,2 and 3. Depending on which group you’re in you’re sent the music and practice it before you come, completely self motivated and self driven. There are only three rehearsal days before a full orchestra performance at the Albert Hall in Nottingham, which is due to take place this Sunday. The final rehearsal is from 12pm on Sunday. The previous two were on the weekend before on the Saturday afternoon and all day Sunday.
I have never been to any of the rehearsals before and in fact, because of my schedule at work I am rarely involved in Grace’s clarinet playing, her lessons or her grading’s; I just know she’s very good at it.
On Saturday I was able to sit at the side, in the drama studio at the school in Nottingham with my laptop while I worked and caught up with some of the stuff I never though I’d get to, drinking coffee and watching the conductor build an orchestra. All of us could do with spending a day watching that and taking it in.
The conductor herself, I’m told, is an exceptional brass instrument player but she never touched an instrument for the whole day. She led the group with discipline, humour and empathy and when she had the full orchestra in front of her, was able to pick out areas of the pieces which were not quite right, stop the group and hone in on a single section (department) and let them practise so she could hear it until it was right. She then added that back into the full orchestra. She had knowledge of every aspect of the orchestra from experience and practice without being able to play some of the instruments herself; regardless of the fact that she couldn’t play a clarinet, she could gain the respect of the musicians playing clarinet.
She then broke the orchestra into groups of instruments and sent them to different rooms with other tutors to work on different pieces before returning back to the full orchestra again, and again honing different aspects of the pieces bar by bar, note by note. Remember that these children from 12 – 16 had never been together before as this orchestra and by the end of that afternoon the sound that they were producing was utterly extraordinary to someone who’s not a musician (I’m sure the conductor would want it to be better)
What we see on the Sunday at the Albert Hall when she waves her white baton and taps it on the stand is not the skill of conducting an orchestra during a performance, it’s the culmination of practice, tuition and expertise freely given to make something better.
In a world obsessed with numbers and science we have much to learn from the arts, not just how they can move us and change our lives through emotional connection but also by the way that they organise their excellence.
The Bandwise performance is on Sunday in Nottingham, more info is here and you can still buy tickets. It will be amazing.
Blog Post Number: 1208
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