[this is a version of a post which first appeared on my blog From the Front of the Choir]
There’s always a strange sense of calm that descends on the choir before a concert.
People seem unusually relaxed and more people start turning up late for rehearsals. What’s going on here?
I build up to a concert slowly over a whole term. I plan to run each half of the concert in order during the last two choir sessions leading up to the gig.
I give plenty of notice of this:
I arrive, as always, in plenty of time for our choir session.
There are usually about four people there – those people who always like to be on time. 7.30 comes and a handful of other people begin to arrive (our rehearsals start at 7.30 prompt).
By about 7.40 we’ve managed to muster 20 or so people – maybe as much as one third of the choir!
I realise then that people must be so laid-back and calm about the forthcoming concert that I begin to have enormous admiration for them. Why can’t I be so relaxed about the whole thing? I’m beginning to get wound-up. Where is everyone??!!
“Why don’t you start the session?” someone suggests. “The devil with the latecomers, let them suffer!”.
OK, that’s one plan, but … we need to rehearse where people are standing, and that tricky entrance song without losing our time and tuning. It’s no good ploughing on with half the choir and then we come to the day itself and the other half are just under-rehearsed.
I’ve talked about people arriving late before (Being in a community choir), and there’s no simple one-size-fits-all solution. But I did naively imagine that with a concert looming people would make an extra effort in case they missed something important!
One possibility is that it’s a symptom of denial. The prospect of the concert is so frightening that singers try to pretend it’s not happening at all. Or maybe everyone’s been at home cramming their words and hadn’t realised the time. Or maybe people just want to have fun and try to find ways of avoiding the hard(er) work involved in preparing for a concert. What do you think?
Another strange group effect is after a concert.
If a concert is in the middle of a term and there is a session the week following the concert, the numbers are always dramatically down and people are even later than usual. Even if the concert has been almost a week before, it’s as if people are just sung out or have given all their energy to the performance. Does anybody else notice this?
What are your experiences? Have you noticed any of these phenomena? Do leave a comment and let us know.
Chris Rowbury: chrisrowbury.com
