Chris Rowbury deals with the positives and negatives of both approaches, under-rehearsed and over-prepared.
Here’s a bit:
if you worry away at something too much, your intellect gets in the way and stops you from doing it well. Rather like the amateur golfer who is asked to analyse their swing. As soon as they focus on what they’re doing, it all goes wrong.
I’d much rather rehearse just enough then leave the rest up to a mutual trust of the other singers and their musicianship, and being focused and in the moment.
The positive aspects of this approach are that the performance can be:
- fresh and new – as if for the first time
- exciting and alive
- with a sense of total focus (and slight danger!)
The negative aspects are that it can end up being:
- unpolished and rough round the edges
- amateurish
- full of mistakes
- a display of fearful and under-confident singers
John Howell says