What does "Listening accross the ensemble" really mean?

[Voisi1ev]

Tough one.....this is real touchy/feebly but...being more concerned with how others sound than you do...

[peter birch]

I would teach it with a simple 4 part melody - play each part in turn and then combinations of 2 parts together and then 3 parts together and then bring it all back together, so that everyone hears their part and how it fits in with all the other parts. It will eventually become a habit for all the players in the ensemble - but it does take time

[Leland]

A player's own playing must be under enough control so that less attention may be paid to the mechanics of one's own playing, and thus more attention can be paid to putting one's own sound inside/around/over (whatever is appropriate at the moment) the other sounds.

Less experienced and/or unprepared players experience difficulty with this, as their full attention must be devoted to the mechanics of what they are producing.

Quite true. ^^^^

A workaround would be to use a passage of music that's been memorized (or at least darned close to it) so that the players aren't stuck looking at the page. That way, they can dedicate some of their attention to other voices in the ensemble, even if they are still having to put a lot of conscious effort into playing.

Another method would be to isolate different parts. If the player isn't accustomed to it, the cacophony around them is too much, and picking out another part (like asking the clarinets to notice the euphonium) is pretty difficult. Go step-by-step instead. You can have everyone who plays a particular lick play it together (the other players will become more aware of that lick), you can have two sections play their different phrases together, or other scenarios like that.

How do I, personally, "listen across the ensemble"? I listen for parts that aren't mine, and use them for timing and style; I listen for parts like mine and use them for intonation and balance. But like bloke said, it's a lot easier when I'm comfortable executing my own part.

[Donn]

Maybe it would help to think about listening to it like you'd listen to something you aren't in, and projecting your performance into how it should sound in that space.

We're talking about different aspects of the problem here, a problem or phenomenon that's really basic in music but not easily expressed in English. We use "hear", "ear" etc. to talk about

• physically hearing (can't hear the flutes over the trumpets)
• mentally hearing (could have heard them if we cared to listen)
• musically hearing (get what the flute part is doing)
• actively musically hearing (able to play in musical combination with the flutes based on musical hearing)

And there are a variety of cognitive faculties that bear on it, which I suspect may vary from person to person, but in my amateur opinion, the core of it is a right cerebral hemisphere "flow" thing that you can't just decide to do, (as I see bloke already pointed out while I was typing) it's accessible only with the practice that gives that part of you "automatic" control over your playing. Then you can plug 1) that mastery into 2) your awareness of the music, and 3) your musical volition. That's your "ear."

[windshieldbug]

Bring them up to the front one at a time and let them hear the ensemble as you hear it, especially those in the back row. Have them hear the total ensemble WITHOUT having to play or memorize, just listen and hear the other parts they normally don't. Then have then go back to their sections and, not playing still listen for those components. Finally try to hear these other parts as they play.

Editor's note: I've only ever played a conductor on TV. YMMV

[Radar]

Since this will be directed to younger newer players, I would start giving them 1 thing to work on: The first thing I would give them to concentrate on is being aware of where the melody is, and playing under it. Then once they are good at that, then you can mention listening for important counter melodies, and give them examples. During rehearsal don't let imbalance slide, stop often and adjust dynamics as required, and explain why. If you give them a big laundry list of things to listen for all at once they won't remember any of it. Introduce concepts slowing and one at a time.

[THE TUBA]

I have often heard the concept of "3 Level Listening" in band settings.

Level 1: Listening to yourself.
Level 2: Listening to your section.
Level 3: Listening to the entire band.

I like this breakdown for middle school groups and beginners, but it can be a little rudimentary for more advanced players. It is at least a good entry point to concepts of balance and blend.

One of the tools I love to use with various ensembles is Aaron Cole's 36 Chorales for Band. It is a set of short to medium-length chorales orchestrated for band instruments. Each chorale is written in SATB format and each instrument has the SATB parts written in their clef/transposition. There are all kinds of fun listening, balance, and blend activities you can use with those chorales. Also, they're free .pdfs! Jackpot!

[groovlow]

Listening across means you hear your role in the music.
When I'm doing it I am in continual surprise at what the composer / arranger created and the way fellow musicians interpret their roles. Plus who is controlling the pitch in different sections ie a sharp baritone
The easy way to learn to hear across is to play small groups. Even better
If the small group is vocal or instrumental, without notation, memorized or improvisational, the players must listen.

Joe

[PaulMaybery]

As a training issue it might seem feasible to actually be able to hear accross a band or an orchestra, certainly when the dynamics are in the mezzo range. However, that being said (and I can not speak for others and particularly for those who play smaller instruments) when playing a large tuba at an adult fortissimo or louder and producing a genuine gargantuan sound, my head fills up with the business end of my own sound and thus I can not hear much of anything else. Yes, I can hear the basic tutti sound of the ensemble, but certainly not many parts other than perhaps the bass trombone beside me (and often that is masked by my own sound) I thought perhaps I was being too loud and physical in my playing. Or, perhaps it was a bit of hysterical deafness. But of all the fine players of whom I had the ultimate respect, it was John Fletcher who ask me once at a rehearsal how the balance was between him and the rest of the LSO. He mentioned the same thing about all of his own tuba sound in his head, and not being able to hear much else. There are times when we are in those grand moments when all the stops are pulled and the whole orchestra is "tutta forza" and we are basically running on body memory or auto pilot. I wonder, in those instances, what a trumpet player is experiencing.

[Radar]

Rarely-but-occasionally, we might consciously choose ignore what we are perceiving.

A few years ago, I was hired to play tuba with a community band at some outdoor event. All the regular players were on vacation (pro'lly 4th of July-ish). My only big tuba at that time was a 6/4 (the sound of which, typically, doesn't offer a lot of highs in the overtone spectrum), I owned no bell-front tubas at that time, and we were outdoors with no shell nor amplification.

Mostly, I played VERY loudly the entire time. From the bell to my ears, it was (well...) quite loud, but I believe that the balance (out there) was either "just about right" or possibly "almost enough".

I find this to be the case most of the time when I'm playing bass trombone. I usually think I'm playing too loud, but then I'm asked to play louder. So I've learned to play the dynamics up one level from where I think they should be.

[ken k]

individual practice at home is where you learn your part. Ensemble rehearsals are where you learn everyone else's part and how your part fits in. This sort of goes along with bloke's post about having your part down well enough to be able to think about what else is going on around you.

I remember working on intonation and my teacher saying that when playing a unison note, if you can hear yourself, then you are not in tune.

With those two things being said, I always try to put my sound into the mix of the ensemble, especially when playing a harmonic part like on trombone, or on an Eb tuba part in brass band or when playing an interior part in a quartet. I think the balance of the bass part and the melody part could be a little more prominent than the harmonies, but that eventually is up to the conductor. When I play bass bone in a big band I try to have my sound just a little louder than the other bones, just a little. I want the bass sound to be there but not necessarily in your face.

don't know if that really answers your question but you could perhaps use part of it along with the other fine answers here.

[Three Valves]

A lock really isn't a lock until after my comment has been removed, THEN lock it!!

[Leland]

IBTL... ?

(normally, a thread gets locked when it becomes un-civil, not just because we suspect all the "basses" were covered)

[TheGoyWonder]

In most band scoring, if you're linking up with the clarinets you're probably fine. Linking up with percussion or trumpets can be easier because they are loud, but they're often not playing and they can be less reliable to say the least.