What does "Listening accross the ensemble" really mean?

[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.