Inside the Mind of the Instrumentalist
A Guide for Discussion
Specific Differences Between Choirs and Instrumental Ensembles
(Moses, Demaree, Ohms, 2004. pp. 3-4)

Instrumentalists generally have fewer hours of rehearsal per concert, and they have
to cover more music quickly.

Instrumental musicians are likely to have had more years of individual training than
the choral singers performing with them.

Instrumentalists do not memorize the music they play, direct eye contact between
players and a conductor is sporadic and difficult. As a consequence, they depend
very heavily on the baton.

Players are more commonly paid for their work. Thus they are likely less than
volunteer singers to establish a “personality cult” around their conductor. For
the same reason they tend not to respond to “pep talks,” as some choirs do.

Although string players, like choral singers, work in sections, the wind and percussion
players are soloists. In that sense, every note these people perform is
“exposed.”

In an orchestra [or band] there is no expert pianist present to lead the ensemble
through the difficult parts of a rehearsal (as accompanists often do for choral
ensembles). The conductor and the players must find and solve all the problems
______________________________________________________________________________
Bruce Duffie: Tell me the joys and sorrows of conducting the wind ensemble.
Frederick Fennell: The sorrows are few, no more nor less than any other concerted
ensemble. Any professional group certainly brings to what they play years and years of
experience, training, individual discipline and practice, and so their work is all done
individually. The next thing for any conductor of any group is to just bring it
together. That’s a big challenge to anybody, no matter what the repertory or what the
group. And the bringing it together is the joy because so much of the time it has to start
from a separateness and come to a togetherness.
______________________________________________________________________________
Instrumentalist Perceptions,
Where do we come from and how do we think?




The instrumentalist has spent thousands of hours learning to do with an
instrument what comes naturally to a vocalist. (Kemp)
-
This results in a technical understanding of music production. Key
signatures, time signatures, rhythmic notation, scales, tempo markings
and more are all essential parts of the basic musical understanding of an
instrumentalist.
-
Many vocalists do not understand the process-based development of the
instrumentalist and the accompanying work ethic and self-discipline
required for melodic playing.
Most instrumental musicians are ready ‘put the music together’ the moment they
sit down for rehearsal.
-
There is no need to teach parts. Good sight-readers will jump right in and
those with lesser reading skills will tag along.
-
All players are able to, and should be encouraged to learn their parts at
home
The instrumentalist is under constant, close surveillance.
-
Sight: incorrect performance can easily be seen by the conductor, and to a
certain extent by the listener.
-
Sound: performance errors are readily heard and identified by the
conductor, audience, and members of the ensemble.
The instrumentalist operates as a soloist within the ensemble.
-
Instrumental musicians are conditioned to play in tension with those
surrounding them.



Instrumentalists have learned to read music through the use of a tangible, tactile
tool or gadget.
-
Rhythm is intrinsically physical, requiring movement (motion), effort, and
coordination.
-
Rhythm is conceived as a physical activity, coordinating many aural, mental,
and physical fragments.
-
Rhythm is most often experienced individually.
-
Melody is often perceived as a structure not a line.
The instrumentalist learns differently.
-
An instrumentalist’s learning has been processed-based not results based.
-
“Because the instrumentalist must touch something – an instrument – to
produce a sound, a process beneficial to the musician is set in motion.
Through this process, the information is integrated more deeply for the
instrumentalist in a natural sequence of events, activated as the brain
records and retains information” (Zenzailai Helm, 2013)
-
Singers don’t require this extra layer in order to achieve results!!!!
There are two levels of separation between the conductor and the instrumentalist.
-
The music and music stand are actually a point of mental distraction from the
conductor.
-
The instrument itself is a major physical distraction.
______________________________________________________________________________
“Rehearsals are not the place to teach the parts, but rather the place to put the pieces together.”
“The rehearsal is a place to do the things together that you can’t do alone. (You can learn your
part alone.)”
“You don’t come to rehearsal to learn your part, but rather to learn everybody else’s part.”
(Eugene Corporon, University of North Texas)
______________________________________________________________________________
The Instrumentalist in Worship

Often very little or no contact with textual aspects of a service.
-

Technically and mentally distracted from both the flow and the content of
the worship service. Turning pages between songs, preparing for the
next downbeat/entrance, clearing moisture from a horn, and scanning for
cuts and problem sections are only a few of the myriad concerns
confronting an instrumentalist during the service.
Lives in the “nuts and bolts” world of music.
-
The instrumentalist is involved in a performance! They are executing an
action (Merriam-Webster) that is technical and demanding, utilizing tools
that are external to the body.
Helping the Instrumentalist in Rehearsal and in Worship
1._______________________________________________________________
2._______________________________________________________________
3._______________________________________________________________
4._______________________________________________________________
5._______________________________________________________________
6._______________________________________________________________
7._______________________________________________________________
8._______________________________________________________________
9._______________________________________________________________
10.______________________________________________________________
You always have to leave something, because you can’t get it all done in a
rehearsal. You can just read the player; you can read his mind. There is a classic story
that’s well known, of Bernard Adelstein, the First Trumpet player of the Cleveland
Orchestra. A well-known Viennese conductor was rehearsing a Mahler symphony with
the Cleveland Orchestra the morning of the concert, and he stopped the orchestra and
said, “First Trumpet, fortissimo,” to which Adelstein says, “Maestro, when do you want
it — this morning, or tonight?” There are a lot of things you can’t have in the morning
and have again at night. Do you think people imagine how much energy that must take?
(Frederick Fennell, Conversation with Bruce Dufie.
http://www.bruceduffie.com/fennell2.html)
“There’s a famous story, think it’s Ben Webster and I’ve heard the story from numerous
places so I’m going to assume that it’s true. (laughing) But uh, he was recording some
ballad in a ya know, in a recording session and he stopped in the middle of the recording
and ya know the engineer was like ‘why did you stop man, that sounded great’? and he
{Ben said} yeah, I forgot the lyric. So he’s playing his tenor sax and thinking about the
lyric and he forgot what the lyric was and it just made him just stop. He couldn’t, didn’t
really know where he wanted to go with the song. I always thought that was an extreme
example perhaps, but that’s like somebody who’s really tuned into that lyric sensibility as
an instrumentalist.”
(Darman Meader, telephone conversation with Nichole
Palavicini. “A Comparison and Contrast of Instrumental and Vocal Approaches to
Idiomatic Phrasing, Articulation and Rhythm.” Dissertation, University of Miami,
2015)
“[I]studied for many years under the direction of Professor Larry Lapin and he taught
his students that there is one major difference between instrumentalists and vocalists
when rhythmically interpreting tunes. The one major difference between instrumental
and vocal rhythmic interpretation is the amount of time the air/sound exits the horn
versus the amount of time air/sound exits from the mouth. Sound exits the vocal chords
almost instantaneously, whereas, when playing an instrument, there is a slight delay
due to the air having to leave the body, go into a mouthpiece of some sort, and then
disperse out from the horn. Due to that difference in time, when an instrumentalist plays
a tune, they typically have a ‘laid back,’ behind the beat feel. For an instrumentalist, the
initiation and use of the breath stream creates a sense of rhythmic delay due to the time
lapse as the air travels through the horn. “When a horn player articulates a note, he/she
has to send it from the mouthpiece through the length of the horn and out of the bell. This
takes a bit more time than producing a sound from the vocal chords through the mouth
that is almost immediate.” Thus, for the instrumentalist, the attack into initials words of
a phrase must be adjusted.”
(Janet Cape, Perceptions of Meaningfulness Among High School Instrumental
Musicians. Dissertation, Arizona State University. 2012)
“The singer is, in many ways quite unique. . . . . . Singers have no visual or tangible
instrument on which to focus their attentions, or toward which to direct the attention of
an audience. They cannot ‘hide’ behind an instrument that offers a personality for them
to project; there is no musical partnership that allows a sense of stability or
companionship in performance. The singer’s instrument is personal, invisible and very
complex, and in performance it is the vocalist’s personality that is presented, together
with any vocal defects that are perceived as belonging directly to him or her. Singers
cannot project their problems onto troublesome reeds, sticking pads, and other
technological difficulties; there are different boundaries in operation. Whereas other
instrumentalists have to be very aware of ‘what is me’ and ‘what is not me’, the singer
has to take ownership of everything that occurs, including the defects of the instrument.”
(Anthony Kemp, 2012 )
Selected Sources
*Barrier, Julie, Jim Hansford, and Mark Johnson. 2002. The Instrumental Resource for Church
and School: A Manual of Biblical Perspectives and Practical Instruction for Today's
Christian Instrumentalists. Nashville, Tenn: Church Street Press
Helm, L. Z. (2013, 01). “Process vs. results: Closing the gap between vocalists and
instrumentalists.” JAZZed, 8, 30-34. Retrieved from
http://ezproxy.baylor.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/1288698145?acc
ountid=7014
*Hutchins, S. (2012). “The vocal generosity effect: How bad can your singing be?” Music
Perception, 30(2), 147-159. Retrieved from
http://ezproxy.baylor.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/1288671441?acc
ountid=7014
Kemp, Anthony. 1996. The Musical Temperament: Psychology and Personality of Musicians.
Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press
Miles, Richard B., 1951, and Larry Blocher. 1997. Teaching Music through Performance in
Band. Chicago: GIA Publications
*Moses, Don V., Robert W. Demaree, and Allen F. Ohmes. 2004. Face to face with Orchestra
and Chorus: A handbook for Choral Conductors. Bloomington: Indiana University Press
Rhodes, J. Clark. 1960. “Choral versus Instrumental Musicians.” The Choral Journal 1 (4): 4-6.
Seaman, Christopher, and Michael Richards. 2013. Inside Conducting. Rochester, NY:
University of Rochester Press
Weir, M. (1998). “Singers Are From Krypton and Instrumentalists Are From Ork.” Jazz
Educators Journal, 30(6), 69-70, 72-73. Retrieved from
http://ezproxy.baylor.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/1369509?accoun
tid=7014