Mistake-Busting Method for Quartets

I mentioned in my recent post about a coaching session developing a rehearsal protocol for quartets to support each other in correcting notes that had been learned incorrectly. It felt like it deserved a post in its own right, as it’s something lots of us need to deal with and so it would be useful to work through not just what to do, but why this procedure helps. Plus of course having its own post will make it easier to point back to when I meet other people with the same need!

So, learning any phrase involves generating neural pathways that encode the act of singing it; the more you repeat that act, the stronger the neural pathway becomes and thus the more automated. This is very useful, until it turns out that you have been practising a wrong note, when the strength of your practised neural pathway keeps pulling you back when you’re trying to correct it.

The goal in relearning is to make the new neural pathway stronger than the old one, but achieving this can be hard if you keep rubber-banding back to the mistake, as that just serves to strengthen the pathway you’re trying to replace. This is an issue I have considered in the past from the perspectives of individual practice and of the choral rehearsal. But the specific format of a quartet offers some useful practical tools to address it that you don’t necessarily find in other contexts.

The method I devised for Cantare Lunedì went as follows:

• Everyone sings the phrase you want to correct together in unison several times, until it feels secure.
• Each of the other three parts then takes it in turn to duet with the line you want to correct, with the other two singers continuing to sing it along with singer who needs to relearn it. You’ll probably want to do each duet at least twice.
• Go back to singing it in four parts

This was enough to fix the error we were working on. However, if it still feels fragile, it would be worth repeating the process the following rehearsal, and adding a stage of combinations of trios: each singer takes it in turn to double the line that needs correcting along with the other two singing their lines. Note that I’ve suggested doing this after you’ve had an opportunity to cement the first batch learning with sleep rather than doing it straight away. Sometimes it’s the sleep that follows the practice routine that completes the process.

The reason this is effective is that it provides support for the person at risk of rubber-banding back to a past error from people who have not practised the error. It does this through multiple repetitions and thus maximises their chances of successfully building new neural pathways. By varying the musical experience of different duets (and trios), meanwhile, it keeps the activity fresh, so that you don’t zone out through the drill.

And while it is helping that one individual with their personal challenge, it is enhancing the ensemble skills of the quartet as a whole. Unison singing is a great way to build connection between the voices, while duetting builds insight into the musical structures. You emerge with a passage that is not merely more correct than before, but also more resonant and harmonious.

This is possibly the most important aspect. It’s often tempting to think that correcting individual note errors is something we should do by ourselves so as not to waste the time of the rest of the group. The thing is, though, that not only is it much harder to do by yourself (as you have to try and self-monitor to check you’re not just repeating the old pattern at the same time as focusing on the new one), but even when you can do it by yourself you sometimes find yourself snapping back to the grid of old habit when you return to the ensemble context. (Or maybe that’s just me.)

Building a rehearsal protocol that draws on the support of the group as a whole is not only more efficient as a means to make the correction, but it does it in the context in which it needs to be repeatable, and in the process helps all members grow as musicians and meld as a performing unit. For sure you’ll still want to practice it by yourself between times, but the time you spend on it together will be anything but wasted.