Who to tune the next phrase to

The options

The order shown is not a ranking of preference.

1. Option 1

   Steady click

   Common entry points can be practiced repeatedly, but fitting longer final notes and silences into a fixed pulse requires trimming the expression.

2. Option 2

   Rotating lead player

   The lead can change the tempo phrase by phrase, but time must be spent practicing the handover cues and reading the new lead's movements.

3. Option 3

   Listening to and carrying forward each other's phrases

   The next phrase can be changed in response to the final note actually heard, but practice is needed to regulate stretches that overlap and the overall length of the performance.

The situation as it stands

If the rehearsal plan is not settled, each member will prepare against different entry rules, and the remaining joint rehearsal will be spent re-aligning those rules.

The rehearsal room of Six Strands, a fictional small voluntary adult ensemble

1. Premise 1Synthetic premise: Six adults who gathered voluntarily want to vary the same short melody in the next performance by stretching or cutting it. In earlier rehearsals, they spent time aligning the point of re-entry together and did not finish practicing changing their own phrase in response to the other's final note.
2. Premise 2Synthetic constraint: Two joint rehearsals remain and the performance is 20 minutes. Only existing instruments, the click device, and short melodies each has made may be used, so no new equipment or arranger can be added, and the lead has not secured the time to prepare all three approaches to performance level.
3. Premise 3Synthetic conflict: Some players want to keep the harmony built up at a steady pulse, while others want to draw out the final note or insert an unexpected silence. A member who takes the lead role also worries that rehearsal may settle into making their cues legible.

Where it holdsWithin the scope delegated by the members, set one ensemble-organizing principle for the next performance and schedule the remaining rehearsals.

What can be lost

• Members who have practiced a common pulse may lose the chance to make use of existing practice and the predictability of the ensemble.
• Members who want to change the length of a phrase or the silences may find their expression trimmed to fit other members' entry criteria.
• Invited audience members may miss part of the chance to hear the players respond to one another in variation, or to follow a single flow.

What is still unknown

1. Unknown 1It has not been confirmed whether members can express the stretching and silence they want while keeping the click.
2. Unknown 2It is unconfirmed which cue members will reliably notice when the lead changes: sound or gesture.
3. Unknown 3It is not known how often, when carrying a phrase forward, members will change their playing because of the other person rather than reproduce a prepared variation.

Signals to decide again

• The rehearsal lead confirms at the end of every joint rehearsal any stretch where re-entry breaks down after a phrase is extended or emptied.
• Each player records after every joint rehearsal the expressions they gave up because of the chosen rule, and the lead reviews them together.
• The performance lead confirms at every full run-through the length of the whole performance and the time left for the final phrase.