A music director I worked with years ago once remarked to me that too many musicians fixate on "getting the notes" when they first tackle a piece, assuming that attention to phrasing and expression should come only after the notes have been mastered. This, he insisted, only insures that the piece probably won't come together at all, since the notes may never be perfect.
"Getting the notes" is kind of like seeing the trees, while working on phrasing is akin to seeing the forest. Both are important. I know that when I'm listening to or watching a group perform, the first thing I tend to notice is whether the singing is expressive or wooden and, if it's a live performance, how well the group members engage the audience.
My music director friend tried to get us, his choir, to cultivate an ability to focus on both the trees and the forest simultaneously. It's not an easy skill to develop. Most of us find one focus easier than the other.
I'm a forest person myself, and so find that I have to work harder at getting the notes themselves nailed. We big-picture generalists often find it difficult to pay sustained attention to minute details. My pianist friend Sandi, on the other hand, is as detail-oriented as they come; she admits that seeing things through a wider lens is a challenge for her, particularly when she's struggling with a particularly difficult piece.
The trees-and-forest approach to learning music is similar to blending left-brained and right-brained thinking styles when strategizing or problem-solving. Relying heavily on one or the other creates an imbalance. Cultivating both approaches is hard work but I'm finding that the results are much better.
(Thanks, Tim, for pointing all this out to me!)
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