A Musical Conversation and Pareto's Law

Pareto's Law in Music

We're coming to the kind of final stages of having fun with our chamber group here.

Understanding Pareto's Law

Pareto's Law is about the 80/20 principle:

• If you listen to yourself 20% and listen to the others 80%, you'll gain the maximum benefit.
• You'll be playing at 100% for your part while supporting the other parts.

This principle applies constantly to chamber music.

Techniques for Improvement

I'm not going to make them practice this now, but one really effective technique for every player is to:

• Photocopy the score and play their part while singing another member's piece of music.

Creating Musical Conversations

Another question-and-answer technique that I'd like to use creates a bit of fizz amongst the ensemble and adds a touch of humor. It allows them to have a musical conversation while also engaging in a speaking conversation.

• Here, we're going to go from that place, from 2 before B.
• I'll allow Nikki to ask Isabella and Emily a question.
• It's up to her whether she wants to choose who to speak to first but she's just going to have a go.

If you want to use both hands or one hand, that's fine.

Observations

• Great! Lovely. You can already see a little bit of smiling communication, a bit of ensemble work, and maybe some secretive, intricate conversations that I'm not aware of.
• The group is becoming more independent, moving away from the coach, and working together more, negotiating personalities and having a bit of an inside joke.

Also, I don't know if you noticed the subtlety: when Nikki started talking, it was almost as if she handed her phrase over to Isabella or Emily. She worked her question into a musical idea, approaching it with the backbone of the music to form the foundation.