Wednesday, February 09, 2005

Motivation: Sugar or Cattle Prod?

What does it take to motivate you? Is it someone gently coaxing you into doing the right thing or is it the cattle prod?

As I've told you in the past, the conductor is ultimately responsible for the success or failure of his/her group. Translation: if we fail to do our best, it is my fault.

We are currently in the preparatory phases--through today's work, we determine right now if we will succeed or fail at the end.

So the challenge for the conductor is a serious one: what is the best tool to use to achieve the desired result?

We'll find out, won't we?

8 comments:

Choral Advocate said...

I have always heard you can attract more flies with honey, but then again who wants to attract flies? Seriously, this is what I am struggling with right now because I want singers to enjoy the rehearsal, but when talking(or other disruptive behavior) interupts a rehearsal then it becomes a problem. I am currently using a mixture of both to be effective in a rehearsal. Anyways that is my two cents...Can't wait to hear you guys soon...peace

Anonymous said...

i feel that you could sugar-coat the cattle prod and get a good effect. my impressions of the way you've been handling the ENORMOUS pressure has been to date as i described to you last week: "un-fun, slave-driver copeland." please don't think i'm trying to downplay the gravity of the situation, but i feel as though for the time we've had, this approach has not been as effective as could be achieved otherwise.

Mr. Henry said...

I think if you brought a working cattle prod to class and shocked somebody any time they messed up, you would get some very careful, very well prepared choral singers

Katie Mo said...

I think we should brand Charles. :oD

Also, I feel a lot more pressure when you tell us how much stuff means to you... for our first concert last year when you gave us that pep talk, haha i've never been so afraid of screwing up!

delia said...

i think that a little cattle prodding would be great...obviously the attitude we all have right now is just not getting the work done...i think that a week or two of a 'stricter copeland' would help us learn faster, and then possibly we will get somewhat ahead and then the sugar can come back out...does that make any sense?

delia said...

i think that a little cattle prodding would be great...obviously the attitude we all have right now is just not getting the work done...i think that a week or two of a 'stricter copeland' would help us learn faster, and then possibly we will get somewhat ahead and then the sugar can come back out...does that make any sense?

delia said...

sorry...i dont know how to delete my extra comment...

Anonymous said...

I agree with Delia and Clay. We need the cattle prod, and we need a pep-talk. It never hurts to be reminded that we function and succeed AS A CHOIR, not as 40 to 50-something individuals singing at the same time.

We're the best choir in Alabama, and our quality of music can only get better!

Show that Blazer Sparkle and Spunk!