Harmony in the Unexpected: A Journey of Teamwork and Triumph

My eldest son, Nick, is in band. It’s been the thing that he has dedicated passion towards probably since middle school, derived from his passion for drums. Last weekend, I went to his Music Performance Assessment. As he’s pursued his passion for band in high school, I’ve had an opportunity to witness a side of high school that I didn’t see when I was there. I was a choir kid. I sang in a vocal ensemble, and although they are similar, they are not the same. But one of the things that really touched me this past weekend was watching MPAs from a teamwork perspective.

In this process, different groups of bandmates are assembled based on either aptitude or interest. They perform between two and three curated pieces that their director has selected, and they have worked on that are meant to represent their skill. They polish these pieces. They prepare and they know these are the performances they will be judged by. The goal is “Straight Superiors” and that is a lofty goal.

But the curated performances are just part one. The group stepped on stage to perform. In front of loved ones and three judges, who were out in the audience scribbling down or notating things verbally that would lead to the band’s score, they performed.

It was eerie.

The normal passion of the families and friends was tempered by the knowledge that there were three different spectators out there who would assess the quality on a totally different scale. That knowledge led to excitement, but it was only the beginning.

After those performances, the band headed down the hall and waited to be brought in for what is called “sight reading.”

In sight reading, they’re given a booklet with completely different pieces of music. The intention is that they have never seen and certainly never played the pieces before. During the ‘test,’ they will eventually perform two completely new pieces. They open the books like you would your SAT Exam booklet and are directed to a particular page. Their conductor is given three minutes to help walk them through the more complicated parts of the piece with incredible limitations on what he or she can instruct them on with regards to pitch, tonality, dynamics, etc.

What I watched was this group of about 45 students, comprised of different instruments, take a look at this piece together. I watched their conductor start to walk through the piece, having them work through the rhythms that were particularly tricky and patterns that he thought they needed to pay attention to, giving them sort of a little bit of a roadmap, but not much.

Then, as he got to the very end of the three minutes (they had about 30 seconds), and he issued a directive which was incredibly powerful.

“Take the next 30 seconds, do whatever you need to do to prepare yourself to give your best, to be your best, and to perform together.”

And then he shut up.

At that point, and after being instructed by the adjudicator to start, their conductor picked up his baton and counted in this group of young people to play a piece they had never played before.

It was simply moving.

Was it as polished as the pieces they had prepared for? No.

But that was part of the beauty. On this day, they demonstrated their teamwork. Each of them had spent time learning their particular discipline, the nuances of their instruments from the clear to the more subtle. Then, they came together, and they showed that with preparation and planning, they could do amazing things together in a concert performance.

That was the first part.

The second part was these two sight-reading pieces. They showed that when confronted with a new challenge, with very little preparation and only critical insight from a leader in the form of the conductor, they could bring to bear all of those same talents and even get to the point of blend.

And really, blend is what this discussion is about as it is a visceral representation of true teamwork.

Teamwork is where the magic happens. Individual performances can be great. Hearing the trumpets dance over a melody or the silky sound of the trombone is wonderful. But when they all come together: when the distinct parts of the ensemble are assembled, and they find true blend, you can feel it. When they find a way to express the intended dynamics of a piece at a level that delivers the waves and power that only music seems to truly convey; that is magical.

These young people did that on pieces they had never seen. They took all their preparation and individual skills and with insightful, caring and constructive leadership from their conductor combined with tremendous trust in each other (as the trumpet player can exert exactly zero influence on the sax or bass, after all), they moved all of us.

They made magic.

They performed beautiful music.

When you witness that you truly get a sense of what it really means to have teamwork.