#286. Are We Setting Expectations?

by | Sep 30, 2025 | Boonshaft's Blog

I have always believed that the warm-up portion of any rehearsal can be incredibly fruitful – or the biggest waste – of time. And of all the things we need to accomplish during that potentially valuable time, I think the most significant one is not something they will play, or something they will do, but rather something for which we will lay the foundation. Put succinctly, the warm-up portion of any rehearsal is where we establish our expectations and the threshold of what is acceptable. Period. We can’t be laissez faire about attacks and releases in warm-ups and then demand precision while rehearsing a piece. We can’t set the threshold of our expectations for intonation in a warm-up that allows them to play “just okay,” and then insist they rise to a higher level while playing a piece. But if we firmly set those tolerance thresholds as high as we want to strive for while warming up, our students will come to realize those are our expectations for the rest of that rehearsal. And beyond!

Peter Loel Boonshaft, Director of Education
KHS America

About the Author

Dr. Boonshaft, Director of Education for KHS America, is the author of the critically acclaimed best-selling books Teaching Music with Passion, Teaching Music with Purpose, and Teaching Music with Promise. He was honored by the National Association for Music Education and Music For All as the first recipient of the “George M. Parks Award for Leadership in Music Education.” Dr. Boonshaft was selected for the Center for Scholarly Research and Academic Excellence at Hofstra University in Hempstead, NY, where he is Professor Emeritus of Music.

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