There's 2 ways to read a piece of music:
1. You count and play to according to the tempo/rhythm
2. You don't count and just play the pitches, disregarding the rhythm.
"The rhythm is the most important part of the music."
These were words imprinted in my mind when I was a year 1 junior in GENUS. Who? Mr. Alex said that; which I've come to agree to many years till now. Rhythmic cohesion has to be the first and foremost issue to be addressed in any ensemble setting. There's no point doing group playing when the player does not make a conscious effort to
1. count his beats
2. listen out to the other parts
Many players in the ensemble too often or not ignore this. Hence, Junhao and I coined the term "Chordabile", inspired from "cantabile".
"Chordabile" - chunky chord-like rendition of a single homophonic line.
If there's anything a guitar ensemble should and could impress audience, it's rhythmic cohesion. Fact is simple, the attack of the guitar sound by the finger is so distinct and discrete that it takes much more effort to ensure that everyone is doing it together at the same time. I believe Niibori strikes through different from others because they have this.
Hence, we need to fall back to basics. If we can't even come in relatively correctly on beats, cohesion is almost impossible. This requires immense concentration during rehearsals and plenty of homework individually.
Michelle said I passed nasty comments when the guys didn't read well in the anime medley. I can't say no to that, everyone's entitled to perspectives. Nasty or not, I think my objective was set some basic expectations. Please count!
Ultimately I hope to raise the group's awareness and expectations; where we develop into musically aware and able musicians who can present guitar ensemble music at a higher level; above GENUS standards.
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