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Hi Rod,
In one respect, focus gets a little more complicated when you add additional elements to the mix – like an ensemble or conductor. But in some respects it gets easier too.
If you’re playing an orchestra audition, for instance, there’s no conductor to look at, or section to blend with, or orchestral context to play from, so it’s easier to identify what exactly the most important thing to focus on is, but also trickier in some ways to do, because there’s not much going on.
If you’re playing in an orchestra, however, there are a lot more things you could pay attention to, and so you’ll have to switch back and forth between what’s most important at any given point in time. At some times, it will be listening to your section, but at others, it may be watching the conductor, and at other times still, it may be just on focusing on your upcoming entrance or solo, and focusing your attention on the sound you want to produce. In ensemble playing, it may be more often the case that your attention is directed to the way in which your sound fits into the larger context, and the sound around you, as opposed to your focusing more intently on the sound you want to produce in a non-ensemble situation.
This chart might help to visualize what I’m trying to describe above – the idea that our attention is a little like a flashlight, and we can not only point it in different directions, but also widen or narrow the focus so it is more or less concentrated: http://www.science.smith.edu/exer_sci/ESS565/MPres1/sld011.htm
Noa
