The Young Conductor X - leadership 2

My last post introduced the importance of leadership (or the ability to lead) to be a successful conductor. Most of us learn much of what we know about leadership from our own conductors/mentors/models. This is one of the most important ways we learn.

 

But one can be more systematic and explore the rich literature on leadership. A quick search on Amazon led to 111,042 books on the topic! So there is no lack of books on leadership--it's more a question of figuring out which ones are worthwhile! Many come from the business world, others from the world of sports. As I mentioned, my series on John Wooden dealt in part with an approach to teaching, but leadership as well. I've read books by Nick Saban, Phil Jackson and others about leadership in the sports/coaching world. While I've read a fair number of books on business leadership over the years, most don't reside in my personal library. But I can certainly recommend Jim Collins' Good to Great and other books. I also like many of Stephen Covey's books and some of Tom Peter's.

 

In the music world, Benjamin Zander, long-time conductor of the Boston Philharmonic (not Symphony!), has a book co-authored with his wife, The Art of Possibility, plus a number of videos and a TED talk.

 

Ramona Wis has an excellent book, The Conductor As Leader, which deals directly with all these issues and which I can strongly recommend. She speaks a lot about "servant leadership," which is one model I find very helpful. This means that the leader is also a servant to her ensemble--what do you do to help your singers grow? How do you serve the composer's intentions? This is in contrast to a dictatorial style of leadership (which can also work, of course). I have a recent post on my personal blog about my HS teacher/mentor/friend, Neil Lieurance, who just died Sunday. He's a prime example of a servant leader--I owe him my career.

 

Kenneth Owen commented on my second post and my statement there that leadership was essential for success (but was rarely taught), with a link to his own blog on choral leadership, and I can recommend it highly.

 

The point is much the same as with my other blog posts: growth as a conductor is life-long. There's always more to learn. Young conductors who look towards a successful career should be exploring ideas about leadership throughout their careers. Jump in and begin to read more about the topic from the musical world, but also other fields where leadership is all-important. Talk to your mentors/teachers about this topic, ask questions, ask why they do what they do.

 

Again, the fun of this career is that you can always grow, always be better. And learning to be a leader is an important part of that growth.

The Young Conductor VIII - gaining experience 3

More about starting your own group to gain experience (since we learn by doing!):

First, I would check out Chorus America. It's an organization dedicated to the independent chorus--one that has its own board, leadership, etc., rather than being attached to an institution (church, school, etc.). They publish a Chorus Leadership Guide, which gives you an enormous amount of information about the details of starting and running an organization. Check out this preview to see what it offers.

I had a conversation with a young colleague who wanted to start a choir where he'd just moved. These are some of the things I said:

• What's your passion? What gets you excited musically is more likely to excite the singers you hope to attract! Whether it's renaissance music, barbershop, or gospel, you will have a better chance of success if you choose something you love.
• You always have to decide if you want a group that specializes (see the examples above) or which does a variety of repertoire. A non-specialized ensemble was often my interest (because I love lots of music and styles), but I also had a group devoted to Bach cantatas. But it may be easier to market to a particular niche.
• What's the competition in your town/city? If there are already two wonderful early music choirs, what can you offer that they can't? Is there an area not served in your area? A good chamber choir? Perhaps a good large choir to sing with the local orchestra? Try to find a gap and fill it!
• When you publicize that a new group is starting, you want to give singers a good enough idea of what the group will be to attract singers to it. In the flyer for my first group, shown in the last post, I emphasized potential repertoire and that it was a chamber choir.
• Publicity has changed since I started that group (social media, for example), but not that much! Flyers (placed where the singers you want to attract will be) can give great information to those who might be interested. The flyer announcing the Bach Ensemble is below (yes, I was crazy and planned to do cantatas twice a month--which we did only the first fall!). But the point for this focused, niche ensemble was made clear. And I was successful in gathering singers (some were from the chamber choir I'd started the year before, who then sang in both groups) and instrumentalists for the project. A harpsichordist/organist showed up and volunteered not only to play, but brought his own harpsichord as well. I got enough string players and a couple very fine oboists immediately. One of the Seattle Symphony bassists came and said he wanted to play, even though there was no money for it--he just wanted to play Bach.
• Of course, the success of your first concerts (and I hope they're successful!) will mean your singers will want to continue! And it can also attract new singers to your group. Word will get around.

This is just the beginning, of course. But if you have a passion for this and want to grow as a conductor--it's a great way to do it. As I've said before, the Seattle Pro Musica ensembles were my real graduate education. It's an enormously important part of my development as a conductor.

Next time: learning about leadership.

The Young Conductor VII - gaining experience 2

Last time I recommended that the young conductor (even while still an undergraduate) gain experience through conducting a church choir. For the conductor who is a bit more advanced (already teaching, for example, or working in a major church position), working with a community choir or similar ensemble can be a valuable addition. The first year of teaching is most likely all any young conductor wants to do! It's an extraordinarily steep learning curve as one begins learning how to teach, how to manage behavior, how to deal with parents and administrators, organize concerts . . . well you know the drill! But at some point the conductor may wish to continue growing through conducting repertoire that s/he cannot do in their school position. At that point you might consider working with an outside choir (it could be adult, but also a children's or youth choir).

 

I mentioned last time that I got early experience with a church choir when I was 20 (my junior year in college). When I was 23 I started a community chamber choir, then the next year a group called the Bach Ensemble (with both singers and instrumentalists), which performed a Bach cantata the first Sunday of every month. At the end of that year I combined both ensembles for a performance of Bach's Mass in B Minor and that summer we incorporated and applied for non-profit status.

 

Working with any such group (a pre-existing ensemble or one you form yourself) will give you great experience: as I mentioned with the last post, the success or failure of every rehearsal and concert is up to you; you get experience with more (and different) repertoire; you may work with singers of a different ages than the ones you work with at school; and most importantly, with such a group you have to attract and keep the singers interested in working with you and the ensemble (I've always loved Brock McElheran's statement in his book Conducting Technique for Beginners and Professionals: "It's no use learning long lists of baroque ornaments if no one wants to play them under you."

 

Some of my fellow students also started groups at this time, but they almost always were made up of their friends at school (I sang in many of them). However, the groups rarely lasted. I always felt that when the conductor asked someone to sing, the conductor owed the singer, not the other way around. So if there was a schedule or other conflict there was little sense of loyalty to the ensemble. So when I started my first chamber choir, I quite deliberately did not ask any of my friends to sing. If they decided to audition, that was fine--they were indicating their interest in singing in the choir.

 

I'll say more next time about things to think about and where to find resources in starting a choir (I've started two and both organizations are still alive and thriving), but I'll end with this. When you advertise the formation of your group, you need to let people know what you're going to do, what repertoire . . . what makes you special. Think of it from the singer's perspective: why would I be attracted to this choir? why should I be willing to give up my time to sing in it?

 

Here's the actual flyer that advertised my first choir. I wanted to give a sense of the repertoire we'd do and the nature of the group. Until next time!

 

The Young Conductor VI - gaining experience

In an earlier post I mentioned getting experience as a conductor. This is one of the big challenges for a young conductor and I’m a believer in making your own opportunities.

 

The first and best option for most young conductors (even undergraduates) is to find a position as church choir conductor (I've known other students who took on the children's or youth choir at a church as well). My own first position was in a small Lutheran church near Green Lake in Seattle when I was 20 years old. It was not a fantastic choir, but quite adequate, and I learned so much from my two years there. Everything that succeeded or failed was on me: I had to choose repertoire, coordinate with the pastor and organist, plan and run rehearsals, recruit singers, occasionally worked with the children, and had to have an anthem ready every Sunday. Of course, some things worked better than others (a nice way of saying that some rehearsals didn’t go well or I made poor repertoire choices—usually underestimating how difficult a particular anthem would be). But the experience was phenomenal, the learning curve was steep, and I improved rapidly. I also did a few extra concerts, some with friends of mine from the University helping out, including my first performance of a Bach cantata with instruments.

 

As for the church, they got someone who, while inexperienced, did have training and some skills, and was dedicated to doing the best job I could to help the choir make a significant contribution to the worship service. There will always be smaller churches who don't have a trained conductor and you can do a great service to those churches at the same time you gain experience.

 

Check with your college/university conductor and organ teacher as they will often get information about church openings. Look online, talk with older students who already have a church job. But do whatever you can to get your own choir. You’ll be able to put all those things you’ve been learning into actual practice. Even if (as I sometimes did) you have to occasionally sing the tenor part while conducting on Sunday morning, you’ll learn an amazing amount!

 

As much as you learn in a conducting class, there’s nothing like have a choir where you’re totally responsible to become a better conductor!

 

After two years at the Lutheran Church, I got the position of choir director at the large Methodist Church next to the University of Washington. This was a bigger church, better music program (although the choir was aging), and the organ professor at the UW was the organist at the church (Rod Eichenberger was one of my predecessors in this job). I continued to learn, could occasionally hire some of my fellow instrumental students to do some works with a few instruments or a small string group, and this church became my “home” for the next 8 years, until I was 30. With an office and a decent choir room, I also used it as rehearsal space (and sometimes concert space) for the other groups I would start, taught voice lessons there, etc. It was a great place with wonderful people.

 

I mentioned teaching private voice. This was also something I began quite early (probably when I was 19 or 20). A local HS director hired music students as voice teachers for his young students and I spent time traveling up to his HS once a week after school and teaching beginning students (I can’t remember now how I made that connection, but likely through ACDA). This is a fabulous way to learn about working with the voice, dealing with common vocal problems, and learning how to get beginners to sing better. As always, if you have to teach something it forces you to learn much more about what you do, how you do it, and how to explain it to another. I did the same thing later with my own former HS conductor, teaching at a nearby private school who rented out space for several of us to teach after school (the HS wouldn’t allow non-employees of the district to teach on the property). I then began my own studio as well.

 

In the next post I’ll write about starting your own independent ensemble, something with which I have a fair amount of experience. But know that getting experience is how you turn your education into a set of skills that take you from a student to a real (and better) conductor.

The Young Conductor V - the conductor and the piano

One of the critical areas for a young conductor--and this applies to both the undergraduate planning for a career in music education and the graduate conducting  student with a fair amount of experience already—is to develop and then improve rehearsal skills.

 

I’ve written before about rehearsal, here and here, and even more on my own blog (which can be searched by topic), but today I’ll look at the use of a keyboard instrument in rehearsal.

 

There’s the issue of whether you have a rehearsal accompanist (and how skilled that accompanist is) or, if you don’t, the level of your own keyboard skills. But the question today, no matter whether you have or are your own accompanist, is how do you use the keyboard most effectively in rehearsal? Having excellent keyboard skills (or having an expert accompanist) can be a temptation as well as an aid—a temptation to play too much or too often.

 

In the beginning conducting book by Eric Ericson and two of his colleagues, Eric writes a chapter on rehearsing and compares the use of the piano in the rehearsal of a cappella music with helping a baby to learn to walk: first you give lots of support; then as the baby becomes more confident you use less and less support; and finally take away your hands and let the baby walk on its own.

 

I often see young conductors continue to play or let the accompanist play when it's no longer necessary. The basic rule should be to take away the keyboard as quickly as possible. When teaching or observing young conductors I often have to remind them: take the piano away! There are several reasons for this. One is exactly as in Ericson's example: use only the minimal amount of support so the choir becomes independent. But there is an equally important reason--when the piano is playing you simply can't hear as much of what the choir is doing. You as the conductor need to know . . . does the choir really know it? Can they find the pitches for the next section on their own? Is that chord really in tune? The sound of the piano can blur what's happening and your ability to hear it.

 

If the choir doesn't need the piano to sing the correct notes, but I'm worried about them staying in tune--so the choir doesn't begin to hear, feel (muscle memory), and learn the piece either flat or sharp--I want the piano to do the bare minimum to help the choir stay at the correct pitch, meaning using a bass line alone or perhaps a series of pedal notes that establish the correct pitch. Additionally, if I'm striving for "just" intonation and purer thirds (see my earlier intonation series for more information) I want to avoid playing the piano's tempered thirds, so will play roots or fifths.

 

I mentioned a cappella singing above, but even with accompanied music (whether with piano, organ or orchestra), it's valuable to take the piano away and let the choir sing alone. Not only can you hear them better, but if they're secure without the accompaniment it'll be ever so much easier when singing with the piano or orchestra. You can play the interludes, but drop out whenever the choir comes in.

 

Another thing for me if I use an accompanist--I don't want the piano between me and the choir. I will set up with the choir in an arc with me in the center of the arc (relatively). The the piano (a grand--this can't work easily with an upright) is to my right and slightly behind me. It's to my right (not left) so that the accompanist can easily see my right hand. It's behind me and further to the right because I don't want the bulk of the piano and its sound coming directly in front of me and more directly than the sound of the choir. It also allows me to move closer to the choir freely as well--either to hear/encourage a particular section or to temporarily get further away from the sound of the piano. But it's most important so the sound of the piano doesn't dominate over the sound of the choir.

 

And here are more observations from Eric Ericson's practice from an earlier post that's part of the intonation series:

 

First, Eric was a superb pianist with a marvelous, light and "vocal" touch. He almost always played with the una corda ("soft") pedal down and created a transparent, non-percussive sound. Too often I hear either conductors or accompanists pound notes in a way which invites harsh attacks and sound. Never from Eric or his accompanists.

 

He almost never simply played along with the choir, doubling what they did. Here's what was typical:

• sometimes without the choir singing, he'd simply play (normally from memory) the music (Bach's Der Geisthilft, for example, demonstrating all important parts), saying, "I think it might go like this," giving a very complete idea of rhythm, phrasing, and shape -- the piano can demonstrate beautifully--with the right player!
• as mentioned above, he would often play a pedal (usually in the treble, above the soprano, but also bass lines) to help keep pitch (but without implying tempered intonation)--often "rocking" an octave back and forth to keep the sound going
• in very slow-moving music, he might improvise a melody above the choir in shorter notes, so the choir could hear and feel the pulse
• if the music was harmonically complicated, he would play (as in the first example) something for the choir, but almost never exactly what the choir sang--but a reduction of the harmonic content and shifts so the choir could hear it more easily
• he would also help the choir hear the harmony when it was complicated by playing while they were singing below and above  the choir (I remember that in Debussy, for example), but never in the choir's pitch area
• and, of course, much of the time the choir sang a cappella -- he played only when it was necessary to help stay in tune, or to help with one of the musical issues listed above

The piano is a notably "unvocal" instrument and my comments above about Eric's beautiful and non-percussive approach to the instrument is incredibly imporant. So often I've heard a conductor or accompanist give pitches to the choir with a hard, loud, and percussive sound . . . and then the conductor wonders why the choir doesn't sing beautifully! How you or your accompanist plays is incredibly important in creating a beautiful sound or a poor one.

 

The keyboard in rehearsal is an incredibly helpful tool, but like all tools, has its place. Make sure you find ways to use it (and even more importantly, remember when not to use it!) that help the choir, but neither work against the sound you want nor become a crutch for the choir that isn't necessary.

 

Please add your thoughts and suggestions in the comments!

The Young Conductor III - learning repertoire

Learning repertoire is another life-long (and fascinating) part of being a conductor.

 

For the beginning conductor it seems a daunting task, so first know that it's never-ending. Don't worry that you don't yet know enough, just get started.

 

First, of course, you'll learn the repertoire you sing. That doesn't mean it will be appropriate for the first ensembles you conduct, but it's an important building block in your knowledge. That said, take every opportunity you have to sing in more ensembles. As an undergraduate at the University of Washington when Rod Eichenberger led the choral program, I sang in almost every grad student's recital choir. In that way I was exposed to much more repertoire than I would have just singing in the UW Chorale. I also occasionally sang with other choirs, mostly to see a particular conductor work, but I also learned a huge amount of new repertoire.

 

I should also say that you need to start building your own score library. This is tough (financially) for a student and perhaps even for the young conductor starting her career, but will pay long-term dividends. In one of my methods classes we did a lit project writing down information about repertoire on file cards (yes, it'd be on computer today!). While this is helpful, later when you need to decide on one piece or another for your choir, you need to look at the specific score itself: is the tessitura too high for your tenors? range too low for your basses? how difficult is it to learn? So buying scores needs to be some sort of budgetary priority.

 

Go to concerts. If the symphony nearby is doing a choral/orchestral work you don't know--go! If another college choir comes to town on tour--go! If there's a good church choir doing a concert--go! Just go and listen and learn. Take notes in the program if you love particular pieces.

 

I was also lucky at the UW in that I started hanging around Rod's office listening to his discussions with the grad students. This was in the days when publishers gave away many more comp copies of scores than they can afford to today, and Rod had a couple huge stacks that hadn't been filed. Since I was hanging around, he told me if I'd file those scores for him I could keep any duplicates. This was a double win: I got the beginnings of a very good choral library (even things like some of the Bach motets), but would also look through each file when I put a piece away (they were filed alphabetically by composer). If I put away a piece by Hindemith, I'd look to see what else Hindemith had written. Consequently I got a great overview of the repertoire.

 

When I was in Europe on a choir tour with the UW Chorale I sought out music stores there. I still have Doblinger scores that I bought in Vienna and a few I bought in Paris. In Paris my French pronunciation clearly wasn't too good since I asked for "choeur" music and they brought me to the files of "cor" (horn) music! After that tour I stayed in Europe for another couple months and picked up music in other places as well.

 

Conferences are another great place to get to know repertoire: first, you'll hear lots of choirs singing great music you don't know. Keep notes of pieces you particularly like so you can acquire the scores later. Or if you hear a particular composer whose music you like, make a note to find out what else they wrote. And, of course, spend time in the exhibits, both of music stores and publishers. Between the many ACDA, MENC, IFCM, ACCC and other conferences I've attended, I've been exposed to a huge amount of repertoire. But you have to take notes or buy scores to remember what was worthwhile!

 

Workshops/Festivals are much the same. I was a student at the Oregon Bach Festival very early on (1972, the third year of the Festival, when it was still relatively small) and Helmuth Rilling told us if we'd give him our addresses, he'd pass them on to Günter Graulich, then the chief editor at Hänssler and after owner of Carus-Verlag. So I started getting their newsletters at that time, first in print, than later via email, and always was kept abreast of the huge catalogue that's been built over the years (and I still get their email newsletters today). Since I was particularly interested in early music, it was a great resource. Through Bob Scandrett I later got to know Graulich when he did a workshop at Western Washington University in Bellingham, along with Greg Smith and Louis Halsey. Bob then arranged a study tour of England in 1975 (follow the link from Bob's name to a series of blog posts about that trip) which introduced a huge number of composers and their music to me. This wasn't all new music--I heard Roger Norrington's Heinrich Schütz Choir rehearsing Monteverdi's 1610 Vespers which inspired me to learn the music and find a way to program it a year later.

 

Recordings are another obvious resource. With something like Naxos available today, you can have access to an amazing library of recordings online--many more than you'll ever be able to listen to. When you hear music of a composer you like, it can be a quick way to explore some of their other repertoire. And as a "dinosaur" of sorts, I still buy a fair number of CDs--old habits die hard!

 

As you begin to conduct your own choirs, you'll have reason to explore specific repertoires. When I taught at Mt. Holyoke I had reason to learn a lot of women's choral music. The wonderful library there provided a great resource, of course, but I also looked outside for other repertoire. During my time at PLU we started a men's chorus which I conducted, and that was the impetus for looking for male chorus repertoire. Since I haven't conducted a women's or men's chorus since then, I haven't kept up with the field, but whether you're looking for repertoire for the male changing voice, madrigal repertoire, choral/orchestra rep suitable for your church or HS choir, etc., you'll explore those areas in much more depth. A couple years ago I took on an Interim Choirmaster position at a big Episcopal Church in Dallas, where they sing Evensong every Sunday during the academic year. That gave me the excuse to learn a huge number of "Mags & Nuncs," along with Preces and Responses and much other Anglican repertoire I love. Whether it's one of the genres I've mentioned or vocal jazz, spirituals, gospel, African Freedom songs, or music from other cultures, there's always something new to discover, depending on the needs of your choirs.

 

Your colleagues will also be a fantastic resource once you become a conductor. You need to ask them what they consider the core repertoire for the middle school, or high school training choir that you're now conducting. Or to say, "What have you done recently that was a huge hit with your singers?" I've found my colleagues over the years to be incredibly generous. When I first became conductor of Pro Coro Canada in Edmonton, I traveled to Vancouver, B.C. and spent the day at Jon Washburn's house, looking through his vast library of music by Canadian composers and asking questions. I think you'll find similar generousity--just remember to pay it back to other conductors one day!.

 

If you have further ideas, please share them in comments!

 

While learning our vast repertoire is challenging (too vast to learn more than a fraction), it's one of the joys of being a conductor--there's always a new composer or piece to discover and then to share with your singers and audience! Don't be afraid of how much you have to learn, just begin.

The Young Conductor II - what does a conductor need to know?

When I taught beginning conducting (which I did for 18 years at Pacific Lutheran University), I'd begin by asking the class to tell me what the conductor did. What did she need to know? What skills are necessary? What roles does the conductor play? What's important to become a very good conductor? This would always take coaxing and hints, because it was rare that the students had thought very much about that. They'd been in choirs, perhaps for many years, but looked at it from the other side. Now that they were taking this class (some because it was a requirement, some because they wanted to be music educators, perhaps even some because they wanted to do what I was doing!), they needed to start to see conducting from another angle.

I'd write the things they said on the white board and gradually they'd be grouped in different ways (they didn't come in this order, of course):

communication (can be gesture or verbal . . . or other non-verbal)

conducts (gesturally)

leads rehearsals

teacher

hears and corrects mistakes

theory

music history

ear training

knows the voice

understands instruments

can create a good choral sound

knows style

performance practice (OK, my undergrads didn't usually think of this)

knows choral repertoire

is a leader

how to choose singers in an audition

keyboard skills

interpreter (knows how the music goes)

inspires

administrator (they rarely thought of this one either)

organizer

There would be variations on all these, but it always took coaxing and hints to get them to realize, for example, that a large part of the conductor's time is spent on organizing and administering many things connected with having a choir. Some, who may have been assistants or member of a choir council, might have thought of this, but even those students rarely thought about it--it just happened, didn't it?

As the list got more or less complete, then I'd start erasing things from the board: "It's incredibly important for you to be able to learn a score, to hear mistakes, and that's why you take theory, ear training, and piano, but we don't teach those things in this class." (I'd deal with them in later conducting classes, but not here)

"You'll learn certain things about music in music history. You'll also pick up ideas in your private lessons and in singing in your choir."

"You take voice not only to sing better, but to understand the voice and how it works, and how to teach your singers. You'll also learn about aspects of this in your choral methods class."

"You'll spend an amazing time organizing and administering your choir(s). Some of that you'll learn in your methods classes. . . but not all!"

"When you rehearse you use gesture, but also communicate verbally."

"Being a leader, being inspiring is incredibly important, but we don't have a class for that."

And gradually, everything was erased from the board except for gestural/manual conducting: "All these things are important for you as a conductor. Some you'll learn in the various parts of the curriculum (and now you know why you want to master those things!) and some you'll pick up along the way. Some are knowledge and some are skills. But in this class, we're really only concerned with learning the craft of gesture--how can you communicate with your ensemble what you want to happen in the music? What you'll learn here isn't nearly as hard as learning to play an instrument, for example. But it'll make your job as a conductor much easier if you can communicate gesturally to any ensemble--instrumental or vocal--with your gesture so your singers and players know what you want."

At this point I went over the syllabus (which I'll share part of below). But it's critical for the beginning conductor--and many who are already teaching or leading a church choir--to remember that the conductor has an amazing range of skills and knowledge to master. That's the point of today's post for the blog. And much of this takes years to master--there's no end point, which is one of the reasons I love this art. No matter how much I've done, there's still more to learn, there's great repertoire I don't know or haven't yet been able to conduct. For me, that's the reason it's continually fascinating. So, for the young conductor (literally beginning or beginning to establish your career), be aware of what you don't yet know, don't be overwhelmed by it, but enjoy the endless journey towards becoming a better and better conductor. You will never "arrive."

The basic conducting class was oriented only towards gesture. However, I always did an error detection exercise early on: they were given a simple chorale to learn for the next class--I then played it in three different versions (each played twice), and each with a more-difficult-to-hear mistake--best was if they identified the part which was wrong and the specifics--"you played C# instead of C-natural" after circling the alto note on one bar; next was to know what note was wrong, but not being able to identify the specific mistake; next to know something was wrong "around here."). This wasn't graded, but if they had real difficulty doing this (especially if they were planning a career in music education!), I took them aside and told them that they needed to work incredibly hard on ear training if they were to succeed--they would have a very difficult time as a conductor if they can't identify and correct mistakes.

Basic Conducting Syllabus:

This is the syllabus for basic conducting—not a syllabus tied to specific days, papers or exams—but  a list of the skills that we'll attempt to master.  They're given in the general order in which we'll approach them.  As you all now realize, there is much more to conducting than gestural conducting technique, but that is the focus of this beginning class.

The development of a sound conducting technique means mastering skills—and as with any skill, this means practice.  Just as you can't go into your vocal or instrumental lesson having practiced only a few minutes before (you can do that, of course, you just won't accomplish very much!), you must practice regularly if you expect to improve your conducting skills.  Basic conducting skills are not too difficult, but you’ll find that you make the fastest progress with short, focused, and frequent practice sessions.

Each of the individual skills inter-relates with the others, so don't feel that you can stop practicing previous techniques as you add new ones.  As you add, for example, left hand cues, accents or new patterns, you must make sure that the foundations of posture, relaxation, and clarity are still secure.  Further, each skill needs to be practiced to the point of being automatic. It does you no good to be able to conduct a beat pattern if you have to muster all of your concentration just to keep your hand moving in the right direction!  Ultimately, technique must be automatic so that your conscious mind can concentrate on the music and the ensemble.

Taken as a whole, conducting is a complicated mix of many different elements and, whether or not you plan a career in conducting, can be a wonderful way to integrate different aspects of musicianship.

• Good conducting posture
• Learning to work with the non-linear nature of the body
• Relaxed bounce—a stable bounce point, the bounce centered in the hand, finding a relaxed hand position
• Introduction to conducting patterns—how and why patterns work
• The 3 and 4 pattern—conducting with a "balanced" pattern—working to groove the beat so that you can concentrate on other things while maintaining the beat
• Changing the size and speed of patterns, conducting crescendos and diminuendos
• Work on left hand independence
• The 2 pattern
• Showing accents or subito fortes within the beat
• Giving accents or cues with the left hand
• Irregular patterns:  7/8, 5/8 etc.
• Subdivided patterns:  "in 6," "in 8," etc.
• Making ritards and accelerandos
• Preparatory beats:  pieces starting on the beat
• Preparatory beats:  pieces starting off the beat
• Cut-offs
• Fermatas
• Putting it all together—learning to show what you want with your conducting technique

Remember, technique is just the means to a goal—that of making music.

The Young Conductor I

Welcome back! I hope you all had a good break. It's time for a new series, this time thoughts on the preparation for the young conductor. This could mean an undergraduate planning on a career in music education, or it could mean a young conductor, teacher, or graduate student who's started his/her career. How does one develop the skills necessary to be a fine conductor? What will make the difference between just adequate skills (even good ones) and excellence? I'm speaking of those things outside your classes/curriculum--what can you do to be the best you can be?

 

We'll start with your passion for the art of choral music. If you don't love choral music it's unlikely you'll spend the time necessary to achieve all of which you're capable. But . . .  you're not likely to be reading this if you aren't in love with what we do!

 

I hope so, anyway. I've been at this a long time, but I still love "talking shop" -- I'll happily spend hours talking about almost any aspect of choral music. So that's your starting place: your passion and love for this art.