Undergraduate Choral Conducting Blog

Concerning Friday, Sep. 20, 2007:

I felt good about my conducting on Friday. The feedback was encouraging: that I was clear, easy to follow, and was able to incorporate appropriate left hand gestures (though these feel pretty awkward and unnatural yet). In my practicing, I was surprised at how much of basic conducting skills came back, and also how difficult it was for me to conduct in 3, my body kept defaulting to the 4 pattern we've worked on. Ironically, the reason I'd like to be most comfortable staying in the 3 mind set, is so I feel better about breaking that pattern. Several points in the phrase I'd like to be able show a more linear, resistant sort of motion, but am afraid to do so, lest I loose my place. Breaking the pattern will also help me next week, when we will have to conduct both lines.

I would also like to master a more consistent, even motion. As my group members may remember, my beat three had a tendency to speed up. Perhaps if I concentrated on keeping the same sort of resistance on my "upstrokes" on beat 3 as I do on beats one and two, I will be truer to the tempo. Loosening my joints, especially my wrist and elbow, may also help. Andrew suggested conducting to a metronome- joy of joys. I'll have to try it.

I also received comments about increasing my eye contact. I think this will be a challenge for me as we add the second line next week. I'll have to keep reminding myself of the score this week!

Thanks for all the great help, group 2!