Undergraduate Choral Conducting Blog

This week went pretty well for me. I got a lot of helpful feedback about my beat pattern, which started out a little choppier than it should have. I recall getting a sound much closer to the one I wanted upon adopting a smoother pattern.

Another issue I've always had that was dealt with on Friday (and not for the first time) is that I tend to keep my elbows very close to my sides, which forces my arms to extend further laterally than they should. I don't make very good use of my upper arm joints which, apart from being poor form, makes my arms tire faster.

Upon watching the video, I noticed some other recurring problems. It didn't appear that I was walking around as much as I usually do, but I was swaying quite a bit, and I don't know exactly how forbidden that is. Was it distracting anyone? It wasn't brought up, but that might be because it took a back burner to more pressing issues. In any case, if you can think about it and maybe comment on it in the future, I would really appreciate it.

Another issue I noticed in the video was my eye contact; I was looking at the people ahead of me maybe 90% of the time. I know it's no excuse, but that fact that there were no staggered entrances (as in Cantate Domino) made it easier to put on my homogenizing glasses and stare straight ahead. I'll have to work on allowing my field of vision to expand and include everyone.