Undergraduate Choral Conducting Blog

I am still having trouble adding the derivative to my video, but I'll try again over the weekend. For today, I will go from what I experienced last Friday. My idea for conducting welcome was to convey to that class that we were singing inside of a snowglobe, the choir responsible for bringing the Christmas cheer. I find that identifying a setting or experience to convey with a piece is a clear way for me to bring across the mood of the piece. For me, that is very important aspect of making music, particularly vocal music. The comments I received from Matt and Andrew were very helpful last week. When Matt told me I was eliciting a heavy sound because I was so grounded, I realized that is really true. Andrew told me that my beat four was consistently even and light compared to my other gestures. Somehow I need to get more of an upward feeling in my music. Maybe this means I should try to trust the choir more? Perhaps I am leading too much. Does anyone have any ideas about how I can get more lightness in my gesture?

Finally, I will try to not mouth the words next time. I noticed I didn't use my score this time but I didn't really listen, either. I went from my own memory rather than from what I heard. I should probably do 50/50 -- 50 from memory and 50 in response to the choir?

Posted by Amy Trowbridge at 1:50 PM | Permalink

I had no idea that I looked like what I look like when I conduct fast pieces. I started laughing because my gestures are so big and overdone. I need to keep my conducting window appropriate for my size and the size of the group I am conducting. In a way, I think I am giving my choir too much and not making them meet me halfway. My conducting style on this piece might be overwhelming to some singers. The "v" idea really helped because it gave my pattern more consistency and kept the window smaller. It's great to see what I actually conduct like because I don't conduct quite that way when it's just me and the mirror (instant feedback.) I do still want to keep some of my enthusiasm -- I just want to polish it and tone it down.

Posted by Amy Trowbridge at 4:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I learned today that it is essential to simultaneously execute the plan in your head and listen to the group. I tend to focus on only one or the other and need to work on balancing the two. On Friday, for example, I learned that it is possible to worry about executing a plan so hard that you actually lose sight of where you are in the music. I know I could have had more success if I had worked harder to ingrain the excerpt into my head.

That said, I am glad I needed extra help with the 2 beat fermata because my mini-lesson was very helpful to me. I had thought about the motions of the fermata, but did not spend enough time breaking these motions into substeps that occur on specific parts of beats. Now that I am thinking about subdividing my conducting motion, fermatas become much more complex because their location within a measure changes my conducting motion to a greater extent. While I will explore subdividing my conducting patterns, I am always cautious of compromising musicality for exact precision. These two elements have an interesting relationship -- they aren't contradictory, but I don't think the two go hand in hand.

Posted by Amy Trowbridge at 4:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I am just now getting to publish my thoughts on last week's conducting. It's been a crazy week...Even though I didn't publish anything until nowI have been thinking about my conducting over the past week. when practicing, I continually notice how different in structure my arm is from my other classmates. I don't think I am unique. Everyone's arms are so unique and it affects our conducting styles. when I think of conducting, I imagine a long, fluid arms with a lot of extension. My arm is just not built that way. I think it is important for me to practice in front of a mirror so that I can get a better, more accurate visual image of my arm. Then I will be able to move it in a way that appears fluid rather than forced.

As Matt pointed out in class, I have been using too much flexion in my wrist. In my mind, this is how I create the long fluid arm I had been picturing. Practicing on the music stand -- hitting it each time I indicated a beat -- gave me the precision I needed to be a clear conductor. I need to remember that a conductor rarely wants a mushy sound. Even the legato needs to be precise. In conclusion, I think I will achieve precision best by always indicating a clear beat and by picturing, in my mind's eye, my specific arm conducting the beat.

Posted by Amy Trowbridge at 3:53 PM | Permalink

I enjoyed the format of conducting on Friday. I have not had conducting in about 5 years, so I was initially intimidated by this class. I really enjoyed Andrew's help with my section. He was excellent at both encouraging us to comment on our peers and sharing very insightful tips and observations. I also feel like class members really do want to help each other become better conductors. What a wonderful learning environment!

As far as my conducting went, I think it went as well as it can right now. I am considering Friday a baseline for my improvement. My biggest challenges right now are encouraging an easy breath and preparation for singing and also harnessing my energy. When I get in front of a crowd, I have this desire to please people and make them excited about life. As a conductor, I want to make them excited about music. I am going to try to pull in this energy a little so that people are easily welcomed into my conducting/teaching without feeling overpowered by my energy. This way, I will be able to use this energy more strategically.

Now about the blog...I would love to read other people's entire comments, but I can only read a compact version. (The first few sentences.) If someone thinks of this and I forget to mention it, could you please tell me how I can read other's comments. They seem very interesting.

-Amy

Posted by Amy Trowbridge at 3:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I had a very positive experience conducting on Friday. One thing that is very helpful is the support of the class. I felt very supported in going in front of my group and making mistakes. I felt that all comments (to everyone including me) were delivered with a real spirit of camaraderie.

One interesting observation that I keep having is the difference between how I perceive myself and how I'm being perceived. The way I was conducting felt very different internally than how my classmates were reacting to it. For example, I felt that my conducting pattern was fairly contained in a small space. However, I realized after it was pointed out that I can use a much smaller space very effectively, and achieve better results. The larger pattern was causing me to have to conduct more quickly, and hence I would tend to slow down on the 3rd beat. This seemed to be something that the class shared.

Additionally, my first instinct in front of the class was to look at the score and not make eye contact. This was just crutch. I knew the passage fine, but it seemed to comfort me to look at it. I felt initially very exposed to be in front of everyone looking up at me!

I learned some very good strategies for the next time. I need to take a moment to internalize the tempo before beginning, not bounce on the beat (Andrew's point was very good about the framework shifting, making it less effective), continue to make eye contact, keep my elbow tucked in, and lead with my ulna.

Posted by Timothy Oesau at 8:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)