Conducting Practicum 5

Well what a cool piece to conduct - the theme from the Enigma Variations by Elgar. Too bad that my conducting is about as awkward as the instrumentation of the group. :)

On the advice of a couple people, I tried to conduct the _music_ instead of the pattern, and I think it would have served me better to make the transition from patter to music a little more slowly. I tended to be large and imprecise in my gestures and probably could have gotten away with much less.

===What I worked on===
The goal of this practicum, aside from mastery of the 4-pattern, was to express changes in energy. (crescendos, decrescendos, line in phrases, etc.) Instead of the typical and meaningless hand-up-hand-down exercise, we were taught to create the same effect in the upper chest area of the body which, along with the face, are two of the most expressive parts of the body.

In trying to "be the music," though, I tended to have the energy live in my hand rather than at the baton tip, so changing that was a major goal when practicing. You can see that sometimes I've got it and sometimes I don't.

===What I did well===
I think I did eye contact a decent service here. I can't say that this is from anything but knowing the music cold, and I can't say that this is from anything but playing it a million times each class. Actually, I did study some, but it's a pretty simple reduction we were working off of.

I also think that I've got a pretty good start on facial expressions, even if I only use a couple strange ones here. :) I don't know which is worse, though, to have a weird expression or none at all.

===What I need to work on===
The main things that pop out at me are (1) how wildly my pattern changes as I try to be expressive and (2) how wildly my expression changes. The latter can be remedied by standing in front of a mirror and thinking "10% crescendo... 20% crescendo... 30% crescendo..." and marking off and getting used to where each increment is. As for the pattern going wild, just like in any other kind of practice, you fix it by slowing down and doing everything deliberately and speeding up bit by bit until you're used to it and can do both up to tempo.

In a more minor way, I've got a _lot_ of wrist, finger, and elbow action going on, and my shoulder is often frozen in place. The nice thing about conducting from the shoulder is that even though it's a smaller distance to travel relative to how the baton moves, it's a larger muscle group than the wrist, so it _feels_ like you're making smaller motions and gives you a better feedback system, in a way. Also, in conducting from the arm, you're less likely to end up giving two beats, one from the wrist and then one from the baton.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Conducting
• Class

[onfiremusicman]

@derrick2209 Mirror? Why? What good does mirroring do? Let the right hand do its work and support with the left with extra – only if needed – information.

[sleazebee]

nice job dude...i was feeling it

[derrick2209]

Let the music become a part of you and conduct with more conviction! Also, have better technique with you left hand, mirror if you have to.

[sweetmpea55]

i would say embrace the ensemble more, and loosen the death grip on the baton

[face237]

WHAHA !!!

[VictorFairfellow]

A tad bit of ocean motion still. Make sure your movements with your body are what you want. Other wise you get "noise" in the communication.

[tsukemaru1]

your baton is all over the place. motions are to short. stick to a normal movement with the baton.

[dumdumdumduuuum]

the first chord sounds like a soft wet fart.

[BobCob0]

STIFF WRIST!!!! loosen up .. your left hand might want to try using the Italian O kind of like the OK sign.. might want to experiment with that

[carlhess]

labuta!