Monday, June 15, 2009

Some Conducting Notes


  • Exercises
    • pickup beats
    • crescendo and decrescendo
      • pattern size and tempo
    • left hand cuing, release fingers on beat
    • beat within a box
    • no passive expressions!
    • different types of resistance
    • practice beats with a metronome
      • hear/feel tempo before starting
    • gesture of syncopation
    • mixed patterns
  • leave left hand at your side unless you want the choir to respond to it
  • first master your stance and beat pattern - then work to look like the music
  • practice facial expressions
    • cover mouth and chin
    • narrow and widen eyebrows
      • anger and surprise
    • work on joy apprehension determination elation
    • open or closed mouth

  • Play with different seating arrangements
  • control beats with thoughts/hearing
  • keep every note alive
  • bowing's - start at the end of the phrase and work backwards
    • bowing's highlight text
  • hit beats harder
  • Learn music one line at a time
    • then layer
  • Neil Zaslaw - read about orchestra
  • pay attention to
    • off string
    • on string
    • brush strokes
    • bow distribution
      • to much
      • to little
    • where on bow
      • usually on the bottom half of the bow
  • Study Haydn
  • Always work from the Full Score so that you can understand the voice leading
  • warm up
    • tune chords,
      • sing up out of the range and down below
      • then ask them to sing the first pitch
    • work dissonance
    • zim ba be do ba dee ba di doo ba
      • clap, snap, tap
      • sing with chords tuning
    • dont forget about consonants
      • great singers focus on consonants
  • watch mirroring - unnecessary
    • conduct in a box
  • talk slow
    • give ideas time to sink in!
  • Don't let students move past their weaknesses
  • conduct music not beats
  • 4 things Eph looks for
    • theoretical
    • historical
    • technical
    • spiriemotional
  • timing is everything!
  • Look at MENC
  • sound travels in equally in all directions
  • sing with all of what you have!
  • Dont chew vowels
  • Dynamics
    • teach MF = natural volume
  • Breath Support
    • resisting exhalation
    • Babies dont get horse - great breath control
    • Pooch out stomach and pull up on stomach
      • breath out on an S
  • Always look for a four measure phrase

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