Conducting
Conducting is more than waving your arms in front of the band. The conductor has two primary responsibilities:
To start the ensemble, to establish a clear, uniform tempo, and keep it throughout the performance.
To help the musical quality of the piece (expression, dynamics, cues).There are many different conducting styles. The starting position is important.
Your upper arms should be away from your body. They should be slightly in front. Your forearms should be parallel to the ground. Your palms should show a little bit and your fingers should be up.
Your upper arms should be slightly away from your sides, elbows out, but not too far. (If you feel like you are doing the little birdie dance, you are out too far). Your hands should come in and should line up with your arm pits.
Conducting a down beat:
The solid line is the down beat.
The dotted line is the rebound.
Moving your arms from the shoulder, bring your hands straight up, so that your wrists are at about eye level. All of the palms of your hands should show. Your elbow should not change position much, if at all. This is the preparation position to conduct the down beat. To conduct the down beat simply bring your hands back to the starting position. Quickly flick your fingers down to hit the focal point. This little flicking motion determines the actual beat.
5 Rules for conducting
All beats are down beats.
All beats strike the focal point.
All beats rebound.
All rebounds are equal in all ways to the down beat
The size of the rebound depends on the speed of the music.
A good conductor is mindful of the rebound. If the rebound is too large, the conductor must rush to get back to the focal point. If the rebound is too small, the conductor may be forced to pause to get back in tempo, confusing the beat and the musicians.
Rebounds, and thus downbeats, determine the speed of the music. Smaller downbeats are used for faster music, larger downbeats are used for slower music. The reason for this is because in fast music you don't have time to move your hands too far, and in slow music you do. To try otherwise is a waste of energy.
W
hen
conducting a two pattern, conduct the down beat but instead of coming
straight back up, veer to the side. Beat two brings the hands back to
the focal
point
and then straight up again.
The Three pattern, also known as 'Down-out-up' is a combination of the two pattern and the one pattern. The first beat is a one pattern, which goes down and rebounds staright up.
The second beat goes out, similar to the beginning of the two pattern. The third beat finishes the two pattern.
The four pattern is one of the most commonly used patterns. When learning the pattern, say to yourself 'down-down-out-up'. This patterns follows the same trend as previous ones. The four is the same as the three pattern but the four has an extra down at the beginning.
This is the 'down-down-reverse-around' pattern. The first two beats are simple downbeats, but the third beat rebounds in a circle towards the outside. The circle continues around until beat four. At beat four, give a flick of the wrist at the focal point (your hand should be there) and rebound up.
This pattern has a weak fourth beat. It is very useful in con-ducting the last half note on the last two beats of a measure. This patterns is good for building up to a new phrase or as part of a dynamic change. This pattern is generally not used over and over, but instead only as needed.
The 'Thump' pattern is good for very fast music. The first beat comes to the focal point at an angle. The second beat slides in on a plane with the focal point. The third beat slides back across the focal plane to where the first beat ended. The fourth beat retraces the first beat back up. The pattern doesn't rebound, but still accentuates all the beats, hitting the first beat especially strongly (freeze on beat 1 for a moment).
This pattern is mostly wrist movement (because of the fast speed). Because your hands go in, watch out that your arms stay apart (or your hands will run together and mess up the tempo).
T
his
is another four pattern. This is larger pattern, one good for
moderate and slow music. Beat one comes down and, instead of
rebounding up, goes across the chest, curving up (think 'over a hill'
) and down (think 'into a valley') then hangs bit at beat two. The
right hand then slides in a long curve into beat three which is out,
away from the body on the other side of the conductor. Beat four
slides in and up to prepare for beat one.
DO NOT MIRROR HANDS, at least for the entire pattern. (Crossing hands is a no-no.)
If you want to use the left hand, only use it for beats three and four. After beat four drop the left hand to your side or stomach to leave room for the right hand, which will shortly be crossing your body.
This is a pattern good for more formal groups, orchestras, choirs, and symphonic bands. This pattern can be used in marching band for, say, a ballad.
The legato pattern is another four pattern. It is good for legato music with soaring phrases.
W
hen
conducting this expressive pattern use only the right hand (don't
mirror). The pattern is similar to the above pattern in that it
crosses the body for beat two and extends away from the body on beat
three.
The wrist is much more relaxed for this pattern. From beats two to three the wrist leads, 'pulling' the pattern out. The wrist leads again from three to four, 'pulling' the pattern up.
The size of the pattern is fairly large since most legato music has a slow or moderate tempo.
A marching band conductor would most likely never use this pattern on the field. This is another pattern which is suited better for symphonic bands, vocal groups and orchestras.