Action Points
It would be nice if there were a pleasingly round number of things to pass on, but it has come out at eleven things I can think of which might be useful. I didn't want to short-change you by only passing on ten for the sake of neatness alone, so... here goes. Some of them are saliva-curdlingly obvious, others maybe aren't.
1
Excellent Fundamental Technique
I mean something very specific by this, and I certainly don't mean this is the end-point to aim for. What I mean by Fundamental Technique is:
I mean something very specific by this, and I certainly don't mean this is the end-point to aim for. What I mean by Fundamental Technique is:
The ability to show the framework of beats in a way that is immaculately clear, rhythmic and communicative, but which does not take up much of your own mental bandwidth.
This last bit is crucial, and takes time and lots of private scrutiny and practice in front of a mirror, with a metronome and without.
The reason it's so important is that, when standing in front of a roomful of musicians, there is A LOT to think about. So often in the early years (I include myself in this), conductors forget to listen because all of their mental bandwidth is taken up with dealing with the freak-out of standing up in front of others, and then also by scrutinising whether what they're showing is good enough.
If you watch the best conductors and orchestras in rehearsal, especially with music that the orchestra (and they) might be working on for the first time, the first time they play it, the conductor will do really very little on the outside beyond just showing the framework of beats extremely clearly... BUT ON THE INSIDE they are really, really listening. And really watching the orchestra. Is that absolutely together, or was it a bit wooly at the edges? Are all the brass taking the same amount of diminuendo at the same rate there? Are the strings using the same amount of bow? Is the balance of the clarinet solo against the horn obbligato absolutely right? Is that exactly the cymbal colour we need?
Please don't misunderstand me on this: I'm not saying 'be deliberately gesturally boring' at the outset. What you're showing has to be joined up, musical, metrically rigorous, with the appropriate type of beat for the music at any given moment... But it must be so automatic and unthinking that you have plenty of bandwidth left for actually doing the job of Making It Better™. (For that is the job of a conductor: make it better). The more you're thinking about your own gestural contribution to this music-making process in the early stages of rehearsal, there is less brainspace left over for listening and Making It Better™.
So practice beating with a metronome, watching yourself in the mirror. Scrutinise the heck out of it. This is the time to scrutinise how what you're doing looks, not when you're in front of other musicians. Slow the metronome down - fill the extra space. Is it still rhythmic and predictable when the next beat is inevitably going to land? Slow it down more. Use smaller and smaller subdivisions in your head. I've spent many hours practicing beating in the mirror, gradually working down to 4bpm. It sucks. But do it. Imagine there are staccato stabs on each main beat at this crazy slow tempo. How do you show that? Imagine it's incredibly gloopy string legato - how do you show that, and is the framework of beats still rigorous and instructive? If not, change something. Practice this to the point where you can have a conversation at the same time, and everything stays just as stable and clear as it should.
This is what I mean by Fundamental Technique. Of course, then all the toolkit of more expressive and interesting stuff has to be added on top of this. I know a great many conductors who have got themselves the most enviable and extensive toolkit of Album Cover gestures... but they haven't got any useful Fundamental Technique.
The reason it's so important is that, when standing in front of a roomful of musicians, there is A LOT to think about. So often in the early years (I include myself in this), conductors forget to listen because all of their mental bandwidth is taken up with dealing with the freak-out of standing up in front of others, and then also by scrutinising whether what they're showing is good enough.
If you watch the best conductors and orchestras in rehearsal, especially with music that the orchestra (and they) might be working on for the first time, the first time they play it, the conductor will do really very little on the outside beyond just showing the framework of beats extremely clearly... BUT ON THE INSIDE they are really, really listening. And really watching the orchestra. Is that absolutely together, or was it a bit wooly at the edges? Are all the brass taking the same amount of diminuendo at the same rate there? Are the strings using the same amount of bow? Is the balance of the clarinet solo against the horn obbligato absolutely right? Is that exactly the cymbal colour we need?
Please don't misunderstand me on this: I'm not saying 'be deliberately gesturally boring' at the outset. What you're showing has to be joined up, musical, metrically rigorous, with the appropriate type of beat for the music at any given moment... But it must be so automatic and unthinking that you have plenty of bandwidth left for actually doing the job of Making It Better™. (For that is the job of a conductor: make it better). The more you're thinking about your own gestural contribution to this music-making process in the early stages of rehearsal, there is less brainspace left over for listening and Making It Better™.
So practice beating with a metronome, watching yourself in the mirror. Scrutinise the heck out of it. This is the time to scrutinise how what you're doing looks, not when you're in front of other musicians. Slow the metronome down - fill the extra space. Is it still rhythmic and predictable when the next beat is inevitably going to land? Slow it down more. Use smaller and smaller subdivisions in your head. I've spent many hours practicing beating in the mirror, gradually working down to 4bpm. It sucks. But do it. Imagine there are staccato stabs on each main beat at this crazy slow tempo. How do you show that? Imagine it's incredibly gloopy string legato - how do you show that, and is the framework of beats still rigorous and instructive? If not, change something. Practice this to the point where you can have a conversation at the same time, and everything stays just as stable and clear as it should.
This is what I mean by Fundamental Technique. Of course, then all the toolkit of more expressive and interesting stuff has to be added on top of this. I know a great many conductors who have got themselves the most enviable and extensive toolkit of Album Cover gestures... but they haven't got any useful Fundamental Technique.