This is one of the most frequently asked questions. How do conductors practice orchestra conducting at home? Given the fact that we cannot have our instrument – the orchestra – at hand, it can be quite challenging. With time one learns to automatically articulate musical thoughts and translate them into physical gestures but in the beginning, it’s good to have a few tips.
Practicing conducting can be divided into 2 main areas:
How to approach a new score
Start with the big picture, and progressively move into smaller details.
That pretty much sums it up! Whether you are studying a newly composed work or you are approaching a masterpiece for the first time, the process is the same: find the big picture, the structure, the long arch connecting everything together and that will give you the direction of the piece.
If you’re proficient enough in piano, that will certainly be of help but it’s not mandatory. There have been (and are) countless great conductors who could not read a score at the piano – Koussewitztky being one of the most famous examples.
How do you get from A to B? What’s the form of the piece? Are there tempo changes? Are they immediate or gradual? If they are gradual, how long do they stretch for?
Want more tips and exercises? The recording of the live masterclass is available in the Basic Technique section
After that you can start digging deeper: smaller sections, details, instrumentation (I take for granted the obvious harmonical analysis).
Once you start forming a more precise idea of the piece, you’ll find yourself dealing with some other rather “obvious” choices on the technical aspect, like the aforementioned tempo changes, cues, dynamics etc.
A lot of this comes natural with practice and experience but if you’re just starting out and still trying to find your way and better your skills there are some things you can try before stepping on the podium.
Marking the score
This is a very subjective point: it depends a lot on what kind of photographic memory you have. Some conductors, like Maazel, could simply look at a score once and have it completely memorized to the last detail. Most people do not have that gift and marking the score can be of great help.
For example, you could use colors, and mark cues in blue and dynamics in red; or tempo changes in green; or structural phrasing with a downward line for the whole orchestra.
There is no set system here, really. You need to find what works best for you in order to study better and be more efficient. Some conductors do not like to mark their scores at all; others cannot study if they do not mark them in very specific ways. Bernstein used to mark, mainly in blue, all of his scores. There is no right or wrong here.
Bowing
While going into details, bowings might be something to think about. However, this is something to be very careful about: if you are a string player and you know what you are doing, you can mark and then ask for specific bowings. If you are not a string player, you need to have a very good comprehension of how bowings work and what kind of sound you can obtain with an upbow stroke vs a downbow one. If you’re unsure, make a note and ask the concertmaster or the section leader before the beginning of the first rehearsal.
How to practice and articulate your musical choices
Once you’ve made your musical choices, you can start with the technical aspect: technique is a tool and should always be there to support and show the music. Since technique must come from the music, it is only logical that your musical choices will influence your conducting.
To start, imagine you have the orchestra in front of you: now, sing and conduct. You don’t need to be a singer, that’s not the important part: singing gives you a better idea of breathing and phrasing. After all, instruments are supposed to imitate the human voice, right? 😉
And you might find yourself in the situation of having to sing a certain line to your players: if you’re used to doing it, you will be much less self-conscious about doing it in front of the orchestra. Toscanini used to sing out of tune all the time while rehearsing with the orchestra: nobody cared. What players care about and listen for is the intention in your singing.
Film yourself: use your camera, your phone, your tablet and when you re-watch it make sure your conducting fundamentals are in place:
Practice orchestra conducting: how to keep yourself in check
Body placement and posture
Stand up straight and relax your shoulders; make sure you’re not dancing around while conducting or bouncing on your knees, that’s very distracting for the players. The way you pose yourself has a direct connection with the sound you create. Not to mention on the response the orchestra will have.
The eyes
Look at the players in their eyes: not above their head, not in their direction, but in their eyes. If you’re practicing at home, take a dot on the wall or anything else as a point of reference, or put some post-its on the wall itself for different players/sections.
Avoid conducting with your eyes closed: you will isolate yourself and lose the connection with your musicians.
Baton grip and baton placement
While you’re at it, keep in check the grip of your baton. On top of that, where is your baton placed in space? Does it make sense according to dynamics, instrumentation, registration etc?
Putting it all together
When you start breaking patterns, considering registration, dynamics, cues and everything else, it can become fairly overwhelming.
PRACTICE SLOWLY.
When you practice conducting, do it just like you would do on your instrument: break it down to where you see yourself having problems and practice only that section. And then, bit by bit, you can put it all together.
Excerpt from Pass the baton, chapter 8 – Beethoven, Symphony n.1
Excerpt from Pass the baton, chapter 7 – Copland, Appalachian Spring
Final thoughts
Practicing conducting is much harder than practicing an instrument, simply because you do not have your instrument with you, and therefore you have no immediate response of what you are doing. That’s why filming yourself can be of great help. With time and experience, you’ll learn to automatically articulate your musical thoughts and your gestures will be in sync without the need of a mirror.
Start improving your conducting today with this Pass-the-baton video course created exclusively for iClassical-Academy
A word of advice: do NOT study with recordings. You will end up practicing conducting on someone else’s performance, feeling another conductor’s tempos, and most of all, following instead of leading.
Listening to recordings to learn from the masters and get inspired is a great thing to do; trying to practice conducting on them is a very bad idea.
Do you have any extra tips? Let me know in the comments below!
[ET_MONARCH_INLINE_SHORTCODE]
Well now, it’s about time that the breakdown of the conductors instrument has been told. I feel the instruments convey the vibrations of the conductors soul, as through osmosis, the audience reads and feel’s through that, the spine of the conductors back, which wraps up the complete tutti of the intentions of the music composed. Theory is the formula of music yet,you must be invited into music by the soul. Thank you for elaboration to the complete orchestration as told!!
Dear Ms. Lasley,
thank you for your comment: I believe it happens exactly as you describe it. The conductor is nothing but a connector, and if the connector does not work properly (or does not know how) the end result cannot be the best one: the orchestra is left to make the performance for the conductor itself and, eventually, who suffers most from this is the music (and, in return, everyone).
Its like in every profession. There are rules.There must be a leader. Though when people stay home during quarantine, they need some leader or start leading themselves. 🙂 turn off the tv. 🙂 quote:
To be a great leader, you need to start by leading yourself
very well put 🙂
Be attached and detached in same..(detached emotionally)…..Its easy to turn off the tv, but its hard to learn the detachment, to stop being attached to the world…But be attached only with important things.
training or working at home is great….but little distracting for some people, some people like to rent some office (to not be distracted) but problem is when you work from office alone, you think sometimes about comfort of home maybe (to cook the meal). 🙂
I realised why I don´t go to concerts 15 years ago I bought ticket, but didnt go there, maybe because I never did….. Yesterday I realised Mr Hurwitz talks about so many composers so beautifully about their style, inspiration (twice a day Hayden, Kalliwoda, Rachmaninov)….. that ordinary person has a feeling that will never understand fully maybe 30 percent yes, because its nice music….but if we are not capable to understand the context we feel left alone or cut off, so it leads to indiference. stop listening to it. So it seems to me this music is only for professionals, musicians or historians or critics because its their job, they have time for it. But I am not sure whete in the audience are sitting only them or also ordinary people without musical mind. The critics as Mr. Hurwitz do the analysis also only for musicians or other critics, because ordinary people dont know what they are talking about, I mean the level of quality of the song or symphony, they dont have energy for it or time for it. therefore ordinary people wants to know minimally the history of the composer. He spends 40 years of criticising the quality of music and ordinary person may spend watching the videos for a year, then realises that its not worthy because doesnt understand it anyway, has no benefit from it, may not know whether its true or not….because its not our profession to understnd it. Its probably the same about every art,.You may spend 5 years listening classical music only for your own relaxation, but can not talk about it with anybody because , they will not say to you more than 2-3 sentences because they know you know know nothing about it. But I like when he was talking about dirty secrets of classical music everybody should listen what they like. Who are we to tell you what to listen. This is not place to write about it… but your web is little bit like labyrint, difficult to find any articles that are close to each other to search. :)))
Your explanations and “short” replies are sooo perfect, that happen to be little boring for ordinary people…. :)))) But because you need to save lot f time and energy, it is actually great. 🙂 and because this is mostly for musicians, is great and right way also.