I want to be conductor. What should I do?

[lisztisforkids]

How do I go about learning how to conduct? I have an unhealthy obbsession with the power of the orechstra, and all my life I have wanted to be a conductor.

[BoliverAllmon]

learn to flail your arms insanely

[Bob]

There are at least two other threads on this I remember.

You need to conduct an actual live group, not just a recording.

Study the instruments.  Study the music.

Find someone to study with, just like piano.

Pick the path of your career.  What kind of group do you want to conduct?  And then how do you get there?  Find out where and what you need to do to become prepared to get to that end.

Conductors need an intelligent informed opinion about the music, not just knowing the notes.  That is a real trick I think.  Then they need to get that point across (and hopefully in an enjoyable way).

[contrapunctus]

I am sorry but most major conducters get training from a very early age because it takes 30-40 years to learn the stuff and become good. If you are a teenager it is probably already too late.

[lisztisforkids]

I am sorry but most major conducters get training from a very early age because it takes 30-40 years to learn the stuff and become good. If you are a teenager it is probably already too late.

I dont think so. Its never to late for anything. The odds are agianst me but so what. Bring it on!

[arensky]

I am sorry but most major conducters get training from a very early age because it takes 30-40 years to learn the stuff and become good. If you are a teenager it is probably already too late.

untru

[Tash]

if you do music at uni you can take conducting classes woo can't wait!! randomly, the director of my choir was once doing a conducting exam (didn't know you could do them!) and she accidently turned the page too forcefully and ripped the page out of her book! so had to conduct it from the floor hahaha

apart from that i'm pretty clueless, but yeah you can take masterclasses and stuff, go find the conductor of your local orchestra and have a chat

[elspeth]

If you are at uni, investigate the student music society, there are usually a few amateur orchestras in any student population... I used to run one, and we usually changed conductor every year (they were often 2nd year music students after experience - but too nervous in their first year and too busy in their last so you could only expect to keep them one year). We used to hold auditions - pretty informal ones - around Easter for the following academic year, we'd get our hopefuls to conduct the same piece we'd just been playing (so we knew the music already and could watch for style) and see what their skills were like - then grill them a little, why did they want to conduct our orchestra, what composers/pieces would they think about choosing next year, what kind of concert programme did they have in mind and so on. We used to consider ourselves lucky to get more than two or three candidates though, so the competition wasn't very tough!

Obvious thing - conducting is a big commitment, you can't miss rehearsals unless you're ill and even then you'll have to let the whole orchestra know if you're cancelling.

The big point though, conducting isn't just about waving your arms in time to the music and waving cues at people. You have to run the rehearsals - you'll usually have a manager (used to be my job) who'll do all the practical stuff like setting the hall up, but what actually happens and gets done in rehearsal is up to you. You'll probably get to choose the music, but it's not as easy as just picking your favourite pieces, it has to be music that suits the orchestra and that you can reasonably expect to fill a concert hall with people who'll want to hear it - and if it's an amateur orchestra, it has to be pieces they'll like and that aren't cripplingly difficult. You also need to be able to keep a big group of people focussed for the duration of the rehearsal - for most amateur groups, the orchestra is a social occasion and if you can't instill some discipline during rehearsals they'll just sit and chat and nothing will get done.

You don't have to start learning to conduct early. The major conductors who do have a lifetime's training generally have it on instruments to begin with and then come to conducting later as their interests change. You can't, after all, start conducting your first orchestra aged four, while you can take up instruments from such a young age. You need musical background and appreciation, and that comes wil age and experience.

The basic skill of beating time and pointing out cues and dynamics isn't that hard as long as you already know what those things are! The bits that really need work are the leadership skills and the ability to plan a sucessful concert season in conjunction with the manager.

Good luck!

[pianistimo]

very cool that you used to be an orchestral manager!  good advice, too.

[elspeth]

Thanks for the compliments! I've escaped into theatre management now, but I loved being involved with the orchestra. I am unspeakably lucky though, I happen to be involved with the theatre which is home to the best opera and ballet companies in the north of England, and the concert hall which is home to the Leeds International Piano Competition, which I'll be hopefully be working on (and sitting in and watching!) this September. Can't wait...

[gruffalo]

if i was a conductor i wouldnt be able to control my emotions. i would be like the freestyle conductor. I'd probably end up sliding all of the floor and conducting a cello solo right in front of his face and then jumping around like a mad man. all too much to control. i find it hard controlling myself when listening to music walking down the highstreet.

[pianistimo]

wow!  leeds international piano competition.  i want to come.  and, am sure you get to see some good stuff with opera and ballet.  lucky you!  or should i say smart.  you should have no trouble finding a replacement for that guy aforementioned.  maybe this time an international artist or something.  then he'll be sorry.

imagine muti-tasking is important for a conductor.  and, processing music quickly and being able to hear it in your head. perfect pitch.  and, a good knowledge of all the instruments, as elsbeth metioned most all this. 

sometimes i wonder about certain renown conductors because you can't quite make out the beat on some.  sort of circular motion.  there was one that conducted the philly pops here and he actually moved his hand behind his back at times.  i wondered what that was for.  he sort of did this bend elbow in - out (in front) bend elbow in - out (in back).  maybe that's loose performing vs. concert stage performing.  i don't know.

[elspeth]

Conducting in circles... depends how fast the music is. Eg, Sorceror's Apprentice, the first page or so is in a medium-slow 3, (3/2 if I remember right, long time since I've played it!) and then all of a sudden it's in quick 3/8 and every beat you were conducting is now a bar... what I'm getting at - badly - is that really fast music, you can't wave all the beats in the bar or your arm would drop off in protest, so you beat it in one - and it can just look like circles because you're only doing the first beat of the bar. So, Sorceror, you spend the first couple of pages beating down, right, up, down, right, up, (you always beat time with your right hand and the idea is never to do a diagonal across your face, so you can glare at the orchestra and they know which hand is time and which hand is style and cues) then after the time change it's just down, down, down because you wouldn't be able to beat down, right, up fast enough. - hence circles.

Not that I mean to make anyone jealous, but one of the next concerts I'll get to work on will be Freddy Kempf playing Beethoven 5 (Emperor) with the Bavarian Phil. It's a hard life... Shame he's married already, he's very pretty! Oh well... back to the drawing board!

[Bob]

I think conducting is much more flexible in terms of what the person actually does on the podium.  Some are more technical and others are more expressive.  That shows in their conducting.

If the group is good enough, they don't need a conductor to beat time for them.  They need the conductor to bring them up to the next level.

[pianistimo]

yes.  i think i pegholed conductors into beating time.  whatever they do - seems to work.  i like to watch conductors.  how they interpret the music.  so much control at their fingertips.

i would really like to see that freddy kempf concert with the bavarian philharmonic! 

[abell88]

A few suggestions...

1. Take a course.
2. Attend concerts -- watch the conductor and listen! I think you can learn a tremendous amount by listening to not-quite-first rate groups and analyzing their problems. What could the conductor have done (if anything!) to make the group play/sing better? How would you handle this problem in rehearsal?
3. Sit in on rehearsals -- preferably at both the early learning stage of the music, and close to performance time. What does the conductor do to:

-keep the music flowing
-deal with mistakes in intonation, rhythm, etc.
-get the desired blend of sound, or bring out appropriate voices
-maintain discipline
-communicate both the main thrust and the details of the piece

If you can speak with the conductor before the rehearsal -- to learn what their goals are -- and afterwards, to reflect on their strategies, that  could be of tremendous benefit.

4. There are plenty of books on conducting; they can help you learn some of the conductor's language of gesture, but the most useful (and humbling) thing is to get some real experience. Waving your hands while you listen to a CD is one thing; dealing with a group of real live people who are looking to you for leadership is another.