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Choral

Conductin
g
A workshop facilitated by

Onum Gilbert
Phone: (+234)7039059605
E-Mail: gilbertonum@berklee.net

First edition: December 2010


Introduction:
As with every aspect of music, conducting is a skill
that needs to be developed. Unfortunately, just hands full of
conductors in most of our choirs and chorales today, have had
one form of formal training or the other. The vast majority
of these conductors, learnt on the job after series of
embarrassments, some others, drew experiences from watching
their local choirmasters/conductors. Some of whom may not
have been very good role models. Enhancing ones conducting
skills in such a circumstance could be very difficult.

Conducting
Conducting involves the use of musical sign language
made up of hands, arm and facial gestures rather than speech,
to communicate with the musicians in the ensemble or chorale.
This tends to reflect the individual’s personality in the
conducting as his feelings are articulated on the piece of
music rendered. This is not to say that standard practices do
not exist but that no two choirmasters can be the same even
if the use the same standard.

The functions of the right and left hands


The function of the right hand is to beat time, while
the left hand is to highlight in some way the expressive
qualities of the music. The right hand indicates dynamics (by
varying the size of the beat) and the left hand is employed
by the conductor to deal with the beginning and end of a
phrase.

Important things to note


Downbeat/upbeat: the downbeat is the beat immediately after
the bar or in other words the first accented beat of a
measure. While the upbeat is the beat just before another bar
Ictus:
Cutoff:

Conducting patterns
Timing;

- 4/4 pattern can also be used in 4/2, 4/8 and fast 12/8
- 3/4 pattern can also be used in 3/2, 3/8, 3/16 and fast 9/8

- 2/4 pattern also used in 2/2, 2/8

Skills/Technique:

- Don’t sing with the choir

Your singing distracts you from helping your performers,


since you can’t hear well while you are singing along.

- Be able to read a full score


This would enable you to be able to sing all parts so you
know when a part is going off, and you are able to make
corrections where necessary.

- Be familiar with a wide range of musical styles

- Use clear and unambiguous gestures

Maintain a clear gesture that your musicians will be able to


understand. Your gestures should be able to make the
performance better and not to mare the performance.

- Recognize Pitch inaccuracy


In other words, you know when the choir has gone off-key as
most us would call it. And also to know if a modulation in a
piece of music is been observed accurately.

- Facial expression/posture

Your face must represent the song/music so the choir can


understand how to sing the song and also you must position
yourself in such a ways as to portray self-confidence,
leadership and seriousness. Don’t burry your face while
conducting: This is, so that you can look into their eyes and
communicate dynamics, new tempo, and rests. You are also able
to identify choristers that are participating or not.

- Establish a rapport with the accompanists

To ensure smooth accompaniment of the music, correct tuning


of keys, playing of intros, interludes etc
Dos and don’ts

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