# Opportunity of conducting my school orchestra!



## KevinW (Nov 21, 2021)

Hello Talk Classical community,

As a high schooler now serving as the second chair violin of my school orchestra, I talked to my school orchestra's director yesterday and she offers me an opportunity to be the student conductor next year. I am very interested in such a position, and I am sure I can and will take it (I am the only classical lover so very few others applied to be the conductor). Although I am a relatively good violin player, but I am still not very familiar with music theory, and need some better practices on basic skills such as tempo, sight reading, etc. Also, I believe I have to learn conducting as well, including using the baton, understanding how an orchestra works, finding out problem in where the problem is in a performance, and many other related musical knowledge. I still have a semester to prepare for it. What do you think I should work on and how should I learn conducting? Please feel free to give any kind of suggestions!

Kevin 

P.S. My school isn't a musical school so my orchestra is just a very normal youth orchestra made up with non-classical lovers that were forced to learn instruments by their parents. There is a very, very good concert master who plays Mendelssohn at the age of 15 and another two fairly good players except for me. The first violin and the second violin have 7 players respectively. There is only one violist with four cellos and a double bass. We have relatively complete winds and brass, except for people playing instruments like basson.


----------



## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)




----------



## Nawdry (Dec 27, 2020)

KevinW said:


> Hello Talk Classical community,
> 
> As a high schooler now serving as the second chair violin of my school orchestra, I talked to my school orchestra's director yesterday and she offers me an opportunity to be the student conductor next year. I am very interested in such a position, and I am sure I can and will take it (I am the only classical lover so very few others applied to be the conductor). Although I am a relatively good violin player, but I am still not very familiar with music theory, and need some better practices on basic skills such as tempo, sight reading, etc. Also, I believe I have to learn conducting as well, including using the baton, understanding how an orchestra works, finding out problem in where the problem is in a performance, and many other related musical knowledge. I still have a semester to prepare for it. What do you think I should work on and how should I learn conducting? Please feel free to give any kind of suggestions!
> 
> ...


This is kind of a "duh" response, but here goes ...

You will need (a) some complete orchestral scores to work with; (b) a sound system with speakers or earphones etc. to listen to the pieces you have scores for; (c) CDs, MP3s, FLACs, or other recordings of the pieces you have scores for. Then you'll need to listen to various pieces while reading their scores; then imagine you have an orchestra in front of you and practice directing that imaginary orchestra, paying special attention to the different instruments or instrumental sections you hear in the recordings and pretending to give them special directions, etc. - encouraging this one or that one to become more, or less prominent, louder or quieter, etc.

There are certainly variations of these general suggestions but these should be a reasonable approximation of the kind of practice you'll need. Good luck.


----------



## progmatist (Apr 3, 2021)

As conductor, sight reading the score doesn't quite cut it. You'll need to thoroughly familiarize yourself with every part. Even if that means playing through every part on your violin...or better yet piano, if you can play it. And of course, that'll mean transposing from Bb to C for the Clarinet, from F to C for English Horn and (French) Horn, and so on. The best conductors, like Gustavo Dudamel become so familiar with the score, they don't even need it in front of them. They can recall it all from memory.


----------



## SuperTonic (Jun 3, 2010)

First off, congratulations on the opportunity to learn to conduct your school orchestra! I wish I had an opportunity like that when I was your age.

It sounds like it is supposed to be a learning opportunity for you, so your teacher probably doesn't expect you to start out having mastered all of those skills. Of course, it couldn't hurt to ask her what her expectations are coming into the program. I'm sure she'll have some recommendations on things you can do to in preparation.

Off the top of my head I would think that it would be a good idea to get some scores and learn to follow along with recorded music. Score reading takes some practice to get used to, especially for a full orchestra. You don't necessarily need to practice conducting the recorded music; there are differing schools of thought on whether or not that is something that conducting students should be doing on a routine basis (the teacher I studied conducting with in college specifically asked us not to do it because it isn't a realistic simulation of what conducting is like; he always said if you wave your arms around to recorded music you're just dancing not conducting). 

I'd also recommend getting some introductory texts on orchestration and music theory. If you don't already, you'll want to learn how to fluently read the standard clefs that orchestral instruments use (treble, alto, and bass for sure, and tenor as well though it isn't as common as the other three). I'd also practice doing transposition exercises so that you can do the necessary transpositions at sight if needed.


----------



## KevinW (Nov 21, 2021)

Thank you all! Also, what level of music theory do I need to learn?


----------

