101 Do’s and Don’ts for Student Conductors – Part 2

So after many, many months, I have finally finished Part 2 of the 101 Do’s and Don’ts for Student Conductors.  It took forever.  That’s what you get for writing a clever title and then working out the rest later.

To the list!

49.            Be a Champion. Find a composer, an era, a region, an orchestra, a genre.  Find a niche and work it.

48.            If you are on time, you’re late  -  if you are early, you are on time. Special thanks to Loyd!

47.            Plan score study time into your daily schedule. There will always be demands on your time, so find a time during which you enjoy to study, and be strict about it and protective of it.

46.            Think globally, act locally. You want to be a famous conductor? Do things that will get the kind of attention necessary to become famous, but do it where you are with the people you see everyday.

45.            Bring home the bacon. Politicians understand that in order to be re-elected they need to take care of the people who elected them.  Take care of your audience.  If your community likes Christmas music during the holidays, and marches in the summer, do it and look happy while you are doing it.

44.             Be an advocate for the artistic seriousness of your ensemble. #’s 45 and 44 are not mutually exclusive.  Success financially and artistically is not an either/or situation, it is up to you to thread that needle.

43.            Develop a deliberate practice. Focus on technique, be your own harshest critic, and look for  immediate ways to judge your own efforts.  For further reading check out my post, Let A Rod guide your Conducting Practice.

42.             Take care of your self. Booze, drugs, other distractions that seem to be the source of your favorite artist’s success, will only get in your way.  Go out, have fun and live a human life, but take care of your body and mind.

41.            Seek out happiness. Relationship problems, wrong notes, mean people, bad choices, all of it will always be in abundance. Look for the good things that surround you.  You are able to spend your time training yourself to be a conductor.  It is a beautiful thing.

40.            Don’t be that guy (girl). Not trying to be sexist, but don’t be that guy.  You know, the guy or the girl that is really busy being a conductor rather than leading musicians in musical experiences.  The music, the ensemble, the musicians, these are what you should worry about.  Go make good music.  If the music is good enough, the great career will follow.  If the career doesn’t follow, then still, go make good music. If your goal is celebrity status, go be on American Idol.

39.            Pass on what you learn as a conductor. Every single little piece of info you glean from experience, or a teacher, or from an ensemble needs to be passed on to the next person.  Classical musical is having a hard enough time as is without people being grabby and selfish about what works.

38.             Go teach. Teach basic music fundamentals, teach an instrument in private lessons, teach music history/theory/philosophy.  Go Teach Music.  Waving your arms is only kind of important, but this, passing on your accumulated knowledge, will mean more in the future than how pretty your arms move.

37.            Have a mentor. You need someone who you trust, who has the real world experience, and who will speak the truth and will talk to you directly about your w0rk.  Find someone to bounce off programming ideas, rehearsal ideas, and to discuss the stressful situations that crop up at the job.

36.            Collect. Collect everything. Collect scores, collect recordings, collect books, collect videos, collect concert programs, collect concert reviews from the paper and from the blogs.  The more reference points you have, the better you are informed.

35.            Have an ego. Believe in yourself.  I say this with caution, but you have to have this in order to have success as a conductor. Honestly, this is not the issue most wanna-be conductors have to worry about. Here’s the thing, your ego must be based on the work you do – your  study, your  experience, your thoughtfultness, your planning, and most importantly, 0n your belief in the people who actually make the music.  Otherwise, you are “that” conductor  - a self-interested poseur and nothing else.

34.            Have good posture. You momma told you to stand up straight, so do it.  You’ll look better in that fancy tux, and your players will feel better even if they don’t know why.  Plus you’ll look better on camera for all of those workshops/competitions you’re applying for.

33.            Think about more than your personal conducting needs. What does your group need?  What can they play?  What will be successful?

32.             Think long haul. Start studying a piece you know you won’t conduct well until you have years of experience as a conductor, human, leader.  You might not get a chance to conduct it early, or maybe you do and you’re not really ready for it.  SO what?  Get to work.

31.            To your own ensemble be true. Don’t program beyond them so that you can have on your resume that you programmed the Rite of Spring with the TBD Local Symphony Orchestra.  Everybody in the job knows the difference.  You’re not impressing anyone.  Make them sound good, let them be a part of something beyond your own ego.

30.            Always write in pencil. Maybe some people believe in marking their scores in highlighters, and if so, more power to them but I can’t even imagine being stuck with that.  Use a pencil, mark what you need, move on.

29.            Maintain contact with your primary instrument. One of the most common and terrible pattern for American conductors – band and orchestra, is that they give up their connection to creating music as individuals. All of their music making is through their ensembles.  It is a loss for them personally, and ultimately for the quality of their ensembles.  Get your  ax out of the closet, wipe off the dust, and be a musician again.

28.            Have faith. If you don’t belive in the group in front of you, who will?  If you don’t believe in the work you are doing, who will?

27.            As you do one thing, so you do everything. People will remember how you treated them once.  People will remember how you acted towards their friends, family, colleagues.  The way you approach your work, your relationships, your loved ones, is connected.

26.            Question how much you actually study. How much time do you spend talking about conducting/studying/rehearsing vs. preparing for those events?  Wake up early, take your score with you during lunch, stay up late.  Apparently, everyone needs 10,000 hours on task to reach mastery.  How many of those hours have you accomplished?

25.            Audiences are built one personal invitation at a time. Sound trite? Sound silly? Fine, but advertisers and marketers know that the most powerful form of advertising is the personal endorsement.  It is meaningful for filing job positions, it is meaningful for building church congregations, and it is meaningful for building performing arts followings.  No way around it.  Go out and invite someone to your concert.  Go out and invite 20 people to your concert.  Don’t be ashamed, don’t be embarrassed, don’t think that they should just know about it.  Go out and tell them about the beautiful things you and your group are creating.

24.            Limit what you say. Talk less, conduct more.

23.            Keep your head up. Get your head out of the score. Engage your ensemble, look them in the eyes, communicate.  Conduct the ensemble, conduct the music, but don’t conduct your score.

22.            Conduct Less. Huh? Yes, that’s right, don’t be so busy ‘conducting’ that you don’t actually listen to the music being created.  Know what it is that you intend to have happen, make sure it is happening, and then let go.

21.            Have more than one baton. Experiment with batons until you find what works for your hand size, arm length, and body type.  Then get multiple copies of it.  That way if you lose it, break it, throw it at someone, you can keep on going with little fuss.

20.             Stand Still. Quit pacing around on the podium. Get planted like a tree. Much like having good posture, part of your strength on the podium comes from your stability.

19.            Love the struggle. You need to enjoy the painstaking work of building your groups up, begging for the money to keep going, and having your best people (the ones you’ve nutured and mentored and really get what it is you are trying to do) move on to greener pastures.  If all you want to do is wave your arms at people, you are in for an unhappy surprise.

18.            First who, then what. This is from the book Good to Great by Jim Collins. The people in your ensemble and in your support network will determine what your institution is capable of achieving.  Get the right people involved and great things will happen.

17.            Buy and read the book Good to Great by Jim Collins. Here it is on Amazon for SUPER cheap.

16.             Model the way. You want people to be on time and prepared?  Then you need to be on time and prepared.   You want people to treat you and each other respectfully?  Then you treat everyone with respect.

15.            Be Captain Obvious. It is popular to watch those famous conductor videos and hear people talking about how great Furtwangler was and how part of his greatness was how unclear he was.  Rubbish.  Our job is to be Captain Obvious.  Our players want to know when, where, how loud, and with what kind of articulation.  So make it REALLY obvious in your conducting.

14.             Transfer Energy. Your enthusiasm, your conviction, your energy is transferable.  Let everyone know what it is you are excited about and why.

13.            Seek to understand before being understood. This is one of my mentor’s favorite quotes.  You will achieve so much more in your relationships with people and with your ensemble if you first try to understand the other person’s ideas, problems, complaints, etc.

12.            Celebrate your successes. Well-trained musicians are constantly looking for what is wrong and how it can be improved– intonation, tone, rhythm, dynamics, etc. Unfortunately, this leads to some very unhappy people – bitter, angry individuals who only see what is wrong and forget what it is that makes music beautiful.  Remember to enjoy and celebrate those great moments of success.

11.            You are responsible for your own experiences. A great line from the book Ignore Everybody by Hugh Macleod.  It’s true.  Are you unhappy where you are?  Move.  Are you unsatisfied with your work environment? Change it.  Not know a piece well enough?  Study more.

10.             Set your stand at a proper height. Are young conductors scared of adjusting the stands their scores are resting on?  It’s amazing to me how many in my classes walk up to the podium and leave the stand where the last person left it.  Sometimes it’s too high, sometimes it’s too low.  Set it high enough so that you don’t have to bend over to turn the pages, where your eyes can see it, but not so high that you bump it when you conduct or the ensemble can’t see you.

9.            Sing. Sing a lot.  Make your ensemble sing.  Sing to them, sing with them, listen to them sing.  Instrumentalists will whine.  But it is good for them and good for you and everyone knows it.

8.            Become conversant in string techniques. More than likely, at some point in your career you are going to have to teach bowings, fingerings, shifts, etc.  You will have young student musicians and many will not be taking private lessons.  They will need guidance.

7.            Insist. There are going to be so many times where it would just be easier to let the bad tuning, the rough downbeat, the missed rhythm, or the missed rehearsal go.  The more you insist on the highest of standards of musicianship, attendance, and preparation from the very beginning the more the ensemble will ultimately be able to grow.

6.            Music is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans. You have to stay in the moment with your group.  You have to plan ahead for the cues, for the transitions, for the tempo changes.  But you cannot let the planning for the next moment detract from the current one.  Don’t get lost in your own head.

5.            Don’t be petty. Think about your ensemble and your institution, and stay open to all possibilities for growth, change, and positive momentem. Don’t let cynicism or pettiness derail your ultimate goals. Pettiness and cynicism creeps in over time.  Intentional and unintentional slights, poor planning by others, lack of understanding of your efforts, these will happen and they will add up.  MOVE ON.

4.            Career success does not equal artistic success. We all want career success – to be well paid, get lots of recognition for the work we do.  We all want artistic success – the integrity of our craft, the respect of our peers.  But these are not the same.  Career success requires intense dedication, attention, and perseverance.  Artistic success requires the same intense dedication, attention and perseverance but focused on an ENTIRELY different are of work.  Just remember, getting paid well does not mean you have achieved mastery, or become an artist, it means you are getting paid well.

3.            Artistic Success does not equal career success. Your unceasing work to build the quality of an organization, your work to improve the musical performances of your ensembles, your dedication to the highest artistic ideals in no way guarantees your advancement up the career ladder.  Accept it.  Love it.  Learn to love the fact that good art is worth its own effort.

2.            Career and Artistic success are not mutually exclusive. Both require hard work and attention to detail in separate areas.  The often rely on each other, but not always.   The truth is, there is no set path, there is no set way to become successful as a conductor.  Some might get the job you want, you might get a job you don’t deserve, or maybe it will all work out perfectly for you.  WHO KNOWS?!?  All you have is the integrity of the work you do.

1.            No matter what, it’s really not about you. It’s about the music and it’s about the institution you are building.  If this is your focus, all else will fall into place.