Teaching Through Conducting
by David Newell

In the Fall 2003 issue of Kjos Band News we discussed the importance of establishing meaningful visual communication between conductors and performers. Among other things we concluded that, “Non-verbal, visual communication between performers and conductors is enormously important to a truly musical performance. Simply telling students to watch will not work unless there is something meaningful to see. Directors need to know that the greatest responsibility in achieving this goal lies with them. They must set the example on a daily basis.”
     One of the things we must do to get our students to watch us on concert nights is condition them to watch us during rehearsals. How can we achieve this? By seizing every opportunity that presents itself during rehearsals to conduct a correction rather than discuss a correction. We overwhelmingly make rehearsal corrections and suggestions verbally. We stop the band and we tell our students that they are too loud, that they need to play this section in a more legato style, that they need to listen to the horn and alto sax line here, and so forth. The students make the requested adjustments and the rehearsal moves on. There is no need for the students to look at us. They receive everything they need “by word of mouth,” and the performance of the piece improves. All is well.
     The problem with this scenario is that rehearsals are preparing students for an event in which absolutely no corrections or adjustments can be made verbally. We cannot stop a piece in the middle of a concert to tell the students that they are playing too loudly. We must tell them this by employing a special sign language that we call conducting. If this unique language is to be correctly interpreted and implemented on concert nights, it must be an integral part of the daily rehearsal routine. In every sense, concerts are reflections of rehearsals. What we see and hear on a daily basis in the rehearsal room is what our audiences will see and hear on concert nights. If we want our students to exhibit excellent posture on concert nights, excellent posture must become second nature to them, because it is an integral part of every minute of every rehearsal. It cannot be added the day before the concert. Likewise, if we want our students to watch us on concert nights, we must structure our teaching in such a way that students consistently watch us during rehearsals.
     Imagine if the baseball coach at your school put the team through their entire spring training period by telling the players everything that he wanted them to do. With a runner on first and one out, he shouts across the diamond from the third base coaching box that he wants the runner to attempt to steal second base on the next pitch. This practice regimen is excellent in many ways. The base runner gets to practice his slide, the second baseman is reminded that it his responsibility to cover second base, the catcher gets to practice his low throw to the first base side of the bag, and so forth. The team improves with each practice. Unfortunately, this particular coach waits until the final practice before the first league game to explain to the players that he will not be able to shout his instructions to them the next day. He will have to signal what he wants by way of a set of special signs from the coaching box. He then quickly describes the signals. He first touches his left elbow with his right hand, followed by a tug on his baseball cap and a swipe of his belt buckle. But it is the fourth sign that matters. If he pulls on his right ear, it means bunt; if he pulls on his left ear, it means to swing away, and so forth.
     The chances of this team having a completely successful first game seem rather minimal. First of all, most of the players on the team probably wouldn’t even think to look at the coach for a sign. They never had to do that during practice. They were always told verbally when to bunt, when to steal, when to take a pitch, or when to swing away. Those players who did remember to look for a sign would probably not be able to recall what all of those special gyrations meant. The signs are far too complicated and unusual to be learned the day before the first game. Because they were not a regular part of the practice regimen, the signs are basically meaningless to the players. The coach obviously needed to start conditioning his players to look at him for the signs much sooner than he did.
     As band “coaches,” we need to do the same. We need to run our practices (rehearsals) more under actual game conditions (concert settings). From the earliest rehearsals we need to use conducting as a means to understanding what is needed. In so far as possible, we need to stop exclusively teaching students verbally for a non-verbal event. We need to spend some time during every rehearsal teaching through conducting.

Less Talk; More Conducting

     Talking is not teaching. Students learn the things they actually do much more profoundly than they learn what we tell them to do. The learning is in the doing! If we want our students to watch us and to interpret what we are visually trying to tell them during concerts, then we need to give them ample, daily opportunities to practice reading this special language. When we are presented with a choice of making a correction either verbally or visually during a rehearsal, we need to make the correction visually much more often than we currently do. We need to conduct it!
     The band is playing the expressive, sustained, legato middle section of the piece in an inappropriate, separated style. The director stops the rehearsal and, without saying a word, conducts a couple of silent measures with a decidedly stilted, marcato beat pattern, after which he simply shakes his head “no.” He next demonstrates a couple measures of a very legato, fluid pattern completely devoid of any sudden movements or sharp points. He silently indicates that this is the desired style and simply says, “Measure 37 again.” The students play the passage, this time in a more musically fitting style. If they don’t, he repeats the above process until he is satisfied that the students are getting the message. Repetition is an important part of learning any language, spoken or unspoken. Through this process the students are learning that conducting patterns model the desired sound, that the signs the director is sending out have musical meaning. Conducted corrections, done on a daily basis, are much more likely to produce performers who check with their conductors to confirm that they are performing in the correct style, at the appropriate dynamic level, with good balance, and so forth.
     This is not to suggest that all learning during the band rehearsal can or should be non-verbal. On the contrary, talking is a very necessary part of the daily rehearsal, but it is often most beneficial when the talking follows the experience. Because the above correction was conducted, the students were forced to figure it out on their own. They had to think! Had their director simply told them to play more legato, they would only have had to react — no thinking required. To make certain that all of the students understood the self-learned “lesson” however, it is important that the experience be summed up verbally. A question such as, “Amanda, what have we just learned?” would bring important closure to the learning for the students.
     Students need to know that, because it is a sign language, conducting must be seen if the message is to be understood. Like any language, conducting is best learned when it is used on a daily basis. It is our responsibility to give our students daily experience interpreting and translating that language into appropriate sounds. We need to do more of our teaching by conducting, less by talking.

David Newell has taught instrumental music for thirty years in the public schools of Berea, Ohio. In 1979 he received the Martha Holden Jennings Foundation’s “Master Teacher” Award for Excellence in the Classroom. He also received the Alumni Achievement Award from Baldwin – Wallace College in 1987.

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