Learning To Conduct And Rehearse

"Unusually comprehensive, this text covers the full spectrum of things that conducting students need to know - manual technique, how to develop leadership skills, transposition, score reading, score study and preparation, rehearsal procedures - plus, it includes sequenced musical excerpts for laboratory use. Throughout, the focus is on the physiological and psychological factors involved in conducting, as well as on content. Most topics covered include a section on how to practice and a discussion of common problems and their solutions." -- Back cover.

Conducting and Rehearsing the Instrumental Music Ensemble is the most comprehensive guide on the rehearsal process for conducting instrumental music ensembles. Ideal for the advanced instrumental music conductor seeking to look beyond basic conducting technique, this work breaks the multidimensional activity of working with an ensemble, orchestra, or band into its constituent components. Advanced students of conducting will find within the full range of conducting activities: • Chapters on the infrastructure of the rehearsal, the rehearsal environment, 10 rehearsal essentials, score study, music imagery, inner singing, and rehearsal procedures (with an emphasis on an integrated approach to rehearsing) • The technical priorities of intonation and tuning, rhythm patterns, ensemble sonority (tone, balance, blend, color and texture), and articulation • The musical priorities of tempo and ensemble precision, phrasing and the musical line, style and interpretation, dynamics and musical expression • Emphasizing the expectations of 21st-century conductors, the challenges of conducting and rehearsing contemporary music, preparing conductor profiles and self-evaluations, and moving from the rehearsal process to concert performance Conducting and Rehearsing the Instrumental Music Ensemble is a great resource for teachers and students of conducting, as well as current conductors wishing to further hone their skills.

Following on the heels of his Conducting and Rehearsing the Instrumental Music Ensemble, John F. Colson takes students to the next level in conducting practice with Rehearsing: Critical Connections for the Instrumental Music Conductor. Colson draws together the critical connections for those seeking to become fully capable and self-assured instrumental music conductors. As he argues, too often conductor training programs treat the problems and challenges of the rehearsal—perhaps the single most critical element in any effort to achieve competency as a conductor—as secondary. Colson supplies the missing link for conductors looking for advice that allows them to complete their training for reaching complete competency as a conductor. He demonstrates throughout the specific connections that the advanced conductor must know and regularly employ—connections that few, if any, other works on the art of conducting address or bring together. One connection, for example, illustrates the joining of music imagery, inner singing, and conducting technique to score study. Throughout, these connections describe the nitty-gritty of what it really takes to stand up in front of an instrumental music ensemble and successfully rehearse in order to achieve its highest performance level. Also, Colson argues and demonstrates the pitfalls of the commonly mistaken assumption among instrumental music conductors that score study alone is sufficient to prepare them for the rehearsal process. This grave error is regularly belied by the fact that a number of other steps precede the actual rehearsal process, from the use of instrumental pedagogy during the rehearsal process to teaching through performance concepts. Colson’s work addresses the entire rehearsing process thoroughly and authoritatively.

Now in its eighth edition, Basic Conducting Techniques provides a clear and intelligible introduction to the art of conducting an ensemble. It has been updated with a greater diversity of repertoire, including contemporary examples and more music by underrepresented composers. Over the course of 14 chapters, the authors explicate the elements of conducting, supplementing their teachings with an extensive selection of musical examples from the classical repertoire. Practical and innovative, clear and approachable, the book illuminates the essential skills that a beginning conductor should develop in order to lead and rehearse a performing group. The companion website provides scores and transposed parts for all musical excerpts, as well as guitar and piano parts, audio recordings of the excerpts, and updated demonstration videos modeling specific conducting techniques. With the beginning conductor in mind, this hands-on, competency-centered approach is appropriate for mixed classes of choral and instrumental music majors, providing indispensable versatility for students and practicing conductors alike. Utilizing decades of teaching and conducting experience, the eighth edition of Basic Conducting Techniques is the essential guide to the principles of conducting. Note: The paperback edition of this book (ISBN 978-1-032-02497-4) is spiral-bound.

As the landscape of choral education changes - disrupted by Glee, YouTube, and increasingly cheap audio production software - teachers of choral conducting need current research in the field that charts scholarly paths through contemporary debates and sets an agenda for new critical thought and practice. Where, in the digitizing world, is the field of choral pedagogy moving? Editor Frank Abrahams and Paul D. Head, both experienced choral conductors and teachers, offer here a comprehensive handbook of newly-commissioned chapters that provide key scholarly-critical perspectives on teaching and learning in the field of choral music, written by academic scholars and researchers in tandem with active choral conductors. As chapters in this book demonstrate, choral pedagogy encompasses everything from conductors' gestures to the administrative management of the choir. The contributors to The Oxford Handbook of Choral Pedagogy address the full range of issues in contemporary choral pedagogy, from repertoire to voice science to the social and political aspects of choral singing. They also cover the construction of a choral singer's personal identity, the gendering of choral ensembles, social justice in choral education, and the role of the choral art in society more generally. Included scholarship focuses on both the United States and international perspectives in five sections that address traditional paradigms of the field and challenges to them; critical case studies on teaching and conducting specific populations (such as international, school, or barbershop choirs); the pedagogical functions of repertoire; teaching as a way to construct identity; and new scholarly methodologies in pedagogy and the voice.

From William Horton -- a world renowned expert with more than thirty-five years of hands-on experience creating networked-based educational systems -- comes the next-step resource for e-learning training professionals. Like his best-selling book Designing Web-Based Training, this book is a comprehensive resource that provides practical guidance for making the thousand and one decisions needed to design effective e-learning. e-Learning by Design includes a systematic, flexible, and rapid design process covering every phase of designing e-learning. Free of academic jargon and confusing theory, this down-to-earth, hands-on book is filled with hundreds of real-world examples and case studies from dozens of fields. "Like the book's predecessor (Designing Web-based Training), it deserves four stars and is a must read for anyone not selling an expensive solution. -- From Training Media Review, by Jon Aleckson, www.tmreview.com, 2007

Known internationally for his work as a teacher of conducting, Gustav Meier's influence in the field cannot be overstated. In The Score, the Orchestra and the Conductor, Meier demystifies the conductor's craft with explanations and illustrations of what the conductor must know to attain podium success. He provides useful information from the rudimentary to the sophisticated, and offers specific and readily applicable advice for technical and musical matters essential to the conductor's first rehearsal with the orchestra. This book details many topics that otherwise are unavailable to the aspiring and established conductor, including the use of the common denominator, the "The ZIG-ZAG method", a multiple, cross-indexed glossary of orchestral instruments in four languages, an illustrated description of string harmonics, and a comprehensive listing of voice categories, their overlaps, dynamic ranges and repertory. The Score, the Orchestra and the Conductor is an indispensable addition to the library of every conductor and conducting student.