Seven Habits for Second Semester Conducting

Here is my December 29th email to the second semester conducting class:

Greetings, Conducting Class 2.0,

I hope you are enjoying your break and please forgive this scholarly intrusion on your happiness.

I think I told most of you about one of our early assignments in our next class together:  Choral Conducting - MUSC 3220 01

Here is the assignment:  Read Steven Covey's "Seven Habits of Highly Effective People."

You can get it at a very inexpensive price online - less than $4 used before shipping: http://www.amazon.com/Habits-Highly-Effective-People/dp/0743269519/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1293636628&sr=8-1

It is available electronically at less than $6 if you:

1.  download kindle software to your computer:  PC version here.  MAC version here.

2.  have an amazon account

3.  download kindle book:  http://www.amazon.com/Habits-Highly-Effective-People-ebook/dp/B000WJVK26/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1293636778&sr=1-1

If you don't want to read the book over your holiday break, you don't have to.  However, it will be our first assignment so I highly recommend it!

Conducting blessings,

9:15 Tempo Competition

A tremendous achievement by the 9:15 class.

Best:  Enoch Ko (5) and Lydia (6) and Drew (8) and Sarah (9) and Whitney (9)
Others:  Kris (12), Mandy (15), Elizabeth (17), Lindsay (19), Matt (24)

Full results in this format:
Name
First tempo - Performed tempo
Second tempo - Performed Tempo

Drew
60 - 63
80 - 85

Elizabeth
80 - 92
120 - 125

Kris
100 - 109
120 - 123

Lindsay
100 - 110
80 - 89

Lydia
100 - 105
60 - 61

Whitney
60 - 67
120 - 118

Enoch
60 - 61
100 - 96

Mandy
60 - 73
100 - 98

Sarah
100 - 103
80 - 76

Matt
120 - 131
80 - 67

10:30 exam video uploaded

Check the FLCKR page for your work today.

10:30 Class Tempo Competition

The Ranking:

1. John
2. Lauren
3. Sarah
4. Shara, Dominic (tie)
5. Meredith
6. Ben
7. Julia
8. Chris

How I score it:

Name -
requested tempo (actual tempo)
requested tempo (actual tempo)
Difference - lower is better

Sarah -
100 (116)
60 (63)
19

Lauren
80 (86)
60 (72)
18

John
100 (100)
120 (113)
13

Julia
100 (112)
80 (102)
34

Shara
80 (88)
60 (72)
20

Meredith
100 (116)
120 (131)
27

Chris
100 (115)
60 (80)
35

Ben
120 (128)
80 (104)
32

Dominic
100 (112)
60 (68)
20

Clarifying Assignment for Both Conducting Classes

Classes,

For your final assignment before the exam, you are to:

1. Review your video, analyze strengths and weaknesses.
2. Give brief commentary on Four Other of YOUR class members.
3. Email both sets of reviews to me (in the same email) by this FRIDAY.  (December 10, 2010)

9:15 class uses videos that I posted on this website. (Vimeo) (Fermatas video) (And the Glory)
10:30 class uses videos that I posted separately here. (Flckr) (Look here or here)

9:15 Class - Mastering Fermatas

Mastering Fermatas from philip copeland on Vimeo.

9:15 Class - And the Glory of the Lord

I published this one on Vimeo:

And the Glory - Conducting 9:15 - from philip copeland on Vimeo.

Conducting videos up

10:30 class videos are up.  Look here.  Please look over five other videos (mixture of the two pieces) and email me feedback.

11/18 Video Review

Here is the place you do your reviews.
Here are the videos.

Here are the pairings for conducting reviews -

Whitney - Julia,
Drew - Chris
Enoch - Ben
Sarah M - Dominic
Elizabeth - Meredith
Lydia - Sarah C
Matt - Dominic  (Matt, please review John as well)
Kris - Shara

Video Test - Cues - Releases - Randomness

Here is where you review yourself.  Due Monday, 12:00 noon.

Videos are now online.

Conducting Excerpts - MP3's

Help for you below, AKA fun with GarageBand.

Come Lord Jesus
Ave verum corpus
Brother James' Air
Come Ye Faithful, Raise the Strain
Day by Day

Assessing the Video Test - cues, releases, sustains

This is your assessment tool, that you will complete after I post the videos.  You will complete this on Monday instead of coming to class - due by Monday noon.  I will grade them Monday afternoon.

UPDATE:  Videos are now posted here.  

Here are the Partner Pairings for this Assessment - their are uneven numbers, so the first three are a little different.  In case you are wondering, I assign these randomly - put names on little slips of paper and draw them out.

Drew Bailey reviews Meredith McCoy

Meredith McCoy reviews Matt Theodorus 

Matt Theodorus reviews Drew Bailey

These students review each other:

Elizabeth Berg - Shara Lewis

Kristin Boyd - John Keyton

Lindsay Cleveland - Ben Griner

Lydia East - Lauren Carpenter

Whitney Head - Julia Gray

Enoch Ko - Dominic Aliffi

Mandy Liu - Chris Barbee
Sarah - Sarah

Video test - cues - Psalm 139 and Lord's Prayer

Here you go, conducting students - keyboard recordings of our video test on cues, releases, and sustains:

1.  Psalm 139
2.  Lord's Prayer

Specifics for Friday:

Lord's Prayer:

1.  Preparatory beat, beginning measure
2.  Cue choir entrance, m. 5
3.  Sustain gesture, m. 11
4.  Release, downbeat of m. 12
5.  Cue entrance, m. 13
6.  Sustain, m. 17
7.  slightly more accented R.H. in m. 18 - 19 (b. 3, 4, 1)
8.  Cue choir, m. 21
9.  Release, m. 24
10.  your decision, sustain or break, m. 26
11.  rit, m. 29
12.  a tempo, m. 30

Psalm 139:

1.  Preparatory beat, beginning measure
2.  cue choir, m. 3
3.  m. 4-5 your decision whom to cue
4.  m. 6 release on b. 3
5.  welcome men in b. 4 (eye cue to women in m. 7, b. 2
6.  m. 10 release on 3
7.  increase in dynamic, m. 10-11
8.  option to release or carry in m. 11
9.  same in m. 12
10.  release on d.b. of m. 15

5/8, 6/8, 7/8 and "The Call"

UPDATE: VIDEOS ARE UP

Look here for your videos.

Look here for the evaluation tool for your videos.  Be thorough in your evaluation of yourself and your classmate.  Be respectful and accurate with your praise and items for improvement.  I'm grading your evaluation of your classmate and I will share it with them. (pairings are a 9:15 class person with a 10:30 class person for a fresh perspective)

The pairings:

Julia Gray & Elizabeth Berg & Lindsey Cleveland (Julia evaluates Elizabeth, Elizabeth evaluates Lindsay, Lindsay evaluates Julia)

Shara Lewis & Enoch Ko

Chris Barbee & Lydia East

Lauren Carpenter & Matt Theodorus

Sarah Cole & Sarah Macon

Ben Griner & Mandy Liu

Dominic Alfi & Whitney Head

John Keyton & Kristin Boyd

Meredith McCoy & Drew Bailey

Mixed Meter Conducting Video Review

UPDATE:  Looks like Flickr only lets one upload 90 seconds of video and that cuts us off at the end of "The Call."  So we'll only evaluate the first three pieces.

Here are the Mixed Meter conducting videos for your class.  (will post actual videos on Wednesday)
9:15 Class
10:30 Class

Here is the place where you review your conducting video.

We will be evaluating:

1.  Preparatory beat
2.  Angular gestures vs. Float gestures
3.  Eye contact
4.  Is your pattern appropriate to the music?

Form To Accompany Video Review

Click here to go to form.

Testing on Friday

Class,

Don't miss that I give a summary of each conducting class on the Samford Conducting Course Calendar, found here.

Here is what I said we would take a grade on for Friday:

Source:  Three Hymns - O Sacred Head, Blessed Assurance, Angels We Have Heard

Two different scores:

Quality of pattern, including:  posture, pattern, armspace, ictus
Quality of preparatory beat:  stillness before starting, quality of prep beat.

Conducting tempo differences

Thanks for the experiment, everyone.  


Here is how you did - a smaller number is best.


Average:  22.73

Class One:

EB 10
KB 13
MT 17
LC 18
LE 19
SM 21

ML 24

EK 24

WH 28
DB 43

Class Two:

JG 12
DA 18
SL 19
LC 21
SC 24
CB 25
BG 25
JK 28
MM 43

Combined

Class One:

EB 10
KB 13
MT 17
LC 18
LE 19
SM 21
ML 24
EK 24
WH 28
DB 43

Class Two:

JG 12
DA 18
SL 19
LC 21
SC 24
CB 25
BG 25
JK 28
MM 43

Combined numbers:

10
12
13
17
18
18
19
19
21
21
24
24
24
25
25
28
28
43
43

The importance of practice

Like any new skill, conducting should be practiced - preferably in front of the mirror.

Remember:  strong posture, elbows away from side.  Palms parallel to floor.

An exercise in 3/4:

                                                                                                

1st Class at Samford

Conducting @ 9:30 on Monday:

Confronting our Demons

Here are the fears you mentioned about becoming a conductor.  Red is 9:30 class.  Blue is 10:30 class.

• Being in front of people
• Messing up
• Independence of Hands
• Intimidation
• People that you lead will know more than you
• Fear of being judged - them misunderstanding who you are
• Fear of being in a leadership position
• Not organized enough
• Time commitment to learn scores
• Mis-interpreting the music
• Fear that feedback would be critical
• Fear that the group you are leading will resist you.
• Fear that the ensemble will lead the conductor instead of the conductor leading the ensemble
• Coordination of the left hand
• choosing repertoire that will be passionate
• Filling all the responsibilities of the conductor
• Researching music
• Not knowing what you should know
• Fear the responsibility of making a long lasting impact on an ensemble member or audience that is negative

Brainstorming - Good/Bad Qualities of Conductors

Here is the list we brainstormed in the first day of class.

Conducting video *wordle*

Here is the "wordle" that all of your responses to the TEDtalks video made.  Read full text of responses here.

Make your own wordle.

See how your response compares to the other students

Collecting all video responses here.

Lead like the great conductors

Watch this for Wednesday's Class and:
1.  Give me feedback in the comment section below (make sure you sign your name or start an account).
2.  Send me an email with your feedback.
(due by Wednesday)

Syllabus

This is the syllabus that I am working up for my two conducting classes at Samford University for Fall 2010.