Becoming a Conductor

I am taking a conducting class this semester with Kathy FitzGibbon.  While I already knew many beat patterns, I have never needed the other aspects of conducting like left hand involvement, facial expressions, any other communication to make your ensemble express you deepest thoughts through the music.

I have this nodding problem...I really seem to have no control over it.  Kathy films all of our conducting in class, and it's painful to watch my head bobbing up and down ALL of the TIME!!  Then we get to write a review/reflection of how we did and the comments that we got from Kathy and our peers.

Today, I think I may have actually beat the bobbing - I haven't watched the video yet, but I put a LOT of concentration into not bobbing.  It probably helped that the piece was in one and that I was staring down the door-knob in the back of the room.

I love conducting, and when I'm by myself practising, everything seems great.  When I get up in front of our makeshift ensemble, I get really nervous and have a hard time implementing everything I practised.

Some things comes very naturally, others are incredibly difficult.  Hopefully, I will overcome the challenges currently and any more that develop throughout the semester, and someday I will be an amazing conductor!