Entry one
I’m going to be honest, I think I bit off more than I could chew with this inquiry. It’s only been a total of 2 hours of practicing and I have had a bit of a time trying to properly keep the tempo going at a consistent pace. To be fair, two hours of practicing is nothing compared to what professional conductors do on the daily. Also, this is my second time conducting, so I have to remind myself to be kind about my process.
The thing that has been the most time consuming so far is going through the music and marking up where dynamics start and stop, where instruments come in and cue out, and just trying to go through those in my notes. It’s a lot to try to write down and digest, a little overwhelming as well. That being said, I did choose the song Belle Qui Tiens Ma Vie by Thoinot Arbeau because it is significantly slower and more legato than the other song that I was considering. This made it significantly easier to get under my belt this far, I think I made the choice in that sense because I think the other, quicker song, would have had me in shambles right now.
I’m going to keep plugging away at it, the next thing I’m going to do is try and figure out my way of showing dynamic. Since the dynamics in this piece rarely go above Piano, I’m going to have to decide how I’m going to show dynamic change while still keeping the overall volume low.