Entry two
Conducting is so fun, however I feel I should have asked many more people, many more questions. I don’t want to name drop anyone on here without their consent but I asked a few music teachers in SD61 and SD63 about tips and tricks for how to conduct Belle Qui Tiens Ma Vie and a lot of them were pretty baffled with the dynamics. It only took them one look over to kind of be like, “oh, this is a very quiet piece… how do you conduct this?”. Then all three of them huddled together and looked at the piece and just kind of talked amongst themselves as though a piece this quiet was like an alien script to them. They were discussing how an average sized concert band is supposed to be Pianississimo for a good majority of this piece. They all turned to me afterwards, handed me back the piece, and said collectively, “move all of the dynamics up by two, you don’t need to be worrying about trying to conduct a band to be Pianississimo for nearly three minutes.”
This actually did calm my nerves quite a bit, because when I went about conducting it, I was moving my hand at a miniscule amount, to the point where even I could barely see myself moving it. If I couldn’t see it, how are the percussionists supposed to when they’re in the furthest back row? I also got a tip to try and show dynamic with my left hand. However this was also tricky to me, as my left hand is already cueing in and out other instruments. I just looked at them with a confused expression on my face as I tried to see where they were getting at.
My time with the three of them was short (only about 15 minutes post a rehearsal I had with them), but I do wish I brought the score to them more so I could gather more tips and tricks from them. Maybe I’ll do that in the near future, during next rehearsal perhaps?