How to practice conducting at home

CONDUCTING How to practice conducting at home by Gianmaria Griglio

CONDUCTING How to practice conducting at home by Gianmaria Griglio How to approach a new score Find the big picture, the structure, the long arch connecting everything together and that will give you the direction of the piece. 1

CONDUCTING How to practice conducting at home by Gianmaria Griglio Once you start forming a more precise idea of the piece, you’ll find yourself dealing with some other rather “obvious” choices on the technical aspect, like the tempo changes, cues, dynamics etc. 2

CONDUCTING How to practice conducting at home by Gianmaria Griglio Subjective but can be of great help. For example, you could use colors, and mark cues in blue and dynamics in red; or tempo changes in green; or structural phrasing with a downward line for the whole orchestra. 3 Marking the score

CONDUCTING How to practice conducting at home by Gianmaria Griglio To start, imagine you have the orchestra in front of you: now, sing and conduct. You don’t need to be a singer, that’s not the important part: singing gives you a better idea of breathing and phrasing. 4 Sing and conduct

CONDUCTING How to practice conducting at home by Gianmaria Griglio Film yourself: use your camera, your phone, your tablet and when you re-watch it make sure your conducting fundamentals are in place: - body placement and posture - eyes - baton grip and placement - left hand 5 Check and re-check

CONDUCTING How to practice conducting at home by Gianmaria Griglio Just like you would do on your instrument: break it down to where you see yourself having problems and practice only that section. And then, bit by bit, you can put it all together! 6 Practice slowly