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What is ConductIT?

by Mark Heron

Who is this aimed at?

Conducting pedagogy is still relatively young, at least We envisage that some people will just need to
compared with learning an instrument, and it has learn basic beat patterns and how to start & stop the
arguably been hampered by what could be described ensemble. Others might plot their way through the
as self-serving statements made by various maestri material by themselves in a more structured way.
(or their PR teams) and enthusiastically embraced People who have quite a lot of experience, but maybe
by the media: “Conductors are born, not made!” as not much formal training, might use the technique
Leopold Stokowski proclaimed in 1943. sections as a refresher. Institutions teaching beginner
or intermediate conducting courses could use different
elements of the material. Music Services could
Things have moved on considerably in recent decades, combine some of the material with CPD training
and it is now commonplace to find decent degree sessions. Those seriously considering full-time study
courses in most specialist music colleges and might focus on the career development advice.
universities. The problem is that these programmes And of course, general music lovers with an interest
tend to be aimed at those aspiring to a full-time in what conductors do will find much of interest.
career as a conductor.
So what actually is it?
If you think about it, the overwhelming majority of
conducting is done by those for whom it is part of a The first part to be published will be a self-contained
wider career in music: music teachers who conduct MOOC. There are fairly brief sections on technique;
youth bands, choirs & orchestras as part of their rehearsing; analysis & score preparation; and
job; professional musicians taking a sectional with a leadership. As well as being a taster for the main
student orchestra; the incredibly wide range of people resource, this could for example be used as the
who conduct amateur groups of all kinds. basis of a beginning conducting module for 1st year
undergraduate music students. All the material for this
The training and development of all these people is an has been written, filmed and edited, and is currently
area where there is still much to be done and if being put together by our web development team. It
conducting is 10% or less of your job, a full-time should be available in January 2021 at the latest.
course is probably not what you need or want. On the
other hand, you most likely want some help to improve The full resource will have 4 main areas.
as you are probably a good enough musician to know
what you don’t know and, crucially, how that is hampering 1 The Study Room
the development of the musicians you conduct. After
all, the less expert and experienced the musicians are, This is the practical nuts and bolts stuff. The Practical
the more they rely on the conductor. Conducting section of the Study Room deals with
technique and rehearsing. The Academic section
At the RNCM we have a fantastic programme of looks at score study, analysis, issues relating to
external conducting courses aimed at a wide range different genre, etc.
of conductors across many genres. There probably
isn’t another music college in the world that reaches The technique chapters are amongst the most
the number of people we do, but around 50-60 people innovative aspects of the project. We’ve taken an
per year is the best we can practically do. approach and some material that I have been using
for face-to-face teaching for many years, expanded it
The idea of ConductIT is that anybody anywhere can dramatically, and tailored it for online use. It takes
access the resources, completely free of charge, and the form of a workbook comprising a series of short
take as much as they want from it. extracts which focus on specific aspects of technique.

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