Level I: The Basics

By: Jason Hoang

Table of Contents

iii

Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... v
Chapter 1: ........................................................................................................................................ 3
Posture............................................................................................................................................. 3
Stance .......................................................................................................................................... 3
The Conducting Plane ................................................................................................................. 4
Hand Position .............................................................................................................................. 5
Chapter 2: ........................................................................................................................................ 9
Conducting a Down Beat ................................................................................................................ 9
The Ictus...................................................................................................................................... 9
Basic Arm Movement ................................................................................................................. 9
Keeping Time............................................................................................................................ 10
Chapter 3: ...................................................................................................................................... 13
Starting and Stopping .................................................................................................................... 13
Starting your tempo................................................................................................................... 13
Stopping - Releases ................................................................................................................... 14
Chapter 4: ...................................................................................................................................... 17
The Basic Conducting Patterns ..................................................................................................... 17
4 Beat Pattern ............................................................................................................................ 17
3 Beat Pattern ............................................................................................................................ 19
2 Beat Pattern ............................................................................................................................ 19
Chapter 5: ...................................................................................................................................... 23
Advanced Techniques ................................................................................................................... 23
Left Hand Independence ........................................................................................................... 23
Facial Expression ...................................................................................................................... 23
Musical Style and Articulation ................................................................................................. 24
Staccato ..................................................................................................................................... 24
Legato ....................................................................................................................................... 24
Dynamic Contrast ..................................................................................................................... 24
Final Thoughts .............................................................................................................................. 25

Introduction

This manual is mainly for experienced musicians and music teachers who want to learn how to
conduct music. This manual can also teach beginners the basics of conducting.
Conducting any type of musical ensemble is an honor and a privilege. It is a chance for the
conductor to express their knowledge and artistry in music. Being a conductor also carries with it
many responsibilities.
A conductor:
Analyzes a piece of music and defines to the players what the music is asking for.
Knows every technique to successfully interpret the music and create a performance for
the audience to enjoy.
Leads a group of musicians towards a successful performance.
Demands respect from their musicians through the presentation of their knowledge and
skills as a conductor.
These qualities of being a conductor are an incredibly important part of the job. However, the
visual side of being a conductor is equally as important.
A clear, fluent conducting technique is important. A stable technique gives the conductor the
ability to concentrate on the needs of the music and the musicians. A polished technique will
build the initial base of respect for the conductor towards the performers and allow the conductor
to build upon the base with his musical knowledge and expression.
In this manual, we will teach you the basic techniques of conducting so that you can start
building and perfecting the foundation of being a conductor.

Chapter 1

Posture

Chapter 1

The basis for good conducting technique begins with the correct posture. Knowing how each
aspect of posture affects conducting leads to a full understanding of conducting. This will also
give a general impression of confident leadership and artistic style.

Stance
The following stance is recommended for beginning
conductors. As you become more comfortable with the
technique, naturally, your stance will change to
accommodate your style.
Stand tall with your feet shoulders width apart and
toes pointed slightly outward. This stance will give
you good balance and allow you to turn to each side
comfortably and efficiently. A tall stance will also
translate strength and confidence.
Keep your knees straight, but never lock them.
Distribute your weight evenly on both feet.
Keep your shoulders back, though beware being
stiff or rigid when finding this position.
Hold your head high with your neck relaxed. Avoid
holding and twisting your head to one side as it may
create tension in the neck and shoulders. Tension in
these areas will cause you to adapt and turn the
entire body to that side, destroying the stance.
Practice this stance and experiment with variations that feel natural to you. When you find the
stance that you feel most comfortable with, test it by taking several deep and long breaths. If you
have no problems breathing deeply and smoothly, then your stance works.

How to be a Musical Conductor

The Conducting Plane

The conducting plane stretches from the top of the head to the waist for vertical movement, and
the full reach of the arms to both sides for horizontal movement.
To develop the basic arm position within the plane:
1.

Fully extend both arms in front of your

body. Relax your hands toward your
chest until your elbows are at a
comfortable position just below your
sternum(the bone in your chest that
marks the center of your chest). Your
elbows should create an angle slightly
larger than 90 degrees between the upper
arm and forearm. Your elbows should
also be in slightly in front of your body
instead of tucked in by your sides.

2.

Visualizing the numbers on the face of a clock, position your right elbow at
approximately four oclock and your left elbow at eight oclock. This is the basic arm
position that creates a natural appearance and allows maximum freedom of movement.
3. Practice adjusting this position to
other various positions that are
not recommended such as pulling
the elbows next to your sides and
extending your arms up the plane
above the sternum. From this,
you can understand how these
positions are inefficient in
producing a strong conducting
form.

4.

Once youve perfected your arm position, relax both arms to rest down by your sides.
Then practice going from a relaxed stance to a full conducting stance with your arms
raised to the correct position. This is very important to memorize internally because it
is the foundation of your conducting technique.

Chapter 1

Hand Position
It is best to begin learning the basic beat patterns without a baton, because this approach
encourages a more relaxed and natural grip when you add the baton later. Also, the baton is an
extension to your arm that you will not be used to right away, and this will affect your initial
ability to conduct if you are unable to grasp
the basics of placing the beat. When you
have perfected the basics of conducting
without a baton, then the baton can be
brought into your technique.
To develop a basic hand position:
1. Hold your palms face down
to the floor. Curve your
fingers naturally towards
your palms so that they are in
an upside down cupped
shape. Place your thumbs relaxed and separated from your other fingers.
2. Turn your wrists lightly outwards so that the palms face the ground and towards
each other only slightly. This position of the wrist should feel more natural as the
hands are held in the arm position in front of your body.
3. Extend your fingers, excluding the thumb, so that they are almost straight, but still
slightly bent and together. This should create open rectangular slots in your hands
between the fingers and the thumb where one can slide the other hand into and
out of easily.
Now practice finding and holding this position from rest to begin memorizing internally and
developing it towards comfort and perfection. This is now your conducting position.

Chapter 2

Conducting a
Down Beat

Chapter 2

Conducting a beat in music means to conduct the tempo and show where each note is placed in
the music. The basic beat of music is shown visually by the conductor through the ictus of a
conductors pattern. The ictus is the instant at which a beat occurs and is defined by a slight flick
in the wrist of the hand position and a change in direction of the arm movement. The change in
direction by the arm after the hand hits the ictus point is also defined as the rebound of your
conducting pattern. These properties of conducting construct a defined and clear technique for
conducting.

The Ictus
To find your ictus point, stand in the correct conducting posture and bring your arms up to the
conducting position. At rest, the position of your fingers is at your normal ictus point. This point
can change depending on the style of your conducting and the style of the music. However, for
beginners, use this point as your initial ictus point.
Now practice placing the beat at this point consistently by raising your arms up in different
directions and then bringing back down to your ictus point. Also practice flicking your wrists at
this point very slightly to further define where the ictus and the beat are. With the flicking of the
wrist, imagine that youre bouncing a ball when you hit the ictus point and then raising your
arms back away from the point. This is your natural rebound. The rebounds purpose is to show
that the music is still moving and where the next beat will be in the music.
Once you have mastered placing the ictus point
consistently in the same spot from multiple
directions, adjust your movements to only
straight up and down above the ictus point. The
highest point that your hands should be raised is
eye level. This movement will be your 1 beat
pattern.

Basic Arm Movement

Lets further define your basic conducting
movements.
1. To produce the main arm movements,
move your arms up and down by the
raising and lowering your elbows. This

10

How to be a Musical Conductor

should involve significant movement from the forearms and upper arms, but limit your
shoulder movement. Extreme movement in the shoulders will build tension in your
shoulders and create extra unnecessary movement in your arms that will exaggerate your
ictus and rebound.
2. When raising your forearms with the elbows, keep your hands straight with the forearms,
thus having the palms being shown at an angle down in front of you. Make sure that your
palms are not parallel to the wall in front of you at any time that you conduct. This
movement shows amateur conducting and that your forearms have been raised too far up
for basic conducting movements. If you keep your upward arm movements limited to the
eye level boundary, and keep your hands straight with your forearms, your palms should
never line up parallel with the wall.
3. Watch how you move your arms. They should both be moving together and mirroring
each others movements. The moment that your arms are unbalanced is the same moment
that you lose your performers. Use a big bathroom mirror or studio mirror to watch how
your arms move together naturally, and then make adjustments to find the correct
conducting form.

Practice these movements within the 1 beat pattern. Strive for equal movements by both arms
in the same direction, and a producing a clear ictus and rebound.

Keeping Time
Keeping consistent time is the key to being a successful conductor. This means,
that if you can keep a constant tempo when conducting music, you can keep a
group of musicians together throughout an entire piece. Tempo is the rate at
which a piece of music is performed and is measured in beats per
minute(bpm).
A common tempo that is used consistently around the world is
the rate at which seconds are measured. In our case, we
measure seconds to tick at 60 bpm. This rate will never change
as time goes on, so as a conductor, you can refer to the ticking of
seconds as source to find tempo. However, conductors will just use
a device known as the metronome to find and help keep time. A
metronome will tick beats at whatever rate that you input consistently.
Every tick that the metronome gives is the moment that your hands flick the ictus
and then rebound up in preparation for the next beat.
It is strongly recommended for beginning conductors to use a metronome to keep time while
learning and practicing the basics of conducting. This will allow you to understand the work that
goes into being a conductor, and how perfect your ability to keep time must be.

Chapter 3

Starting
and Stopping

Chapter 3

13

Starting your tempo

When starting your conducting tempo, the motion is as simple as raising your arms up and
immediately turning your momentum downward into the first down beat that you give by hitting
your ictus point. You always want to keep this movement in time with the tempo that you want
to show. Showing multiple tempos within your conducting pattern shows inconsistency and will
cause the music to fall apart.
Tips for conducting a confident starting beat:

Breathe as you bring your arms

upward for the initial down
beat. Inhale at the same speed
that you raise your arms and
then quickly turn the air around
into an exhale as you bring your
hands to the ictus point and
rebound. This breathe should be almost inaudible as it only serves as a physical
guide for the conductor to feel control and confidence moving into the down beat.

Internalize the tempo that you want to give with your first beat. Count the beat in
your head, or physically tap your hand on your body to feel the beat. If you give a
down beat without thinking about the tempo that you want to give, then you are
asking for failure in performance.
The moment that your first down beat is given and
the tempo is felt at the ictus, is the moment that the
music should start. If your performers do not start
playing together or at all, then your conducting
must have missed one of the essential steps for a
successful first down beat. Also, if you dont show
confidence in your down beat, then your
performers will not follow you. Practice these
gestures until you are comfortable with conducting
a strong first down beat wherever you go.

14

How to be a Musical Conductor

Stopping - Releases
Stopping the music, or giving a release with your conducting, can be done in a infinite number of
ways depending on the style or purpose of the music. For our beginning methods, we will focus
on a single basic pattern.
One of the most basic releases that a conductor can use universally is the circular release. This is
simply conducting a big and open circle with both arms and
then ending past the ictus points.

The release circle will start after a down beat.

The ictus indicates the start of the circle. Your
arms will move out and up like a very curved
rebound.

Your hands will be moving in opposite

directions, but they will still be drawing big open
circles within your conducting plane.

The release occurs at the point which your arms cross the ictus
points, thus completing the circle. There will be a slight rebound
that goes past the ictus points and slightly up, but it does not return
to the ictus like a normal rebound would. The slight rebound is
visible, but it isnt extreme because it only serves to indicate the
final motion of the release.

Once you have a firm grasp on releases, you can begin practicing it at
different speeds and sizes to accommodate different styles of music.
Think of how you want to release sound, and make a visual
representation with your release.

Chapter 4

The Basic
Conducting Patterns

Chapter 4

17

Over the years, conductors have mastered and redefined multiple styles of conducting into what
exists today as a wide library of styles and shapes to study. In todays world of conducting, there
are two main classes of conducting: separated
beat and focal point.

Figure 1 - Separated Beat

Separated Beat(Figure 1) The conducting

pattern for a separated beat style separates the
focal point into the number of beats based on the
tempo and pattern. Basically, if using a 4
pattern, your ictus points are separated into 4
points within your conducting plane to represent
each beat in their own space. This form of
conducting is an advanced level because it
requires the conductor to manage multiple
different ictus points and how to address them
clearly to the performers.

Focal Point(Figure 2) The focal point style

uses the original ictus points created by your natural conducting posture and plane. No matter the
numbered pattern, your ictus point will not change or move along your conducting plane. Your
rebounds will move in different directions to accommodate the different patterns, but each
conducting stroke you make will always return to the original ictus points to give the tempo and
down beats.
For beginning conductors, we will focus on the basic focal point style of conducting. This is the
easiest form of conducting to master, and will serve as a strong foundation for you to build upon.

4 Beat Pattern
The four pattern is used for music that calls for 4 beat phrases. Using the focal point style:

18

How to be a Musical Conductor

1. The first down beat will be the same as if you

were giving a starting beat. Your arms are raised
to eye level, and then they drop back down to
flick the ictus points. The long and upward reach
should always indicate beat 1 of the 4 beat
pattern.
2. The first rebound is directed straight up, but the
difference from the initial downbeat is that, the
first rebound only travels half the distance
upward towards eye level. This should be
somewhere near the neck level depending on
your body structure. At this point, the half-way
Figure 2 - Focal Point
vertical distance is the upper bounds for the
rebound following beat 1, until the pattern restarts and goes back to 1 again. When this
rebound returns to the ictus points, beat 2 is conducted with a slight flick of the wrist.
3. The second rebound, follows beat 2 and is
directed inward towards the center of your
chest. This stroke does not need much
movement at all from the elbows, as the
fore arms are the only parts of the arm that
should move up and inward. The most
critical detail about this motion is that your
hands and forearms should not cross or
touch. Your hands should be separated by
about an inch from each other when they
meet in the middle from the rebound. Your
fingers should angle in with your forearms
to make a slight triangle with your arms.
When the rebound returns to the original ictus points, beat 3 is conducted with a slight
flick of the wrist.
4. The 4th beat in the pattern is conducted after a wide rebound to the outer edges of your
conducting plane. You do not need to go all the way to the sides, but make sure your
rebound distance is similar to that of the rebounds following beats 1, 2 and 3. This
rebound should also rise up above the flat horizontal ictus line as if reaching out and up
to the half-way point indicated in the first rebound. Your fingertips should stay facing
straight out in front of you as opposed to pointing out directly to the sides. This will keep
your hands defined when they return to flick the ictus point and conduct beat 4.

Chapter 4

19
5.

The final motion in this pattern is the

rebound after beat 4 and back to beat 1.
This rebound goes back to the same
distance that your initial movement had to
start the pattern. This rebound should reach
eye level and then turn around its
momentum back to the ictus point to restart
the conducting pattern at beat 1.

The 4 beat pattern is the most basic of

conducting patterns. From here, we can derive
the other basic beat patterns and connect them
to the 4 beat pattern technique. While you are practicing this pattern and the following beat
patterns, focus on how your strokes stay in track with the focal point conducting style. It is very
easy for beginners to drift away from their foundations because they are working on several
aspects of their technique.

3 Beat Pattern
The 3 beat pattern is exactly the same as the 4 beat pattern minus one stroke. Take away the third
step in the 4 beat pattern and move the pattern from step 2 to step 4 and 5. Thus, the third ictus
strike would take place after the outward rebound seen as the rebound to beat 4 in the 4 beat
pattern. The following rebound in step 5
restarts the pattern.

2 Beat Pattern
The 2 beat pattern uses step 1of the 4 beat
pattern and then moves straight to steps 4
and 5. There are only two strokes in this
pattern, the first down beat followed by the
outward rebound back into the ictus points
indicating beat 2. Then the following
rebound in step 5 will restart the pattern.

Chapter 5

Advanced
Techniques

Chapter 5

23

Once you have mastered the basics of conducting, there are several advanced techniques for you
to explore. These techniques serve to improve your visual representation and give your
conducting musical expression. This manual will
address some of these techniques briefly so that you
can explore them yourself and develop your own
style.

Left Hand Independence

Most of historys greatest conductors use their left
hand to give their performers cues, visual
guidelines, and signals for their performers. To use
your left hand, you need to practice your hand eye
coordination using both of your arms for separate
purposes. To be successful, you a conductor would
need to keep time and proper conducting technique
in their right hand. From here, you can then slowly move your left hand around the conducting
plane making various shapes and movements that do not match your right hand. Building on this
technique will take immense amounts of patience and practice to master because of the
complexity of the coordination. When a conductor is able to produce these movements with the
left hand, they can begin to express the music visually as they see fit.

Facial Expression
Another aspect of advanced conducting is the
use of your facial expressions to bring focus to
the music and draw expressions. Facial
expressions, such as smiling or showing anger,
can help a conductor describe the musics
current mood without having to speak a word
while conducting. Your facial expressions can
also notify your performers how much
emotional input you putting into the music.
Your face is a great tool to draw attention to yourself as well if you feel that your musicians are
not paying attention to the music. Use a mirror to observe what kind of facial expressions you
can produce. Then transfer your work into your conducting and express the music how you feel
it should be expressed.

24

How to be a Musical Conductor

Musical Style and Articulation

There are several musical styles and articulations in
music that a conductor can express visually through
their conducting. The most common musical styles
used in conducting are: staccato, legato, and
dynamic contrast. These styles allows the conductor
to guide the players and give them musical interest
and direction.
Staccato
In conducting, the staccato style is demonstrated as
short and sharp strokes within the conducting plane.
The conducting pattern generally tends to shrink in
size and stroke length to accent the style. The
staccato style is mainly used to express music that is
short and light. This style is also best used with the
separated beat form of conducting as it helps
emphasize the short style having space between the
beats.
Legato
The legato style of conducting is expressed as long and smooth rebounding strokes across
the conducting plane. The conducting pattern generally increases in size slightly as the
legato form takes up more moving space to make the strokes long and smooth. In music,
the legato style means smooth and connected music that flows from one phrase to the
next. This style of conducting can be used in most conducting forms as long as the
conductor demonstrates
connected strokes and beats
clearly.
Dynamic Contrast
The dynamic contrast in music
can be demonstrated visually by
the conductor changing their
pattern size. Increasing the size
of your conducting pattern will
signal the musicians to
gradually increase their
instruments volumes at the
pace and to the dynamic asked
by the conductors movements.
A large pattern indicates a
demand for loud music at this moment. While a small pattern does the opposite and
indicates a soft and quiet passage of music. The intensity of your conducting can also
demand a change in dynamic. Intense movements can call for stronger sounds while
relaxed conducting represents calmer sounding music.

Closure

25

Once the fundamental knowledge

and techniques are developed,
conductors must strive to perfect
their conducting to produce clear
and consistent arm movements.
Afterwards, conductors can begin
developing their own individual
style and personality of conducting.
Take every opportunity to learn
from others, but avoid the common
tendency to mimic other
conductors. Conducting is a visual
form of art that conductors should aim to make their own. Be selective in what you
choose to adapt to your own style. Overall, be open to new ideas and techniques
shown by other conductors.
For each new technique you try, ask yourself these questions:
What are the advantages for my own development?
What are the disadvantages?
What type of situation would this work best?
Where would a different technique work better?
Taking this approach to conducting, rather than attempting to reduce conducting to
a simple set of rules, will guide you to continuous intellectual growth and superior
conducting abilities.