When I attend concerts, I tend to focus on the conductor. I like to note the different styles that are used and find myself fascinated and drawn even more into the music based on what that person with the baton is doing.
And Michelle and I see plenty of concerts! With a music major in college and a senior who loves band at home, we routinely get the chance to watch beautiful music be created. One would think I might watch my children during these concerts, and I do, but I keep finding my eyes drawn back to the conductors. After all, I can’t usually hear just my kid playing, and nothing exciting is likely to happen in the trumpet section. But up front? Ah, that’s another story.
Some directors are very straightforward in their movements. I remember my high school band director being that way. When I became director of the Winona State pep band, I usually only had to conduct the National Anthem, but I did that the same way I remembered from high school.
My kids have told me I do it wrong. Every now and then, I’ve stepped into the band room at NRHEG to fill in, and I usually hear, “Mr. _______ doesn’t direct that way.” Okay, but having watched a number of band teachers at school, I know they all had different styles too. Just try to keep the beat, okay?
When I play with the Litomyslaneous polka band, I rarely watch our director. My ear is tuned to the percussion and/or tuba to keep the beat. I have half an eyeball on the hands waving in front, especially for ending songs or repeating a verse. And I’m guessing many high school band students find alternate ways to know where they are in the score.
Jazz band conductors tend to be relaxed and often off to the side, just snapping their fingers and reminding members of the band when to hop in or start their solo. That seems right for jazz, especially when there are instruments doing some improv up there.
At an honor band concert last year, I watched the director get so into it that I was afraid he would sweat through his suit before it was over. The tempo of the song helps with that. As a crescendo occurs, a band director naturally becomes larger, and decrescendos create a smaller version of the person.
Why is this? I don’t think they can help it! Music seeps into you and stirs you in different ways. Sometimes it causes you to sway back and forth, either to a steady beat or a sudden wave of syncopated notes, like when you sing, “Bah, bah, bah,” in “Sweet Caroline.” If a John Phillips Sousa march is being performed, the director might almost seem like they are marching at times.
The larger the band, the more overt the director might have to be. At Jayna’s holiday concert in Winona, there were over 100 people on stage at one point when the National Guard band joined them to play some Christmas tunes. The conductor had to look all around and sweep people into songs. The same might happen with young bands that are just learning to play so that the teacher makes sure the kids are following the pace by being larger than life.
I actually saw something I never had before at this year’s Gopher Conference Honor Band concert: a choir conductor using a baton. I’ve only ever seen them waving their hands or trying to direct while also playing piano. The gentleman using the baton was really getting into it, and those are the times I get worried about that small stick flying into the band or out at the audience!
When I played in a polka band in high school, our drummer would just click off with his sticks and count a measure to start us. The same usually happens in pep band. But as I mentioned earlier, directing “The Star-Spangled Banner” is a must since there are places to slow down and even hold a note. That takes direction to make sure everyone is at the same place.
One of the conductors at a recent concert commented that music is the one language that can succeed at bringing people of all different backgrounds together. At the Gopher Conference Honor Band concert, I saw names of people who compete against each other in sports, but they sang and played wonderfully together. It didn’t matter if they were a Panther or a Blossom or a Buccaneer, music was binding them as one unit.
Maybe music could solve some of our world problems. Maybe if people learned how to create using music instead of destroy using words and actions, we would all find some new people in our lives with more commonalities than differences. We would just need a good conductor to get us started.
Word of the Week: This week’s word is musicaster, which means a mediocre musician, as in, “Even a musicaster was welcome to the band since everyone worked together to sound wonderful.” Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!