Anna Featherston

10-7-18

Journals

Featherston, Anna

Journal Entry 1: 8-23-18

My thoughts on conducting (Journal 1)

I am looking forward to this first conducting class. I have a little experience, so I am

looking forward to learning what I can do to improve my style. I am also looking forward to

learning to get out of my comfort zone. The two things I am positive about in my current style of

conducting is that I conduct too low for the people in the back of an ensemble to see me and that

I don’t like to show much emotion. I think I will struggle the most when it comes to learning

how to show emotion. I tend to get very shy and closed up when I get in front of people.

Because I only have a little experience with conducting an ensemble, I am still working

on coordination between my two hands. It’s hard for to do something completely different and

independent of my right hand with my left hand. I did some conducting over the summer and I

was able to start getting some independence. But since I haven’t worked on it since then, I as-

sume I’ve lost most of what I had worked on.

Since I have never worked under a conductor that has an extremely unique style, it brings

up a couple of questions for me. When I say extremely unique style, I think of conductors who

tend to be very artsy with the presentation of their conducting. I wonder how they ended up with

such a unique style. I also wonder how the musicians in that ensemble are able to follow the
conductor. As I grow as a musician, I don’t have to watch the conductor much to keep with the

ensemble, but there are still times during pieces that I turn to the conductor for help guiding me

towards the right direction in the piece. I assume that conductors with unique conducting styles

always conduct in that manner. I also wonder how beginning rehearsal go if there isn’t much of a

pattern with clear beats to follow.

Anna Featherston

Journal Entry 2: 8-27-18

What am I doing? (Start of Journal 2)

• I’m very early distracted.

• I’m going to need to work on that more to be a better conductor.

• Am I turning a 2-beat prep into a 3-beat prep?

Anna Featherston

Journal Entry 3: 9-5-18

Conductors control the sound

• let the gesture match the end sound you want

Anna Featherston

Journal Entry 4: 9-10-18

Less is more

• if you want to go faster, show less

Anna Featherston

Journal Entry 5: 9-18-18

Thoughts after conducting for the first time in front of the class

• that was the scariest experience of my life

• I really have no left hand independence

• left hand needs to come up before I want to show something with it

• don’t wait for the ensemble to start playing to continue conducting

• they need to be following me

• I’m not ready to show expression yet

• good posture, but T-Rex arm is a natural habit

Anna Featherston

Journal Entry 6: 9-17-18

Not strong enough

• my arms get tired too easily

• I should really work on strengthening them

• needing to find the real purpose behind why/what I’m conducting

Anna Featherston

Journal Entry 7: 10-7-18

Midterm Thought Conclusion (Journal 3)

From watching others, I learned that it is okay to take risks in class to better myself at

conducting. I did not do much of this, but saw others try something different and was inspired.

Through conducting in my own practice, I learned how hard it is to have complete independence

between my two hands. From conducting in front of the class, I learned how important it is to be

firm with my tempo and not take the tempo the ensemble wants to take. As Dr. Yu takes over her

portion of the class, I will continue to improve on my left hand independence.