Jake Grimsley

MUED 373

Literature Teaching #1 Reflection

There was a lot of great information I got from watching my video back, both from

myself assessing my own faults and listening to comments from Lenny. Overall, I think I was

way too in my head during this formal teaching. I had ideas about how to structure the lesson

so that the ensemble could get through the piece efficiently, and I knew that when the others

were playing I was to listen for something to critique. I did this, but because I was so caught up

in what I was to be doing at any given moment, I seemed completely cut off from the others. I

was focusing on small tasks, not big ideas and how to get from one thing to the next.

This showed a lot through my conducting, something mentioned a few times by Lenny in

my video. I don’t claim to be a great conductor by any means, but I can say that my conducting

skills are far above what was shown during this teaching. My arms bounced off the beat plane

a bit awkwardly and quickly, with no constant motion or predictable pattern. In addition, there

wasn’t much distinction between each beat, especially from the side view of the camera where

Lenny was sitting. I believe there are a few reasons for my conducting being so much worse

than I believe I can actually do. For one thing, I didn’t necessarily plan to conduct. Quite

honestly, I’m not sure what I planned to do, but I went last out of all of us, and conducting was

what everyone else did, so I decided to as well, for that reason only. Because I didn’t plan for it,

I didn’t prepare to conduct it, and I wasn’t sure what I was doing throughout. While this isn’t

great, the truth is that I was winging it. This, combined with my head only being focused on

listening for something to critique and what to do next, made it so that my arms were moving,
but I wasn’t focused on conducting whatsoever, so all technique or skill I had fell apart. This

was extremely interesting to watch back, as I felt awkward how I was conducting, but I didn’t

know it looked as awkward as it did. Another interesting thing mentioned by Lenny after we all

finished was that he thought none of us even needed to conduct at all. We were all looking at

our music only, and it was a small ensemble full of skilled players. Lenny said to only conduct if

conducting is adding something, or if it is needed, and I thought that was great to hear because

I hadn’t really thought of it yet. This was definitely a great learning experience, and one I will

think back on when preparing for future teachings I may have to do.