Conducting a choir pdf

Our graduates lead professional, community, church, symphonic, and youth ensembles, as well as ensembles within academia and other educational settings. Choral conductors take individual lessons with the choral conducting faculty and have lessons during regular supervised conducting sessions with the Repertory and Recital choruses. Students are required to attend a weekly seminar and conduct a recital each year. First-year students conduct the Repertory Chorus in two shared performances, while graduating students present a degree recital with the Recital Chorus.

First-year and graduating students conduct works with chorus and orchestra. Choral conducting students are also required to study voice as a secondary instrument for two terms. Some choral conducting students may serve as assistant conductor for one of the faculty-led choirs or as conductor of one of the University's chapel choirs.

To apply for the choral conducting program, prospective students must submit applications to both the Yale School of Music and the Institute of Sacred Music. The book is of course planned especially with the amateur in view, and the author, in writing it, has had in mind his own fruitless search for information upon the subject of conducting when he was just beginning his career as a teacher; and he has tried to say to the amateur of today those things that he himself so sorely needed to know at that time, and had to find out by blundering experience.

It should perhaps be stated that although the writer has himself had considerable experience in conducting, the material here presented is rather the result of observing and analyzing the work of others than an account of his own methods. In preparation for his task, the author has observed many of the better-known conductors in this country, both in rehearsal and in public performance, during a period of some twelve years, and the book represents an attempt to put into simple language and practical form the ideas gathered from ii this observation.

It is hoped that as a result of reading these pages the amateur may not only have become more fully informed concerning those practical phases of conducting about which he has probably been seeking light, but may be inspired to further reading and additional music study in preparation for the larger aspects of the work. The contents of this page minus the videos are available for download as a FREE e-book. Since gospel choirs don't sing from sheet music, they don't always sing a song exactly the same way every time.

They may do a different number of repeats, or do the parts of the song in a different order from one performance to another. Because of this, the director's hand signals are important for telling:. Hand signals can also remind the choir of things they already learned in rehearsal, but it doesn't hurt to refresh their memories. Things like:. Your email address will not be published. Home pdf read pdf free download edition pdf novel for pdf pdf and book pdf download.

Choir directors may lead such ensembles at church, in school or in other performance venues. Choir directors do more than conduct and lead a choir, they also have the responsibility of making sure the members attend rehearsals and are at their best when performing.

They carefully choose the pieces that the group will perform and make sure everything is in order—from the vocal harmony down to the stage formation.

A good choir director is one who has strong leadership skills. Such factors are intimately related to the work nature in itself and can stimulate the responsibility feeling, the growth perception and the individual's self-fulfillment Thus, when participating in a choir, is possible execute the interpersonal integration through the conductor treatment seeking the equality of the new knowledge transmission for all the people, independently of their social origin, age group or instruction degree.

Is possible also to promote the motivation, for the own nature of this activity - artistic and creator -, that allows to involve the choristers in a process of "doing the new" to sing different repertoires, to perform in several local, etc. Besides, there is an intrinsic motivation to the knowledge construction of itself of its voice, of its artistic abilities and of the accomplishment of the vocal production together, culminating in the aesthetic pleasure and joy of each execution with quality and mutual POMS 19th Annual Conference La Jolla, California, U.

On the other hand, in spite of being a practice that generates the personal motivation Mathias, ; Gumm, ; Fucci Amato, - in the case of amateur choirs, in which people sing for leisure - the technical-musical work in chorals can become tiring when a good performance level is sought.

For Rocha , p. McElheran also denotes the relevance of the conductor seek, at the same time, authority to drive the educational and interpretative process and the comprehension of the problems and individual expectations:. The most important requirement to a conductor is the ability to inspire the interpreters.

This might be given other names: leadership, hypnotic power, contagious enthusiasm, or just good teaching ability for a rehearsal is simply a class in which the conductor teaches the performers how to play music. Perhaps is is best described in a simple phrase: making the performers want to do their best. McElheran, , p. Thus, the action of the choir conductor can be classified according with is leadership attitudes, as the figure that follows. For Stamer , p. The people, usually, participate of its choir rehearsals, coming from the most varied places, executing diversified activities, with the mind full of the most complex problems, with different physical and mental dispositions levels, and consequently, with higher or lower motivation to wrap up in a dynamic and productive rehearsal.

The people that meet in a group have the most varied motivations. Therefore, it is important to reflect about the behaviors, reasons and the human being needs. The rehearsal organization suggestion choir made by that author foresees the stages: introduction, technical preparation, development, conclusion, evaluation and final warnings. Regarding to motivation the author proposes Mathias, , p. The psychological preparation for the rehearsal: the conductor should inform about the objectives and activities foreseen for each rehearsal; should accomplish "a small reflection about any theme related to the choral music, to group relationship, etc.

The technical preparation, in which stand out activities related to the human relationship, as physical and mental relaxation and group dynamics that propitiate a good relationship among choristers. Rehearsal conclusion: to reflect about the communication of each one to itself, and related to repertoire; to the group and the public. The life of each one in the choir, etc. The mentioned activities allow that a better human atmosphere be constituted in the choir and that the individual focuses the activity, alleviating its tensions, allowing a better result in the teaching-learning process.

Moreover it creates in the group a space for sharing the personal problems and allows, through reflections, the outline of the reasons to exercise that musical practice together. Finally, the activities allow a participative management of the work, with the planning, execution and rehearsals evaluation sharing, in which everybody can contribute. Returning again to the main motivational theories, Douglas McGregor mentioned by Chavenato, ; Maximiano, , one of the most famous theoretical of the so called " School of the Human Relationships, elaborated a theory about the human relationships movement, that can be adapted to the conception that the conductor has regarding to its choristers that influences his leadership style decisively and, consequently, the motivational process.

The table below adapts the McGregor theory to the choral conducting. The presented conceptions are commonly idealized by the conductors, which form its leadership styles starting from its ideas regarding to the choir and its components. The option for a participative management based on the McGregor Y Theory can be understood as a model of human resources management choristers more appropriate in the sense of maintaining choir motivation high levels, which make possible obtaining high-level performance of the choir.

As an organization, the choir involves a dense net of interpersonal relationships that should be built by a participative and dynamic polices Fucci Amato and Amato Neto, Thus, the motivation is a consequence of the leadership that the conductor should exercise on his group.

This leadership can be translated in authority bases, which can be applied to the conductor in three levels Maximiano, : charisma, technical authority musical and educational competence of the conductor and political authority group conduction with establishment of goals and good relationship of the conductor with the choir. In the original conception, the bases of the authority are: tradition habits , charisma the person , formal authority organization , technical competence know-how and politics interpersonal relationships , according to Maximiano However, tradition and formal authority are more specific characteristics of the organizations, they are not very applicable to the choir.

Thus, there is the need that the conductors. Assume the work of facilitators of the team that they coordinate, motivating the appearing of new talents, administering the conflicts that can appear during the execution of the work in a decisive way and above all, wanting to motivate each one of the members of this team.

Aguiar, Escrivo Filho and Rozenfeld, , p. The motivation is understood, in the present study, as an ability that composes the competence of the choir conductor.

In that sense, abilities would be constituent of certain competence, and this competence is constituted by correlated abilities and theoretical knowledge previously acquired by the individual Fleury and Fleury, ; Dutra, ; Zacharias, ; POMS 19th Annual Conference La Jolla, California, U.

Garcia, In that way, the choir conductor competence is based in the musical, pedagogic knowledge and in several abilities as knowing to motivate.

Results, discussion and proposals The research revealed that the choir conductor ability of motivating the choristers obtained the numerical average 3. That result was obtained by the simple arithmetic average of the students opinions. Three students considered the motivating capacity important, 8 eight considered it very important and 8 eight students judged it as essential. There werent answers considering the ability as being not important or not very important.

The graph below illustrates the results. The students, representing on this research the choristers, attribute relevance to the motivational process in the context of the choir practice and they consider the ability to motivate an important competence factor of the choral conducting.

The graph below illustrates the relative participation of each one of the mentioned actions in the total motivational factors group in the choir. Escolher democraticamente um a Choose in a democratic way repertrio variado varied repertoire Ouvir as opinies dos coralistas.

Value the knowledge and Valorizar os conhecimentos e musical experiences of the choristers experincias musicais dos coralistas Apply a system de punies e Aplicar um sistemaof punishments and compensations compensaes mais privilgios para os mais esforados Saber reconhecer os one qualities of each defeitos e qualidades de cada um Estimular a criatividade dos coralistas.

Regarding to other actions proposed for the motivation in the choir, 4 four students highlighted the importance of the conductor to be open to different music types, 3 three students placed the interaction factor and respect between conductor and choristers and 2 two students mentioned the promotion of leisure encounters to the choir.

The students feel motivated when are valued in their knowledge and opinions regarding to the choral practice. In that sense, the choristers participation can be accomplish through a more participative and democratic management, with discussions and organized by the conductor.

The sensibility in relation to the other ones and the relatively elevated capacity of interaction in personal ambit and of group are also present. Those characteristics allow an effective participation in the decisions related to common problems, for example, to fasten to the organization [the choir] objectives that constitute a satisfactory integration of the demands and needs of all its members and of all the people to their functionally.

A high degree of reciprocal influence is evidenced [conductorchoristers and vice-versa], when are reached, in the whole organization, high levels of total influence coordinated. Each member feels the responsibility of contributing for the organization success, and each one acts to obtaining its objectives.

The communication is efficient and effective. All important information flows from a side to another of the organization. The leadership established an efficient operating system for the interaction and the reciprocal influence. On the other hand, the repertoire choice is also a prominence factor for the choristers motivation, as revealed the collected data. This result corroborates with the research of Tourinho , which evaluated the educational-musical work influence with the repertoire of students POMS 19th Annual Conference La Jolla, California, U.

The author find that the flexibilization of the repertoire, in agreement with the interests and previous musical knowledge of the students can promote an adaptation to the musical learning group specificities allowing that the individual's musical baggage is used to motivate them to move forward and to enlarge its musical knowledge of repertoire. In that way, it is believed that the conductor can promote a democratic repertoire choice, adapting the suggestions of the choristers to the technician-pedagogic needs of the musical educational process.

However is necessary to maintain a parcel of the repertoire chosen by the conductor seeking to the musical and aesthetic development intended by that choir. Regarding to the creativity incentive to the choristers, several activities can be developed, as assembly of scenic shows, the incentive to research activities of repertoire, of musical theory, etc.

It can be motivated, like this, " the spontaneity and the people's impulsivities [ In that sense, the author stands out the experience told by Bndchen that investigated the use of the corporal movement in the creative composition of musical pieces, inserted in a proposal of constructivism use in the choir developing the creative strategy of composition using the body as musical instrument - facilitating the creation of sounds, movements and different sensations -, the author noticed that the exploration of the use body-movement-rhythm culminated in an improvement of the choir performance.

The games elaborated by Mathias seeks to increase the group cohesion on a interpersonal and sonorous level. Regarding to the establishment of a punishment and compensation systems to the choristers, the research evidenced that this wouldnt motivate them, creating an obligation and coercion feeling that would reduce their participation freedoms and collaborative action in the choir collective objectives construction. Finally, it is important to notice the interpersonal respect conductor-chorister and.

Conclusion The motivation in the choir is configured as a process that can only reach its effectiveness coming from a conductor leadership process, that, using the people's abilities management, develop a favorable human atmosphere to the collective artistic re creation. When they reach a high degree of motivation, by an efficient human resources management of the conductor and its leadership, the choristers would motivate each other: The person intrinsically motivated leads without needing that something external of itself does it.

It would be possible, then, to assert that when motivated intrinsically, the person is the leader of himself Bergamini, , p. Such process can only be accomplished starting from the group union seeking common objectives, demanding the conductor acting as a leader that conjugate his authority to a participative management process, obtains the results longed for him and its group, in which the motivation constitutes the key- element for interest and commitment generation in the practiced POMS 19th Annual Conference La Jolla, California, U.

In this work, visualized that the motivation capacity inside the choir consists in an ability to be developed by the conductors, analyzing that the choir, as a human organization, involves a dense network of interpersonal relationships that should be built through a dynamic and participative police, allowing social-educational and musical good results.

References Aguiar, A. Desenvolvimento de habilidades de liderana: mito ou realidade? Proceedings of 4th. Amato Neto, J. Organizao e motivao para produtividade. Apostila do Curso de Especializao em Administrao Industrial. Bergamini, C. Psicologia aplicada administrao de empresas: psicologia do comportamento organizacional.

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