Talking Less, Saying More: Fix it With Gesture

Or…
Ten Easy Ways to be a More Effective
Conductor: From Traffic Cop to Artistry
Or…
Conducting Tune-up
Principles and Solutions for Common Conducting
Challenges
Dr. Frank Eychaner- University of Texas Permian Basin

1) Changing Efforts…
Laban Effort explained

Space – continuum of indirect to direct. Gestures moving in straight lines are

direct and curves are indirect. Direct gestures are often executed on the vertical
plane while indirect gestures make greater use of the horizontal plane.
1. Direct (channeled, zeroing in, pinpointing, focused, cueing one person)
2. Indirect (encompassing focus, flexible, curved, cueing a section of the
ensemble, sweep)

Weight – continuum of light to heavy. For the conductor, weight primarily

impacts articulation and tone quality. To some degree, higher gestures are
perceived as lighter and lower gestures are perceived as heavier.
1. Light (gently, airy, delicate, wiping tears from a child's face, buoyant, picking
up fine crystal)
2. Heavy (impactful, vigorous, powerful, smashing an object with the fist)

Time – continuum of sustained to quick. Sustained time is unchanging. Quick

time is changing velocity. For the conductor, sustained time is essential for
communicating connection in the musical line and (combined with indirect
motion) is the essence of legato conducting. A sustained gesture could be slow
or fast. Quick time should not be confused with fast. Quick time equates with
changing gesture speed; perhaps a pause in motion followed by a burst of speed
then a flick of the fingers or wrist that coincides with the ictus. Speed changes as
the gesture moves to and away from the ictus impact tempo and articulation.
1. Sustained (continuous, unchanging, constant, without abruptness)
2. Quick/Sudden (urgent, hasty, changes…quick followed by a pause, an
urgent starting and stopping, halting)
 Flow – continuum of bound to free. Conductors should avoid feeling bound at
all times. Laban recognized that gestures that are not free minimize or eliminate
the other efforts. The extreme of bound flow is an absence of movement.
Muscular tension and/or rigidity, prerequisites of bound flow, negatively impacts
conducting. Bound flow, therefore, has no application in conducting because
bound flow limits or eliminates the other effort elements.
1. Free (easy flowing, released, abandoned, ready to go, swinging a heavy
object before flinging it away, carefree, fluid, graceful)
2. Bound (immobility, muscular tension, frozen, tense, stuck).

2) Entrances: Freeze, Hear, Breathe, Conduct

First, the conductor assumes the preparatory position. The right hand should
be at the ictus of the beat that precedes where the ensemble will enter.

Second Step, freeze. The critical second step in initiating sound is to become
completely still and wait until all musicians are watching. Our stillness makes the
impulse gesture that follows clear to everyone. There is an important truth we’ll
discover later in the discussion of the Laban Effort Actions: physical stillness,
immediately before a gesture, clarifies and amplifies that gesture. Movement
draws the eye and is more significant in the absence of other movements.

The third step is to Audiate, without movement and without the presence of
sound, the music you will be conducting. The conductor must hear the entrance
they will conduct: its quality, tempo and articulation. Some struggle to audiate the
appropriate tempo. It can be useful to identify the fastest musical figures and
slowest musical figures in a work. These figures often reveal the tempo that
matches the composer’s intent and the musician’s technical ability. Auditate the
sound and count the meter in your mind. Once the quality of sound that is
desired is fixed in the conductor’s mind, we are ready for the next step.

The fourth step is to begin conducting, in time, as if the hands had already
been in motion. It is important to recall that the initial, slight downward motion,
the Impulse Gesture, is accompanied by the conductor’s inhalation. The first
motion must be a subtle drop into the ictus of the beat PRIOR to the entrance.
This subtle drop defines the ictus of the previous beat, essential for establishing
and communicating both tempo and articulation. The space used in the rebound
communicates the volume while the speed and weight of the gesture contributes
to and reinforces the appropriate articulation. The conductor should exhale as the
ensemble initiates sound as if the conductor were an ensemble member.

3) Unhelpful Movement
Rehearse/illustrate using gestures that are contrary to human non-verbals. I
can teach anyone to respond to gestures.
• What they see IS what you get- the Eichenberger revelations- Understanding
and using universals of non-verbal communication will increase the clarity and
effectiveness of our gestures. By using adopting cultural norms in our
conducting gestures, we ease communication between conductor and choir,
making gestures universally clear and easy for singers to follow.
 • Tension- Tension anywhere in the body or the mind will adversely affect the
sound. Safeguard relationships and avoid tense gestures and attitudes! Practice
relaxing. Breathe low and in the body. Hands and arms not too high our you’ll
develop shoulder/neck/back problems.
• Still body vs. “heads and shoulders, knees and toes”- Eichenberger cites
research that demonstrates that a calm body is universally recognized as more
confident and grounded than an active body. Further, a calm body doesn’t send
mixed signals to the ensemble. There are clear implications for the conductor.
All of the common conducting challenges below are variations on the same
theme. That theme: We send mixed (and even contradictory) signals when
there is extraneous body movement. Demonstrate.
o Swaying in the breeze
o Dancing
o Unproductive/unintentional movements
o The bobble head doll…
o Bending knees
o Toe tapping and up on your toes.
o Head and Shoulder, Knees and Toes…(more than a popular children’s
song)
o Shifting weight, “conductors waltz”…a popular dance…in any meter… 
• Posture- Our posture is the model that is reflected in our singers. Good singing
posture, relaxed yet ready and welcoming, is the basis of good conducting
posture. Some common conducting posture problems include:
o Leaning forward ‘please?’ Trust your singers!
o Drat, foiled again (sword fighting posture)
o Wrestler, military stance
o Dancer
o Blowing in the wind
o Heads, shoulders, knees and toes…more on this later…
o Our body type impacts the sound

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4) Gesture Speed, Weight and Space…key to articulation

Heavy gestures will be perceived as Louder than Light gestures

Indirect gestures communicate more legato than Direct gestures
Quick gestures communicate more separation than Sustained gestures
Gesturing over Large amounts of space will be perceived as louder
Gesturing over Small amounts of space will be perceived as softer
Lower gestures will be perceived as Louder and Heavier than Higher gestures
Higher gestures will be perceived as Softer and Lighter than Lower gestures
Decrease tempo by using a slower rebound and/or more space.
Increase tempo by using a faster rebound and/or less space.
The Temporal Clarity of the Ictus is clearer with Direct gestures than with
Indirect gestures.
Physical stillness, immediately before a gesture, clarifies and amplifies the
gesture.

5) The Body and Where we Conduct- Norms of Non-Verbal Communication

 Up, Down, In and Out- Utilizing our culture’s understanding of body language
allows us to evoke different sounds from the ensemble. By placing the beat in
different places, with changing speed to and from those places, and with different
weight and space. We can manifest in gesture, all the sounds the human voice
is capable of making. See the attached Appendix “Laban Movement Elements”
a. Beat placement- Location and Destination
i. Horizontal vs. Vertical
ii. The horizontal dead zone
iii. Angles vs. Circles
iv. Is there an ictus? Where (exactly) is the beat?
v. Curlicues, subdivisions, click, ticks and other ‘false indicators’

Summary of Gesture Location/Direction and General Sound Quality

• Low gestures and moving lower are generally perceived as louder and
heavier.
• Higher gesture and moving higher are generally perceived as softer and
lighter.
• Moving out and away (on the sagittal plane) gestures result in a less
focused sound that projects into the space.
• Moving in and to the conductor results in a more focused sound that is
contained.
• Bulging gestures (imagine holding a large box) and growing larger (on the
table plane) are generally perceived as loud or growing louder.
• Collapsing gestures, imagine cupping the hands like you are holding a
butterfly (in on the table plane), are generally perceived as soft or growing
softer.

6) When the Pattern isn’t Helpful- Dry Beats and Beats of De-emphasis
a. De-Emphasis- Less Space, Less Weight, Less Distance
b. Dry Beats…drawing attention to what is next

7) Issues of Tempo:

Changing the tempo can be accomplished in two ways. The first is to

change the amount of space being used (more space for slower, less space
for faster) and the second is to change the velocity of the rebound (faster
rebound from the ictus to increase the tempo, slower rebound to decrease
tempo). In practice, the two are most often used together. Like all things the
conductor does, a change in tempo is communicated beginning at the ictus
before that tempo change.

8) Cues…so many options:

Preps and Cues...Three parts: 1) READY: hear the sound/tempo 2) SET:

rebound from the ictus preceding the ‘cue’ and breathe 3) GO: Cue the
music- Another Critical Function of the conductor. Every prep or cutoff has
three parts. If the sequence misses any of these, the result will be less than
ideal…
 a. READY- the conductor’s internal audiation of the tempo or event. A failure to
audiate prior to the preparatory gesture results in poor breath, inappropriate
tempos and vowel/tonal issues. When we audiate (hearing an ideal sound in
our ‘mind’s ear’) our posture, breathe, demeanor and affect work in concert to
communicate the sound we hear to our ensemble. We quite literally ‘evoke’
what we’re hearing!
b. SET- often called the preparatory gesture. The conductor begins this
gesture at the ictus of the beat prior to the pulse in which the music begins in
the correct style/articulation (accompanied by a breath in the style and
evocative of the music ideal we’ve heard internally prior to the prep.)
c. GO- the cue (or cutoff) is both a beginning and the continuation of a musical
idea. The rebound from the ictus must continue in the style/affect of the
work.

9) Releases and Artistry:

• When the cutoff is the cue- Often times the cutoff of a fermata or longer note
duration can and should be the cue for the following entrance. Imagine the cutoff
is the ictus of the beat that precedes the entrance, in the tempo of the music that
is coming…Examples:
• Ragged or inaccurate releases- One of four issues may be the cause , 1) you
aren’t clear 2) singers aren’t subdividing 3) there is a language issue
(consonant) that needs clarification. 4) singers don’t know the music. Clarify by
discerning the source of the problem and prescribing a solution.
• When releases aren’t musical: don’t cutoff...release! With the exception of
the end of a work all releases are only pauses, moments of repose where the
music gathers strength before continuing the journey. Just like entrances, we
need to conduct release artistically. Silence does not mean the music has
stopped.

10) Fermatas: Three types and how we conduct them …

Although we can make almost any conducting gesture work, some clearly work
better than others and as we improve the clarity and expressiveness of our gesture, we
improve both the efficiency of our rehearsals and the quality of our musical artistry. The
session will explore recent research applications to reveal how our conducting helps us
communicate the expressive artistry inside us with compelling power, clarity, ease and
authenticity. Beyond a ‘basics’ session we will apply foundational principles while
exploring advanced conducting concepts for those with a solid technique. Topics to
address include: Laban Movement Theory and implications for conductors,
Eichenberger’s revelations, an exploration of non-verbal communication and implications
for conductors and a discussion of the ‘inner game’ of conducting.

Frank F. Eychaner
Director of Choral and Vocal Studies
University of Texas of the Permian Basin
Wagner Noel Performing Arts Center
1310 N. FM 1788
Midland, TX 79707
Frank.eychaner@gmail.com
303-875-5499