Conducting your own Orchestra
The elegance of enjoying an orchestral performance is a cherished experience. The well dressed musicians with their shiny instruments and crisp music sheets, all perfectly seated at the pleasure of the conductor. The quiet hush falls upon the theater as the conductor comes to center stage beautifully encased with the glow of the spot light. Perfectly dressed, he or she bows cordially to the audience, and turns to the musicians who revere his every action. With grace and poise the conductor’s stick rises after tapping the lectern for attention. The conductor then instructs the players to perform their musical talent in harmony and with correct timing, transforming the notes on the pages into a well formed melodious reality to our ears and our hearts.
The conductor is our soul. The musicians are our multifaceted ego personalities of how we present ourselves to the world. There is no such thing as a bad conductor. His or her job is primarily to guide, instruct, and expect the best and the most appropriate tune to come out of the ego. Yet a untalented musician is what translates into the out of sync and out of tune ego. The conducting spirit is trying its level best to make the orchestra, namely you, perform at its best with the collection of egos it has at its disposal. The unfocussed ego can derail the orchestra, however a keen and disciplined minded ego can enable the flow of a beautifully devised harmonic piece. The audience namely the world, will only see what is presented to them, good or bad.
The conductor will always do their best to keep the musical flow going. The human experiences are the movements of the musical piece, if well played out are indeed fabulous, if not then quite disastrous. Having a good band of musicians (personality egos) is therefore a key element. They need to practice, practice and practice being focussed, in tune, aware of their instruments (limitations) and the book of music they need to follow, and of course acknowledging along the guidance of the “spirit” conductor. The musical composition itself can be represented as the purpose of ones life. The conductor will guide this out with gestures of tempo, dynamics and phrases, and the musical ego must follow along and play when meant to in accordance with the ensemble or otherwise be silent.
We all want our finale to be one of lasting remembrance, and the conductor will do just that, with the right group of egos. We seek to have egos that are virtuosos but need to be able to follow your divine will, or your conductor’s stick. The aim in life is to have the conductor and the orchestral egos in harmonic synchrony such that the tune performed is perfect, or at least perfect enough for the ears of the world to appreciate. The last thing we want is orchestral dissonance when one ego is playing treble and the other bass, or one is playing an adagio and the other playing a capriccio, what a sordid din. Put the time in to training your musician egos. Patience, practice and tolerance is a good way to start. Enable each musician or ego feel that they are part of something much bigger than themselves and so foster the feeling of an ensemble. The conductor does this well if given the opportunity. A conductorless orchestra is usually never well remembered for its musical prowess.
Tap Tap Tap…..Is your orchestra ready to play your divine composition?
