
Explore how the body moves with weight shifts and center-of-gravity alignment to rise from a chair, reach with an open torso, and use the torso as a primary conducting tool.
Explore podium leadership by contrasting following hand cues with eye contact, showing eye contact can help musicians follow gestures and connect torso and facial cues in conducting.
Explore Laban theory of movement by examining four dance gestures—flick, dad, slash, and punch—and their nonverbal baton communication, emphasizing initiating motion from the body rather than the wrist.
Explore the dab gesture for tenuto articulation from the LaBonge theory movement, using mostly the wrist with a hint of elbow to produce an even time between beats.
Master the slash gesture to create a horizontal accent in ensembles, energizing the beat with wrist flick plus elbow and a touch of shoulder for a tapered note.
Learn to shape marcato with the punch gesture: lift with the wrist to create resistance at the tip, then drop the tip to deliver a strong front and tapered back.
Master the glide gesture by balancing resistance and space, transitioning from float to glide with less use of wrists and shoulder hinge to simulate swimming through water.
Combine song gestures into a continuous line by practicing four gestures—float, glide, press, ring—using controlled resistance, breathing, and transitions across quarter notes per bar.
Explore patterns and phrasing, learn three patterns and how two relate, and group larger phrases to communicate ideas over a longer musical period.
Explore how patterns serve the music by balancing time patterns and expression patterns to shape tempo. Use the arm for contour and the wrist for articulation to shape musical expression.
Explore movable and fixed four-pattern gestures in four-four time, learning to place beat one at the center while applying flow, glide, press, and ring to build expressive dance phrases.
Discover how beat one functions as an arrival point and how reshaping or replacing it with four-pattern drills and gesture-based articulation enhances musical phrasing.
Organize bar-level patterns into a larger hypermeter by forming four-bar phrases in waltz or march, then create contour by varying shape, size, speed, resistance, and weight.
Explore how to subdivide time in conducting. Practice layering large and small beats to shape rhythm, using 4-to-8, 3-to-9, and 4-to-12 patterns, including 9/8 patterns.
Learn how patterns and phrasing, including asymmetrical meter and contour, shape expressive conducting by emphasizing gesture types and how patterns serve the music.
Learn to use eye contact, beat-point setting, and breath preparation to cue musicians effectively. Practice with simple 4/4 patterns and coordinated left-hand motions to articulate the sound.
Discover melodic gestures that meld two beats to sustain over the barline and shape phrase contours, while maintaining impeccable time with check-pattern exercises.
Explore point releases and loop releases to shape musical endings with precise release points. Learn to start and end at the same place for clarity, and how fade releases differ.
Explore three fermata techniques—melded, breath mark, and grand pause—showing how release and preparation guide phrasing, with left-hand support over the bar line.
Learn to manipulate tempo changes by setting exact start and end tempos, then slow or speed up to move energy to the tip or create space, using counting for rehearsal.
Develop left-hand independence through lazy-boy conducting, using a different task to build dexterity, then create a toolbox of left-handed gestures to cue entrances and shape sound.
Combine body movement, fundamentals, and repertoire into a nonverbal pedagogy. Practice fundamentals daily, revert to score study, cue effectively, invite collaboration, and apply the Lazy-Boy method to improve rehearsal efficiency.
Thank you for completing this course with MusicProfessor!
Music for this video royalty free from www.bensound.com
|| COURSE DESCRIPTION ||
Learn how to pull every ounce of musicality from yourself and your ensemble with MusicProfessor's Conducting Foundations course. In this series, Dr. John Zastoupil covers numerous exercises that will help you master hand independence, phrasing, dynamic contrast, subdivision, and numerous other topics. No matter what type or size of ensemble you conduct, this course will truly help you perfect your conducting style and prowess.
And save money while you study with us! Private lessons are expensive. MusicProfessor’s Percussion course provides an entire year’s worth of lessons, for a fraction of the cost, and at your own convenience.
Join over 18,000 MusicProfessor students and begin your studies today!
|| COURSE FEATURES ||
MusicProfessor's curriculum is used in nearly 100 schools and school districts throughout the United States and by more than 18,000 students and music teachers throughout the world. Nowhere else can you find the level of detail and professional instruction of MusicProfessor's curriculum.
Fulfill your musical destiny by enrolling today!
|| NOTABLE REVIEWS ||
“Starting with body alignment - brilliant. Must have had Alex. tech.”
-Kari Kirk
“Well organized. well explained. Clear. Concise. Really helpful. A lot of content in a short course.”
-AM
“This course is helping me so much! I'm a choir conductor, not a band conductor, but I'm finding that these techniques are very applicable, and are transforming the way I conduct. I have been able put them into practice immediately as I learn them. I highly recommend this for anyone looking to become a more confident, relaxed, and effective conductor. Also, I find myself with less aches and pains at the end of the day because I'm holding my body in a more aligned and natural position.”
-Alfonso Maribona
|| ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR ||
Dr. John Zastoupil is the Associate Director of Bands and lecturer in Music Education at the University of Texas Arlington. In this position, he conducts the Symphonic Band, Symphonic Winds, oversees aspects of the athletic band program and teaches courses in music education and conducting. John serves as an active guest clinician, adjudicator, and conductor for bands and orchestras throughout the United States.
John earned his Doctor of Music in Wind Conducting from Northwestern University. In Evanston, he served as a conducting associate with the Symphonic Wind Ensemble, Symphonic Band, Concert Band, Contemporary Music Ensemble, and Brass Ensemble as well as assisting with conducting classes. In addition, he was an adjunct instructor in the School of Music.
Prior to Northwestern, John served as the Associate Director of Bands and Director of the Marching Band at Eastern Michigan University. His responsibilities included conducting the Symphonic Band, teaching undergraduate courses in conducting and band arranging, as well as overseeing all aspects of the athletic band program. While at Eastern, he served as a three-time host to the Bands of America Regional Marching Contest, was inducted as an honorary member of the Michigan School Band and Orchestra Association, and was named Outstanding Lecturer in Classroom Instruction at EMU in 2009.
A native Texan, John earned a Master of Music degree in Wind Conducting from the University of Michigan, and while in Ann Arbor, held the position of Music Director with the Michigan Pops Orchestra for the 2006 and 2007 seasons. Zastoupil received a Bachelor of Music Education degree from Baylor University, taught in Eanes ISD at Westlake High School and Hill Country Middle School in Austin, TX, andis a former student of the Aspen Music Festival and School.
His professional affiliations include the College Music Society, College Band Directors National Association, Music Educators National Conference, Texas Music Educators Association, Michigan School Band and Orchestra Association, Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, and honorary membership in Kappa Kappa Psi.
John, his wife Jennifer, and their daughter Jordan reside here in Arlington, TX.
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This course has been provided by MusicProfessor, an online music education company.