In Year 7, we look at the elements of music, learn the basic rules and key terminology and then have a go putting all this into practice.
To test out our new knowledge and understanding, we became conductors. We learned about time signatures, what a downbeat or upbeat is, and the directions a conductor should move their arm(s) on each beat of the bar. Once our conducting skills were polished, we had a go a conducting the rest of the group whilst singing or using percussion.
We quickly found that the conductor has control of everything. When leading the group could control the tempo, dynamics, texture, on/offset of the music. We could get the music to start and stop with just one movement, and could instruct individual musicians to join or drop out through simple eye contact.
The key to being a successful musical leader was confidence and authority. We discussed body language and what kind of stance/presence means that a person might be a successful leader or conductor.
Here's some pictures of our budding conductors...
