While listening to a great symphony or watching a conductor leading an orchestra, you might sometimes imagine yourself in front of the orchestra. Most of us don't have the background to undertake that challenge, but it would be nice to be able to look at a score and to have a little understanding of just what all those black dots mean. In addition, understanding the basics of conducting can add to our appreciation of an orchestral performance and can provide a lot of fun.
Instructions
Music Reading
1. Learn the basic fundamental of note reading by memorizing the names of the notes. The notes appear on lines and spaces, which is collectively called a staff. There are two fundamental staffs: treble and bass. The notes on the treble staff's lines are named E, G, B, D and F; the spaces on the treble are F, A, C and E. The bass staff's notes are G, B, D, F and A for the lines and A, C, E and G for the spaces.
2. Learn note values. In most cases, a whole note gets 4 counts, a half notes get 2 counts, a quarter note gets 1 count and an eighth note get ½ a count. There are shorter notes; you can probably predict that a 1/16th note gets a fourth of a count. A dot next to a note adds ½ its original value to the note.
3. Understand that rests have equal values to notes, except that they are silent. One way to remember the difference between a whole rest and a half rest is to think of the rests as hats and the saying "a whole man would take his hat off when inside while a half man would continue to wear his hat."
4. Learn the meaning of time signatures, the fraction-like numbers at the beginning of a piece of music. The top number tells you how many beats there are to a measure and the bottom number tells what kind of note gets 1 count; so a 3/4 time signature would have 3 beats in a measure and a quarter note would get 1 count.
Conducting
5. Conduct the beat with your right hand. If there are 2 beats to a measure, the first beat will be down and the second up. Three beats to a measure will be count one down, count 2 to the right, and count 3 up. In a measure with 4 beats, the first count is down, the second count is across the body to the left, the third is back to the right and the fourth count is back up. The first count is always down, and the last is always up.
6. Use the left hand to indicate loud or soft. An upward held palm means to get louder while turning your hand over means softer.
7. Familiarize yourself with where the instruments of the orchestra are situated. When you look at a score and see that the violins are about to make an entry, look in the direction of the violins and point a finger at them when they are to make their entrance.
