Stop Flapping Your Arms

There’s a method to the madness of an orchestra conductor, and it doesn’t always look obvious to the untrained eye. To the audience, it can look like the crazy person on the podium is just waggling a stick at the musicians and music comes out.

To the musician, however, the way that stick waggles means a world of difference in how they play their instrument. Because of that, the conductor and the orchestra will spend months practicing together and years practicing by themselves in order to come up with everything needed to work together to produce beautiful music

If someone just walked on-stage without this prior planning and practice and started flapping their arms like a conductor trying to make music, what would happen? Chaos.

“When the orchestra look at me, I want them to see a completely involved person who reflects what we rehearsed, and whose function is to make it possible...