This ebook, An Alexander Technique Approach to Conducting (Conductors’) Technique, is published on this website in a PDF format. It is very detailed and practical, and it will give you the physical tools you need to take the limits off of your ability to create the accurate conducting technique you want without sacrificing your body.
This ebook is also for sale on all AMAZON websites in a KINDLE format.
Located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, U.S.A. (MOVEMENT THERAPY)
It is almost universal that conductors hold their breath, especially in the difficult sections of a work. Is this inevitable? What effect does it have on a performance? What does it say about the conductor? Can it be changed, if the conductor wants to do so?
Breath holding while conducting is not inevitable, but like I said it is nearly universal. Since there is no obvious direct link between breathing and conducting, you can conduct holding your breath and breathe when absolutely necessary. I have heard wonderful recordings of wonderful conductors, and you can hear the conductors gasping for breath at times.
When a conductor holds his or her breath, it usually means the conductor is afraid he or she will not make it through a passage. If you stop breathing in the difficult passages, then I believe this always has an effect on what is coming out of the orchestra or choral group. You may still conduct beautifully, but it has always been my experience, that when a conductor doesn’t hold his or her breath in a passage, the passage dramatically changes.
It may not be a dramatic technical change, but the orchestra or choral group almost always has a better tone quality, and I notice there is a lowering in me of feeling stressed when I listen. The conductor usually feels less stressed for two reasons. The first is he or she isn’t immobilizing the body. The second reason is that for possibly the first time, the conductor is watching him or herself breathe and choosing to breathe through the passage, rather than focusing on their fear of the music.
So, yes, a conductor can make gentle non-held breathing part of their technique. A conductor’s technique is everything he or she does in their body when they conductor. As an Alexander Technique teacher, when I help conductors connect to their whole body as they conduct, then I truly make their technique conscious and whole body.
How does a conductor internalize a new truly fearless breathing pattern as they conduct? Ex: I ask a conductor to conduct a three minute passage from a symphony with no particular focus. Then I ask him to conduct it again, but this time ONLY observe his breathing as he conducts. I ask him what he notices. He may say he’s noticing himself hold his breath, or he may notice he’s trying to “force” himself to continue to breathe.
I ask him to conduct again, but this time gently watch himself breathe as he conducts the passage at a very easy tempo, and to let his body breathe when it wants to, and to continue to repeat the passage non-stop for five minutes. If he can truly trust this process, he will begin to realize he doesn’t have to make himself breathe, and he won’t hold his breath.
For possibly the first time in his life, he has expanded his conducting technique beyond his hands and arms, and he is beginning to conduct with his whole mobile body.
