Conducting students wanted: Thick skin needed

My college orchestra director had a sound philosophy about how an aspiring conductor should be taught.  A good conductor, according to him, should learn by conducting an orchestra.  He asked the orchestra to imagine what it would be like to learn to play an instrument the way conducting students are usually taught.  "Imagine if we sat around for six months and talked about playing the violin," he said.  "Then, imagine if I handed you a violin after six months and said, 'Now, play.'  Then, imagine if I took the violin away from you, and we went back to talking about it."

During my sophomore year, he received clearance from the administration to turn the Thursday afternoon sectionals into conducting training sessions instead.  Although most of the burden was on the aspiring conductors instead of the orchestra, seeing what aspiring conductors go through was eye-opening.  Four examples:

• When the director asked a student why he conducted a Schubert passage a particular way, the student started to respond, "Well, I feel..." The director rebuked him, "You feel?!  No, you feel everything the way Mr. Schubert felt it."
• On another occasion, the director pointed out a mistake and asked the student, "Your fault?"  When the student nodded, the director responded, "Always your fault..."
• In criticizing a student's ineffective conducting, the director told him, "You did nothing...Nothing!"  After a pause, he added, "Absolutely nothing!"
• When the director thought one aspiring conductor looked too stern, he barked, "This is happy music!  Smile!"  The conductor's face brightened instantly.  Still not satisfied with the student's conducting, the director began moving the student's arm properly; wisely, the student continued smiling as he conducted the rest of the movement.

While playing bass during these sessions, my appreciation for what a difficult job conducting is grew exponentially.  Knowing what every instrument is playing during every moment of a piece and being able to correct any problems that arise isn't easy, by any means.  I also thought, "If these conducting students' skin gets any thicker, they won't need Winter coats."