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IGNITING RESPONSE
The Conductor's Toolbox
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A 200 page (working)book by David Barg
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The tools in Igniting Response will help you
create significant - often dramatic - improvement in
every area of your ensembles' music-making.
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It's the shift in focus
from our conducting...to their response
that triggers this improvement.
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See examples* below
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- New music teachers
- Veteran music teachers
- University conductors
- Teaching artists
- Mentors
- Music staffdevelopers
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New Year Pre-Publication Sale: $30
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Save 45% on February Publication Price of $55!
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- Music/Music Ed faculty
- Music/Music Ed students
- Young musicians
- Parents
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Explore excerpts from Igniting Response by seeing the samples below
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- Music/Arts supervisors
- Administrators
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Table of Contents
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Watching:
a Technique
to be taught,
practiced, and
rehearsed.
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Attention & Engagement
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Watching
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Watching:
a Technique
to be taught,
practiced, and
rehearsed.
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Marking
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Marking is
telling
themselves
what
we say is
important.
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Good posture turns
students' bodies into
Learning Allies -
not enemies.
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Talking so they Listen
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And not only listen to
what we say, but also
mark, remember, and do it!
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Advice from Students
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Young
musicians
have plenty
of insightful
advice for us
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Order
Igniting
Response
HERE!
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Photos: Great Plains Orchestral Institute Orchestra (Omaha, NE), David Barg, Conductor. Photos courtesy of Deb
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Sound Encounters Orchestra (Ottawa, KS), David Barg, conductor. Photos courtesy of Rita Dowling
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* Examples of difference in focus: conducting vs. response
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Area
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Focus on Conducting
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Focus on Response
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Gestures
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Developing repertoire of precise,
expressive gestures
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- Teaching students to watch, understand, and follow gestures
- Teaching the gestures to students transforms their interest
and understanding of our gestures
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Attention &
Engagement
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Presumption of musicians' attention
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- Prioritizing attention and engagement as a condition for
- Rehearsing attention with all we do
- Monitoring attention and engagement as closely as an
anaesthetist monitors vital signs during an operation; not
continuing until all is well
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Watching
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Presumption that musicians will watch,
especially at tempo, dynamic, and mood
transitions
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- Teaching musicians the technique of watching; help them
overcome their fear of making mistakes and getting
lost…when they do
- Teaching them the meaning of what they’re looking at
- Making sure they experience a clear payoff for taking the risk
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Tempo
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Deciding on the right tempo and
communicating it with the breath and
prep beat
Presuming the musicians will catch it
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- Helping students know where and how to get tempo
information (mentally subdividing the upbeat and continuing
to count as they enter)
- Identifying the causes of dragging and rushing (it’s usually
us!) and knowing how not to
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Dynamics
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Memorizing, balancing the dynamics and
soundscape.
Presuming the musicians will sing and
play our dynamics
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- Teaching the importance of dynamic markings – not only
- Understanding it’s about muscle memory – not thinking
- Teaching correct execution through experience, not
- information
- Helping them get out of their comfort zone to sing and play
the kind of fff and ppp that inspires
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