Conducting Skills: Mixed Meter 3/4 to 4/4

Series Summary

Conducting an orchestra can be a daunting task, be it a string ensemble or an entire symphony. The job requires an extensive knowledge of music scoring as well as a natural gift to distinguish proper pitch and tone. And beyond the music basics, a conductor has to be an entertainer, involving their musicians as well as their audience in the piece they are conducting. The conductor is the focus of attention for the entire performance venue, so they must follow the proper etiquette and established rules and at the same time keep the crowd entertained and involved. Watch this series if you are planning on becoming a conductor, or if you would just like to know more of what goes on at the podium the next time you attend a classical music performance.

In this free conducting lesson video, you will learn a variety of skills which are crucial to becoming a good conductor. Brandon will demonstrate how to conduct music passages with mixed meter and well as passages marked marcato, legato, stacatto, tenuto and fermata. You will also learn about subdiving notes in various time signatures.

Video Transcript

"On behalf of Expert Village, I will now show you some expressive conducting skills. I want to start with practicing what's called "mixed meter". Oftentimes in a piece of music, it will start with a time signature such as 4/4 and then later in the piece it could change into a new time signature, 3/4. So, we're going to practice doing the 4/4 pattern. Remember, it starts on our right hand side -- one, two, three, four -- and then we're going to be switching to 3/4 pattern, which starts on the left hand side. Beat one, one, two, three. So, let's practice doing two bars, or measures, of 4/4 time and then doing two bars of 3/4 time. And we'll repeat them as we can practice. Here are the two bars of 4/4. We're going to go into 3/4 simultaneously, so be ready. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. One, two, three. One, two three. Back again -- one, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. To 3/4 -- one, two, three. One, two, three."