
What Does a Conductor Really Do?
Sticky Notes: The Classical Music Podcast
How to Beat Time
A conductor's job is to make sure all the musicians are in the same place during a performance of any given piece. We do this by beating time, using prescribed beat patterns that all conductors learn in school. Beat patterns are helpful guides, but very few of the greatest conductors in the world follow these beat patterns strictly. Every conductor has a particular style based on their physicality, their musical ideas and their philosophy over what a conductor should really be doing.
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