The Complete Idiot''s Guide to Music Theory

Part 6:
Arranging
260
Now you bring your arm down, all the way to the bottommost position, exactly
on beat one. This is position 1, and it’s the most important movement in your
conducting. The musicians have to get a solid “one,” and that’s where your
downbeat comes in.
For the second beat in the measure, move your arm up slightly and to the left,
to position 2. Then, for the third beat, move your arm straight across, to the
right, to position 3.
Now we’re up to the fourth beat of the measure, and your upbeat. Swing your
arm back up to position 4 and get ready to start all over again for the next
measure.
Practice this movement—(up)-down-left-right-up—again and again, at different
tempos. Once you get this mastered, you’re conducting!
Conducting in Two
Conducting in 2/4 or 2/2 time is pretty similar to conducting in four. All you
have to do is leave out the left and right movements to positions 2 and 3.
That’s right: Conducting in two is a simple up-down, up-down movement; up
for the preparatory beat, down for one, up for two, down for one—again and
again and again.
Here’s what the pattern looks like:
1
2
Conducting in two.
Conducting in Three
Conducting in three is slightly more difficult than conducting in two or four.
It’s kind of like the four pattern, but without the left, or 2 position. In terms of
movement, you start with the preparatory beat (of course), then go down for
one, to the right for two, up for three, then back down for one again. Down,
right, up—like this:

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Chapter 20:
Performing Your Music
261
1
3
2
Conducting in three.
Finding the Beat
As I said earlier, one of the chief duties of the conductor is to set the tempo.
There are two ways you can do this:
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