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Arts, Audio-Video Technology and Communications

Music Director

Real-Life Activities

Real-Life Communication -- Solution

You have challenged the students to think of ways to demonstrate certain things about conducting and some musical terms on a list you provided.

Check your answers:

  1. You were demonstrating beat and tempo. When you were talking in time with the beat, it almost sounded like rap music. When you spoke faster, slower, faster, you were changing the tempo.
  2. You were demonstrating how you cue your musicians and also that you signal to play softly or loudly, depending on the importance of the part they are playing -- the main characters will have the louder voices.
  3. You were demonstrating pitch and dotted rhythms. You contrasted the low pitch of the boy bass and the high pitch of the girl soprano. A series of alternating long and short notes represented dotted rhythm.
  4. The volunteer was demonstrating a hertz, a cycle per second -- in this case it was the middle A note.

"Communication is one of the most important skills a conductor must have," says music director Herbert Tsang. "He or she doesn't make any sound during music making, but influences the sound that comes out."