Lead like the great conductors, a TEDTalk by Itay Talgam,

I really enjoyed the many different styles of conduction Itay Talgam showed in this TEDTalk.

The conductors that really stood out to me were the first conductor and Strauss. Talgam talks about how the happiness of the first conductor doesn’t come from the music but comes from enabling other people’s story and their perception of the music. I think as music educators this is something that we really should incorporate into the classroom. If we can empower our students to be apart of the interpretation of music they will be much more committed to it. Something I enjoyed about Strauss’ conduction is that he didn’t interfere with the music by only using very subtle gestures. He want’s the musicians to interpret what is exactly on the page and what the composer’s intent was. As an educator this is also very useful, we need to encourage our students to interpret music very accurately. While both styles are very useful, they are also very different and it is impossible to have both. I feel that there is time for both to be used in the classroom, and depending on the students, we as educators need to use the perfect balance to maximize the students learning.