Lab Founder and Director: gary.hill@asu.edu
Design and Implementation: teresa@immersionmusic.org

(article by Mary Brennan, ASU)

“This is really training wheels for the beginning conductor.”
--Gary W. Hill, Founder of the Digital Conducting Laboratory at ASU

The conductor stands in front of a full-length mirror; a digital video camera is just to the side.
Also out of camera range is a collection of computer equipment including two of everything:
monitors, keyboards and hard drives.

Before the music begins, the conductor puts on a customized set of spandex sleeves that
stretch from wrist to biceps (shoulders?). Four pairs of electrodes are then tucked into the
sleeves at precise locations designed to capture the high points of the arm muscles so a
muscle tension profile can be created.

Is this music or science? Actually, a lot of both. Welcome to the lab portion of Instrumental
Conducting 340, a course taught in The Katherine K. Herberger College of Fine Arts School of Music.

The classroom is also involved in this 21st-century method of teaching conducting – before
visiting the lab, students go through two days of relaxation exercises to become better attuned
with their bodies and especially their muscles.

In today’s fast moving computerized world, it was only a matter of time before instrumental
conducting would benefit from digital technology. When, where and who were undecided until
Gary W. Hill, Professor of Music and Director of Bands at ASU, founded the nation’s first
university-sponsored Digital Conducting Laboratory in Fall 2000. “This has the potential to
revolutionize the way beginning conducting is taught,” explains Hill. “It’s a fabulous training tool.”

Approximately 55 students of conducting and conducting pedagogy at ASU now are having
the opportunity to enhance their skills as performers and teachers with the assistance of a
unique technology, the Digital Conducting Feedback System, designed by Dr. Teresa Marrin
Nakra of Immersion Music, Inc., directed by Professor Hill and overseen by School of Music
doctoral student and teaching assistant Barry Kraus.

The Digital Conducting Feedback System enables students to learn about and then control
muscle tension. “Tension is the number one enemy of all musicians and the number one
problem of all musicians,” explains Hill.

“The laboratory has the capability to simulate many of the behaviors of a live orchestra
rehearsal setting,” says Hill. “The system’s unobtrusive sensor interface and interactive
program recreates several fundamental ensemble-conductor interactions,” he notes,
“particularly by reacting to the tempo, articulation and dynamic line generated by the conductor.”

In addition to immediate aural feedback, the system allows conductors to review their
performances via sound files, video playback and analysis of muscle-tension profiles.
The musical materials consist of a set of etudes that systematically take a conductor
through a review of basic conducting gestures. The etudes, which were compiled and
arranged by Hill, are principally derived from familiar classical music, freeing the user to
focus primarily on his or her conducting and the concomitant response.

Students taking part in the digital conducting project have more flexibility doing their lab
work, thanks to the lab’s flexible schedule. Run by Kraus, the lab is open 20 hours a week.
“Each digital conducting session lasts 20 minutes, followed by constructive feedback and
coaching me, before the student takes another 20-minute session.” During Fall Semester 2000,
students were required to take 6 lab sessions, although a number of them took up to nine. “They
were really impressed with the immediacy of feedback,” says Kraus.

“We’ve found that digital conducting students are more confident on the podium,” says Hill.
Part of that could be attributed to the opportunity that the students have to be aware of body
tension while in a relaxed state after a 20-minute session.

Hill began working on the concept of using digital computer technology in conducting instruction
several years ago. “I had heard rumors of digital batons and I began surfing the Internet,” he says.
His search brought him to the web page of Marrin Nakra, who was in the graduate program at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “I was intrigued by her work,” notes Hill, “but when I
contacted her, she felt her work was not applicable at the time.”

When Hill came to ASU in 1998 as the new Director of Bands and Professor of Music, he soon
realized that the School of Music and the Herberger College would provide the support that
he required to begin the digital conducting project. Timing was also serendipitous with
Marrin Nakra, now associated with the Immersion Music and Worcester Polytechnic Institute in
Ward Hill, Massachusetts.

The Digital Conducting Laboratory’s collaboration goes beyond the School of Music.  Expertise
is being provided by Assegid Kidane, who is on the staff of the Herberger College’s Institute for
Studies in the Arts, and by members of the university’s Information Technology unit.

Up until now, the digital conducting project has relied on anecdotal evidence only and not qualitative
or quantitative evidence. However, during Spring Semester 2001, Kraus will quantify the results from
the fall, comparing students who had computer-support instruction through the Digital Conducting
Lab with students who experienced traditional lab instruction in conducting. “The lab has given
me a wide range of things to expect in beginning conductors and thoughts on how to teach
conducting.”
 
The Gammage Auditorium in Tempe Arizona, where the ASU Music Department resides.
 
info@immersionmusic.org