It’s all in the preparation

I had a teacher tell me this in a conducting class at Berklee. He was referring to cuing orchestra members in and conducting a piece well, but I think about this in reference to a lot of other things.

In the context of conducting, how you gesture for someone to come in helps them understand better where the beat is and exactly when and how to start playing. It also means that knowing the score is important. Learning and studying the score ahead of time affects how well you’ll be able to conduct the music. If you know the music well, you’ll be able to conduct well. If you don’t know the music well then you won’t be able to conduct well.

In other contexts it can be helpful to remember as well. If you’re playing a gig then preparing properly will help the gig go more smoothly. Even for rehearsals the same can be said.

I’d also say the same thing about teaching and any other activity that you want to perform well in. Preparing properly will help it go as smoothly as it can and help you perform as best as you can.

So my teacher was correct in saying, “it’s all in the preparation.”

ISJ