The role of a conductor is to organize the music and keep everything calm."
You should make the audience want to dance although you shouldn't be a circus act. I think people should focus on the music, and not the conductor.
This role, this pursuit, made me think of Joe Buck and his phisophy of calling games. When asked, "What bothers you in an announcer that you feel isn't measuring up?" Buck responded with,
"Over talking, doing too much, trying to prove to the audience that they did their reading, trying to make the call about themselves . . . I just want to state what happened. I want to do it an exciting way. I haven't always accomplished that, by the way. And I want to get out of the viewer's head. It's not about me. Nobody's tuning in - let's check the TV Guide listings and see what game Joe Buck is calling. Nobody cares. They want to see the Cubs. They want to see the Packers. They want to see the Cowboys. They don't care who's calling the game . . . if I get hit by a bus going into a game, they're still going to play. And the guys that bother me, without naming names, are the guys who sound like if they got hit by that bus, the game would be canceled" (via)
And when it comes to moments of great climactic celebration, moments where announces can make a name for themselves, moments like the Cubs winning the World Series for the first time in 108 years, Joe Buck didn't try to keep everyone calm or insert himself into the moment. Instead, he kept quiet. "I could choose to make that call all about me," he says, "screaming and yelling and, you know, 'groundball to Kris Bryant, going to be a tough play, out at first. And for the first time in 108 years, the Chicago Cubs have finally won it all. They gather on the mound. Players jumping over'", but he didn't. He didn't say any of that stuff, because it wasn't about him. It was about something bigger.
I wonder how many other professions would do well to adapt a similar philosophy. How many companies, schools, communities, and relationships have crumbled because the man or woman in charge is trying to make it about themselves, forgetting that if they were gone, the game would still go on.
People like:
- Teachers/Principals
- Parents
- CEO's
- Pastors
- Presidents/world leaders
How many of them, of us, make the moments of life - both big and small - about us, and not the bigger picture? And in so doing, ruin everything?
Really, for me, it comes down to humilitas and the belief that we should be using (or withholding) our gifts and talents for the benefit of others, not just ourselves. Just like a conductor.
Keep everything calm, inspire dance, help people focus on the music.
For more on . . .
-N- Stuff : On Living : Music : Joe Buck : Do Orchestras Really Need Conductors?