One common problem among beginning conductors is an unclear, or absent ictus. The ictus is the small moment in which the beat of the pattern changes directions. It serves as a visual marker that tells musicians the specific moment at which a beat will occur, which gives the entire group a pulse. Without a distinct ictus, musicians will not know when the beats are arriving, leaving them only able to guess the tempo. For this reason it is important to have a clear ictus before starting to work on any conducting that includes expressiveness; you need to have a solid foundation of conducting first, in order to add these elements on top.
There are two extremes of this problem. Conducting too fluidly eliminates the ictus; there is no change in direction because you are drawing a circle (or some other continuous motion). It can be difficult to see where beat one ended and beat two started. The other extreme is to stop the gesture so abruptly that you end up looking really stiff. There should still be some fluidity of rebound after the ictus, so it shouldn’t look punched or static. To practice this, try conducting just the downbeat and its rebound, focusing on a clear ictus. This will help you explore the relationship between those two gestures.
Once you are successful at conducting this way, pick a tempo using a metronome and start conducting along with it. Check that your beats line up by doing it in front of a mirror. Your hand should arrive to one singular spot to make the beat, and then bounce right up from there, not lingering on its arrival. Your beat should happen on the click of the metronome, not somewhere along the way. If you are ahead of or behind the metronome, shrink your gesture size until you find the ictus in time.
If there are too many movements, you may need to think of where the ictus is in relation to the conducting plane. Too loose a wrist can create flicks around the ictus. It is important for the ensemble to follow the ictus; flicks, extra gestures, and embellishments can be distracting and confusing. Conversely, if there is a sense of stiffness, this could be a result of too tense a wrist, resulting in a very heavy gesture. Make sure your forearm and hand are helping to form the ictus, and if you are using a baton, make sure it is only used to clarify the ictus, not to create more shapes with its tip.
If you are conducting a pattern with multiple beats, make sure your ictus is equally readable in all the beats, not just the first.