College and Professional Audition Preparation and Execution

Introduction

Much has been written about auditions, including the web articles provided here and the books listed at the end of my Performance Anxiety article.  While I recommend reading anything that you find helpful, auditioning seems to be one of those things that is best taught by experience.  Therefore, this article is brief and simple. It deals more with the work that goes into audition preparation than the psychology surrounding it.  I have observed that focusing on the task instead of the surrounding drama is one element of success.

Preliminary Work

  1. Listen to multiple recordings of everything on the audition list.  Follow along with your part sometimes, and other times just lean back and listen more broadly.  Determine your role: do you have the melody or should you back off because you have the accompaniment?  Be sensitive to things that may not be marked in the part such as dynamic changes, style, rubato, and even tempo changes.  If one of these nuances is on every recording it may be traditional and expected, and doing it shows that you know the piece.  However, you may not want to take a liberty in your audition that you heard on just one recording.  Consult your teacher about these matters of style and tradition.
  2. Put all of these recordings on one playlist, file, or CD.  Listen often, both when you can give your full attention and while doing other things or driving.
  3. For orchestral excerpts, get complete parts if they are not provided.  Many excerpt books contain mistakes and omit important sections.  Be aware that there are different editions and practice them all if you don’t know which one will be on the audition.  Parts can be found for free from the following sources:

Parts that can not be obtained for free can often be found at

Audition Preparation

  1. Practice every audition piece every day.  This will help build the stamina necessary for a long audition day.  If time runs short and you can’t hit them all, then keep the challenging passages in your routine, rotate some pieces out, but don’t take anything for granted – even those that seem “easy.”  Consider these thorough practice techniques.
  2. Record yourself playing the list.  Make this a habit from the beginning of preparation.  You may hear things on your recording that you didn’t notice while practicing, so recording speed your progress.
  3. Take notes about what you liked and what you want to change from your recording.  Use these notes as your practice plan for your next session.  You can also listen to each recorded piece and practice immediately, quickly responding to what you heard without taking notes.
  4. Repeat steps 2 and 3.
  5. Play for people, get lessons, and set up mock auditions, with enough time to integrate changes into muscle memory before the audition.
  6. As the audition date approaches, get used to running the list in groups of about 5 to 8 excerpts in various orders, without stopping.  For college auditions, switch the order of the scales, etudes, solo, and excerpts.  Train yourself to look forward, never backward, in your audition.  When practicing, we remember our flaws and go back to repair them, but when auditioning you must not be distracted by flaws, and you can even use them as motivation to make a stronger ending.
  7. For college auditions, get lessons with the potential teachers.  This can make you more comfortable on your audition day and it gives you and the teacher a chance to get to know each other.

At the Audition Site

  1. Focus on what you can control—your warm-up, thoughts, and performance—and let go of what you can not control—other candidates, the setting, and the outcome.  Do your best to ignore issues such as the competition (compete only with yourself), the new campus or city, the warm-up room, the temperature, the acoustics, etc.  When these distractions creep into your thoughts, drown them out by performing one of the pieces in your mind.
  2. Politely stay focused around other players.
  3. Don’t warm up or practice too much or too little.  While everyone must find the right balance for themselves, when you are in shape, you probably don’t need much warming up and all of the effective practice was done before the audition day.
  4. Bring a bite to eat during a potentially (hopefully) long audition day.

During Your Audition

  1. Focus on your own plan and style.  You can expect to play as well as you have prepared.  Your skills have not changed between the practice room and audition site.
  2. Go the extra musical mile with long phrases, truly soft playing, excitement all the way through the last notes, electric silences, and so on.  In other words, play the music more than the trombone.  This isn’t meant to suggest unique out-of-the-box interpretations, but make yourself stand out through stunning, touching execution of the music that is there.  Listen to yourself and make each note and phrase beautiful.
  3. Don’t look back—leave mistakes in the past.  If you chip a note or something else doesn’t go according to plan, then use it as a springboard to a stronger finish that eclipses the blemish.
  4. Play the solo like a soloist, focusing on musicality and continuity.  Exaggerate the lyric quality. (Curtis Olson)
  5. Some college auditions are like lessons, with a teacher working alongside you, while others are more formal, with a teacher or committee taking notes while you play.

Other Considerations

  1. You’re not going to win if you don’t go.
  2. Make music.  This is an art form.  The committee doesn’t want to be bored.
  3. Practice strategies.
  4. Performance anxiety.

Other Resources

Audition article links

Related books (scroll to end)

 

Magazine Articles

Author Title Publication
Lucas, William G. The Orchestra Audition International Trumpet
Guild Journal
May 1999, 38-41
Stevens, Thomas Suppose they had an orchestra audition
and nobody won?		 Brass Bulletin
111-III-2000, 2-17

Summary:

Audition Preparation

Practice every piece every day, record your practice, take notes, play for people, get lessons with potential college teachers, and run the list without stopping, getting used to moving past mistakes.

At the Audition Site

Focus only on what you can control, stay focused around others, warm-up the amount that worked at home, and bring something to eat.

During Your Audition

Focus on your own plan, be musical, don’t look back, and play the solo like a soloist.

 

Written 7/4/2004, revised 9/28/2006 and  12/26/2016