Preparing an Audition
This week I posted the auditions for the next Mountaineer Honor Jazz Band, which is an all-star high school jazz band that we host at our WVU Jazz Festival on March 24-25, 2023. I want to take this opportunity to share ideas with students about how to prepare for this audition or an audition for another program. Also, if it is applicable, you can read my blog post about How to Choose a Music School, which I intended as a guide to help students make a decision about where to study music.
The 2022 Honor Jazz Band:
Here are the things that will set a student on the path to audition success:
Read the Instructions Fully and Make a Plan
Find the dates and deadlines and mark your calendar.
Do not wait until the last week or the last few days to prepare.
Do not wait until the deadline to submit your audition. Do your best to prepare an audition such that you are not scrambling at the deadline. If it is a recorded audition, you do not want to miss the opportunity because you get sick on the day of the deadline.
How to Make Recordings
Become comfortable playing for a recording. This means working on the stamina and endurance to get through a piece (especially for brass players) and it also means just simply getting comfortable with having the pressure of trying to play something from start to finish with as few mistakes as possible.
Test your equipment. Set up your video and/or microphone and be certain that the recording sounds adequate. You want to avoid recordings that are too faint to hear or distorted because the sound is too loud. Ideally, we will be able to hear dynamics in a recording and everything will not just be at the loud level.
Warm up your instrument before you record. Brass/winds will either be out of tune or sound strange if the instrument is not warmed up.
Make multiple recordings on multiple days! Try to give yourself a few different recordings to choose from before you send in an audition recording. I recommend recording on multiple consecutive days because I think it takes the pressure off and allows you to have the best recording possible.
How to present yourself — it is helpful when a student briefly addresses the camera and states their name. This honestly makes it more clear to us who and what we are hearing.
The best way to post an audition video is on YouTube. I recommend adjusting the privacy settings to avoid having the video public if this is a concern to you.
“Contrasting Pieces”
A student recently asked me what is meant by “contrasting pieces.” In short, you should avoid the submissions all being the same tempo, the same “feel,” the same “vibe,” the same tonality, and a similar form or chord structure. Ballads can be exceptionally difficult for young players on any instrument, so I would recommend pairing a medium tempo swing tune with something like a Bossa Nova tune or a tune with a contemporary sounding straight 8th groove.
Live Auditions
Not all auditions are done by video or recording, so based on my experience as both a performer and educator, I would recommend:
Avoid being too tired to adequately perform. This means sleeping well and also not becoming fatigued from too much practice. An example of too much practice would be a trumpet player working last minute for six hours on a piece the day before.
Have a relaxed warmup. Take your time warming up, whether that is a brass warmup or a reed player choosing reeds.
Arrive early enough not to panic. Be able to stroll into the venue instead of being late and sprinting in at the last minute.
Practice slowly. Everyone says this, but it cannot be stressed enough. Play at literally half the tempo when you warm up.
Take a deep breath before playing a live audition. In a live situation, everything moves faster. The extra moment of breath is not as long as you think because your heart is racing and the nerves are kicking in.
If you will be standing up for the audition, stand up while practicing in the days leading to the audition (if this applies to you). This is for two reasons:
instruments feel different when sitting or standing
wind players have a different airflow when sitting or standing
I hope that these ideas are helpful to young players. I am reminded of my first audition for the Virginia All-State Band in high school. I was so intimidated by all of the sax players in the warmup room playing blazing fast and blaring that I left and took a walk!