As the fall approaches, many symphonies and groups will be starting again, and holding placement auditions.
I used to be terrified of auditions, until I learned a few important facts.
1.) You CAN beat the nerves with a little bit of planning, and remembering the people listening to you want you to do well, they are on your side!
2.) Prepare your music so well that you can play in first thing in the morning without warming up, and at the end of a very busy day. Count the performances you do when you are not at your best as what to expect when you audition. This will lead you to raise up the level of your performance, and give you confidence.
3.) Auditioning is about being prepared, and then being confident enough to say "I did my best."
Beating Nerves
Everyone has their own special recipe for auditioning, their own tips for success or ways to beat nerves.
Exercise
Get your blood pumping a few hours before you audition. Go swimming, jogging, do yoga or dance, but nothing too stressful. This will help your body feel comfortably tired, and you are less likely to get the shaky nerves.
Just make sure you give yourself plenty of time to recover from the exercise before you audition!!
| Holy Downbeat Batman! We're running---LATE!! |
Plan Something FunNo matter how your audition goes, there is always a feeling of let down after a stressful performance. So plan something fun for after your audition. Plan to go shopping, go to the library, treat yourself to ice cream, go to a movie, whatever is relaxing and a reward to you. This will help get rid of nerves too, because you'll have something to focus that nervous energy on.
Eat Potassium and Vitamin B Rich Foods
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| Bananas are high in B vitamins, which calm down your nervous system. |
Eating a bannana or some dried apricots helps calm your body and stomach. They have potassium that helps your body process all that nervous energy. Taking a vitamin tablet might actually make your stomach upset if you don't eat a full meal with it, so water and fruit is a great alternative.
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| Monkeys and bananas... |
Another is pretending to be a monkey and jumping up and down until you have used up most of the adrenaline that makes you shake.
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| This has the added benefit of making sure you don't take yourself too seriously. |
Start Now
The time to start preparing is now, so that you won't have to cram all your practicing together at the last minute. 15 minutes a day of well planned practice over two months will stick with you forever, and reduce nerves, while a six hour practice session the day before your audition will likely freak you out, and only be stored in short term memory.
Picking Your Piece
Some people like to pick a piece that is new, so they work hard on it and it feels fresh. Others like to pick pieces that are comfortable and familiar, so they won't have to worry about messing up notes. I recommend preparing both a familiar piece AND a new piece, then picking the one that you feel the most comfortable using to represent your playing ability. This way you won't feel bored, or stuck when audition time rolls around.
Practice Your Audition
Practice walking in, saying your name and what you will play, and then playing it all the way through-without stopping. Practice this in front of people-your mom or dad, your siblings, you dog, even a mirror. Once you are comfortable with this, ask the people watching you to start doing distracting things, whispering, making odd faces, even rattling plastic bags and wrappers and eating!
Scales
Always practice some major scales at the beginning of your practice session. Most auditions will ask you to play a major scale so they can hear you tone. Aim for long, strong notes with little to no vibrato, for two to three octaves. Then speed it up and see if you can play it fast, comfortably.
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| Sight-Reading When you haven't practiced! |
Another way to prepare for an audition is to practice sight-reading. How do you practice sight reading? Isn't that kind of an oxymoron? Not exactly. The idea is to test you skills, and hone a system to make sight-reading easy for you.
I will later be posting a blog on how to make your practice time more effective.
Confidence
Once at your audition, the most important thing is to remember is to relax, and let what you can do shine through. If you make a mistake, do you best to keep going, and pretend you didn't make a mistake.
Sometimes others will notice, and sometimes they won't.
Have you heard the expression,"Fake it till you make it?" It really does work. If you pretend that you have confidence, others will believe that you do.
Walk up to your audition with your shoulder straight, head held even with the floor, and look the judges in the eye. Smile even if you don't quite feel like it (it will send relaxing hormones through your body).
Say your name and the piece you are going to play clearly.
Never apologize before you begin to play. If you lower their expectations going in, they will remember that, and not how well you played.
Stand up straight, with good posture, and pretend you are confident.
Finally, remember that good or bad, you worked for this. Be proud of where you are, and don't worry about where you wish you were. You can always improve, but now is your time to say "This is where I am NOW."
And when you are done, be proud of yourself, because you survived, and you did something hard!
Way to go you!
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| Good job! |
