Local, Regional, and All-State Auditions

7 Tips for Surviving the Audition Season

As the audition requirements for local NAfME chapters are being posted, along with providing information for my students on specific requirements, I wanted to share some of the most effective preparation tips for these auditions. Although these suggestions are specific to local county and district requirements, many of these strategies are useful for most audition situation. 

Our local District audition is scheduled for December 10, 2022. While it may seem a long way away, getting an early start will help pace preparation, leading to a more musically expressive and technically confident performance. Specific links, videos and PDF files are located at the end of this post.

Preparation tips:

• Start with identifying most difficult sections and tackle them first.
• Pay attention to dynamics and articulation, integrating them early on as you familiarize yourself with the piece. Leaving them for later can cause problems with having to reconfigure bow distribution and even choices of fingering weeks or months after you start working on the piece.
• Get to know the orchestral part and how solo fits into the overall fabric of the piece. Awareness of what is happening while you play the solo part or as you enter after an orchestral tutti will help in numerous ways, from phrasing choices to developing better ability to keep a consistent tempo. 
• Practice starting and stopping in random places rather then playing all the way through the piece: our District auditions never require a play-through of the entire piece from the beginning until the end, but rather selections from various starting and ending points. Becoming accustomed to starting from various points will help you prepare better, considering the nature of this audition. 
• When working on scales try to minimize the number of different fingering patterns you need to memorize. In the PDF files here I have published suggested fingerings which limit the number of different fingering patterns you need to learn to 4 for the 9 Major scales, rather then having a separate pattern for each of the 9. Since at the audition scales need to be memorized, having fewer patterns to worry about will help in recall during the audition. There is also a specific requirement for rhythmic pattern (quarter followed by 6 eighth notes per octave), and articulation (all separate and also slurred one bow per octave) that is specified for our district. Please be careful and learn the rhythmic and bowing patterns that are specified.
• Since the format of the audition can change from being in person to being a video audition, take frequent videos during your practice sessions, working on problem areas and playing through sections. About 6 weeks prior to the audition date start taking weekly videos of yourself playing a “mock audition”. To prepare for live auditions try to play “mock auditions” in front of friends or family starting 4-6 weeks prior to the audition date as well. 
• Focus on the learning process and preparing for a strong performance during the audition, but understand that the eventual results of the audition are beyond your control. Pace your preparation with the goal of playing well on the audition date: plan which sections need to be learned by which dates, set up weeks for your mock auditions, create a progress chart, and during the individual practice sessions focus on the process of improving your ability to play the materials you’re working on at the moment. This way your playing will improve, you’ll learn a new piece of music and regardless of getting into the orchestra you would have gained a lot from the preparation process in and of itself. Although it would be wonderful to get in and be a part of the orchestra, the ultimate goal is to become a better player.

I hope you will find this information helpful as you prepare for upcoming auditions!  

Victoria

PMEA materials and links:

Audition date: December 10, 2022

Location: Upper Dublin High School

Sheet Music: Our District audition (referring to our Congressional district area, not the local school district), requires that specific editions need to be prepared and performed for each piece. Please check the necessary information and get your copy of the original. 

Download PDF Here

Violin PMEA District 11 Scales

Download PDF Here

Viola PMEA District 11 Scales

Download PDF Here

For Updates on PMEA-11 Click Here