Audition Tips and Hints

1. Sit with good posture. Those who look like they know what they are doing always seem to do better than those who don’t.

2. Never repeat any part of what you are playing in an audition. Just keep going all the way through the music or scales without stopping, even if you make a mistake. Playing it over just reduces your score more.

3. Please don’t ask, “Can I do that over”, or “Can I start over?” These types of questions will hurt your score! Starting over is not allowed.

4. CHECK YOUR TEMPOS – Make sure you use a metronome at home when you are practicing your examples. If you don’t know how fast or slow something goes, then ask your teacher.

5. PRACTICE EXAMPLES SLOWLY – Practice the parts you find difficult slowly until they become easier. Don’t just practice the easy parts – pick parts of the music that you know you have trouble with and try to work them out. Work with your private teacher or your director on the music.

6. DON’T BE IN A RUSH – Why play your scales at q=5000 when it is just as effective to play them slowly? Play scales at the tempo that you sound the best on, not the fastest that you can play it.

7. ADD DYNAMICS – Don’t leave out all those pianos, fortes, crescendos, diminuendos, and so on. Expressive playing earns high scores!

8. ADD ARTICULATIONS – Watch carefully for staccatos, accents, tenuto marks, slurs, and ties. Make sure you play each of these articulations differently and correctly. Again, ask your teacher for help if you don’t understand how to perform an articulation.

9. DON’T SKIP THE RESTS – One of the most common things that students do in an audition is to not count their rests out fully. Always count out all rests unless the person auditioning you says that you don’t have to. If you have 2 bars of rest between notes, then wait for 2 bars! Remember that the person auditioning you is counting along with you!

10. COUNT YOURSELF OFF BEFORE YOU START – Just as your teacher would count you off or start you in class, make sure that you do the same when you are playing by yourself. Think about the tempo before you start, then count yourself off in your head. “One, two, ready, go!”, and off you go.

11. CALM YOUR NERVES – Try taking a deep breath, stretching, or meditating. Being extremely nervous can cause mistakes!