Seating auditions assess many aspects of your playing. Points are awarded in all of the following categories:
- Note Accuracy: Are you playing the correct notes?
- Rhythmic Accuracy: Does each note and rest get the right number of beats or fraction of a beat?
- Intonation: Do you play in tune?
- Tone: Is your tone appropriate for the passage (ie.: beautiful, strong, warm, aggressive etc.)?
- Tempo: Do you play at performance tempo or below? Playing faster than performance tempo will not necessarily give you a higher score especially if it causes your playing to be sloppy, inaccurate or unmusical.
- Style: Have you listened to the particular piece of music performed by a professional group to know what style the composer wants? Style will particularly affect articulations, turns, appoggiaturas etc.
- Musicianship: Does your playing flow smoothly and make sense? Do you understand the phrasing of the passage and how it fits with the other instruments of the orchestra and with the composition as a whole?
It takes years of playing, practicing, analyzing and listening to do well in all of the above areas. To help you focus your efforts remember that your ability to play the notes and rhythms accurately and in tune is the first priority. Get as much help as you can from your private teacher. In addition, the following suggestions will help you maximize the benefit you get from the time you spend practicing and in turn will help you to improve your scores and standing in the orchestra.
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Go over difficult passages very slowly until you really understand the
Pitches
Fingering
Shifting
Bowing
Rhythm
Articulation
Dynamics - Play difficult passages on the piano if you have that skill or get someone else to do it for you until you really have the pitches in your ear.
- Listen often to recordings of the piece you are learning&emdash;not just when you begin to play it. Often as you become more acquainted with a piece you will hear new and different things that you missed when you were just beginning your preparation of it.
- Use a metronome; playing first at slow tempos and gradually working the tempo up until you are at or slightly above the performance tempo of your ensemble. (Ask the friendly conductors what they anticipate the performance tempo to be.
- Count the beats with subdivisions (1 e and a 2 e and a etc.) out loud while you clap the rhythms.
- Record yourself playing the passages you are working on and then listen to the recording analytically to see where your strengths are and what still needs work. Keep in mind that the conductors give more weight to you scores in note accuracy, rhythmic accuracy, good intonation as well as basic musicianship.
- If you ever have an audition where you come away feeling like you are the most incompetent idiot who ever played, force yourself to go to bed or focus on something else. You will get a far better, more accurate and healthier perspective of yourself in the days that follow. Remember, you wouldn’t be in this orchestra if you were as bad a player as you might be feeling immediately after an audition. Also, remember that in a seating audition you are often asked to play some of the most difficult passages. Embarrassment is not a place you should allow yourself to go. Do your best, try not to beat yourself up and move on.
- .Realize that to prepare music of this level of difficulty it is more work than you probably ever imagined. Keep reminding yourself that in the long run your efforts will greatly strengthen your musicianship and give you well deserved confidence in seating auditions.