Whether it’s for an orchestra, military band, or graduate school, these tips will help you perform better on auditions.  

1. Commit to win.

I’ve seen too many students approach auditions with a defeatist attitude.  Beware of phrases like “it will be a good experience”, or “I just want to advance.” These thoughts protect us from getting our hopes up.  Get your hopes up! Way up!  Disappointment is never as bad as we expect.  

Deep down we all want to win.  We also know that chances of winning are slim no matter how good we are.  

You can greatly increase your odds of winning through your attitude. Be willing to do whatever it takes to win (within the law).

2.   Be honest with your achievement 

Many of us are afflicted with “low self esteem with delusions of grandeur.”  One minute we are on top of the world the next we feel lower than whale poop.  I think this is typical and normal.  It’s just not very helpful.  

We are all trying our best. “But Bill, what if my best isn’t good enough?”  That’s an irrelevant question.  Here’s a better question.

Where is your playing compared to where it needs to be to win? Close the gap by adopting a detached perspective.  Don’t beat yourself up over mistakes. Spock it out (ask a treky). Quietly congratulate yourself when things go right.   

3.  Schedule your practice

The detail you put into your schedule depends a lot on your personality.  I plan in my head a day in advance.  I then tweak my goals throughout the day.  The next days’ practice is guided by the current day. 

Include the when, the what, and the how much.  Don’t forget to rest the chops between practice sessions.  You can knock out a lot of hours with regular chop breaks. 

4.  Identify difficulties immediately

From the first reading identify the difficulties and bracket them off.  What makes a particular passage difficult?  Which fundamentals will make the difficulties less difficult? 

Create simple exercises that address challenges and schedule them into 

your practice. Put these into your first practice session after you’ve warmed up.

5.  Don’t forsake your fundamentals

It’s tempting to dive into the audition material as soon as you are warmed up. That’s okay provided you don’t neglect the basics.  Practicing fundamentals such as tone, efficiency, dexterity, flexibility, and articulation help you to continue to improve.  Improving makes the excerpts easier.

As you practice your fundamentals keep the audition pieces in mind.Try playing Clarke Technical Studies with a Leonore 3 articulation.  Then play them with a Brahms Academic Festival articulation.  The possibilities are endless.

In this way we practice our excerpts and our fundamentals simultaneously.  The result is that the excerpts get easier.

6.  Listen to recordings

Listen often.  Internalize the excerpts in context.  Imitate the performances you love.  I don’t think a committee will penalize you for sounding like Bud Herseth.

It helps to have a clean copy of the music so that you can pencil in your favorite players musical decisions so that you can make them your own.

7.  Record, record, record

Recording yourself helps you make peace with where you are as a player.  It also shows what you need to improve.  Fix problem areas with detached kindness. Rejoice in the victories no matter how small.

8.  Play for others (a lot)

About two to four weeks before the audition ask your musician friends to listen to your list.  Don’t wait until a week before.  By then it’s too late to make any changes.  Play even if your “not ready”.   

It also helps with nerves.  Do this a lot and by the time you get to the real thing it will seem like just another run through.

9.  Mock auditions

Play 2-4 mock auditions daily.  Number your excerpts and some slips of paper.  Put the slips of paper into a box or hat and pull them at random to create an audition list.  Do only 5 or 6 excerpts for each mock audition.  After the mock audition, address any things that you could have done better.  You can record these as well.  Things may be more apparent in the recording.  

10.  Play the audition

You’re ready! Play like you do in the practice room.  Don’t play perfectly.  Play musically.  Play with joy and love of music.  Those are your secret weapons.  If you love what you do it comes across to the committee.  Good luck and enjoy!

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 How Trumpet Repertoire Guides Practice

Fundamentals

As I structure my practice the bulk of time is on fundamentals.  That is: long tones, soft playing, lip flexibilities, chromatics, Clarke Studies, scales, arpeggios, lip bends, pedal tones, breath attacks, flow studies, etc…

I may not hit all of these everyday, but I always play long tones, chromatics, breath attacks, and lip slurs in my warm-up.  After that I start to think about upcoming performance challenges.

Using books to practice licks

If a piece like Scheherazade is coming up I’l spend a lot of time in the Arban book on single and multiple tonguing. If I will be using small horns, I will include them in my fundamentals practice.  For high sustained passages I will use the Schuebruk book and upper register Clarke studies. 

It’s also helpful to practice your fundamentals in various styles.  Try practicing Clarke study no. 3 in a fanfare style and also in a sweet lyrical style.  I played Copland’s quiet City recently.  I used the efficiency arpeggios in the John Daniel Special Studies for Trumpet book to help achieve a more dolce style.

!!:  Play the lick?  :!!

I don’t enjoy practicing licks from repertoire.  I’d rather practice studies that address rep. challenges.  If a lick is giving me trouble, I try to figure out where and why it isn’t working.  Sometimes just repeating it a few (dozen) times will fix it.  Often the problem stems from something else.  When I figure that out odds are better that it gets fixed.

Practicing the fast double tongue passages from Scherazade takes extra attention toward my air stream.  If the air isn’t good then the tongue gets tired and bogs down.  Rather than addressing this by playing the lick over and over again, I go to the Arban book.  It’s just more fun than drilling the excerpt.  

Progress on fundamentals

It’s tempting to warm-up and start practicing excerpts or solos right away without practicing fundamentals.  It seems like a time saver.  I don’t think so.  Progressing on fundamentals will eventually save time on repertoire preparation.  Licks become easier freeing you up to play musically and have fun.

I hope this has been helpful.  Take care and thanks for reading,