The Ways I Prepare For Auditions

The Week Before Auditions and Competitions

Here is an insight to how I prepare myself!

I have a checklist I use for the week before.

To start I try to run the piece everyday without warming up. I want to see how accurately I can play without mistakes.

I challenge myself throughout the week to play for friends, teachers, and colleagues. Playing for other people causes even the tiniest bit of nerves to build up which can prepare you for the big day.

At the end of the day I record myself and take notes on what to improve on for the next day.

Lastly, I clean the piece. I do rhythms, try sections memorized, and do lost of tedious slow work.

The night before.

Something I heard when I was preparing for my first set of college auditions is that you will not learn an entire piece in one evening so don’t overplay the day before. If you do not know it then you don’t. Overplaying can only cause you to over stress on the little things and the night before should be restful.

I run through the piece entirely, do some rhythms on the passages I have found the hardest during my time learning it, and then I put the piece away.

The day of.

Do not over do it. Be ready to show your audience or judges why you are unique. I like to warm up, tune, play a full run through, then tune again. Enjoy this day! You worked very hard to get here.