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"Auditions: Successfully Preparing Yourself for the 'Hot Seat'"

by Christine Erlander Beard
Professor of Flute, University of Nebraska-Omaha

The following article has been published by the Southwestern Musician combined with the Texas Music Educator, August 2001; and by Flutewise, Autumn 2001.

I have been a part of junior/senior high region and all-state auditions from almost every aspect. When I was younger, I took many such auditions in Arkansas and enjoyed the incomparable experience of working with many great conductors and talented student players as a member of the all-region and all-state bands, the Arkansas Youth Orchestra, and the Arkansas Governor's School Orchestra. As a college student, I audition every year for placement in the university's top ensembles; and throughout my career I have taken and won several auditions for professional ensembles and festival orchestras throughout the world. As a private instructor, I work with many flute/piccolo students to help them prepare for similar auditions. And finally, I'm often called upon to act as an adjudicator at these events. Below are my suggestions for audition preparation, compiled from my personal experiences taking countless auditions, successfully placing students in these groups, and as a judge. Most suggestions will apply to any audition, no matter what the instrument.

Learn your scales. Although scales are not always a requirement for auditions, it is frustrating to run across talented students who can't play their scales or even associate them with their proper key signatures. Scales are the basic building blocks for mastering technique on ANY instrument and will help advance your playing and sight reading skills in immeasurable ways. Learn them all: major AND minor at least two octaves; chromatic scales for the full range of the instrument; scales in thirds; and arpeggios (major, minor and seventh-chords). Learn them at a variety of tempos and in multiple rhythms, slurred, detached, and legato tongued and ALWAYS with a metronome to ensure perfect rhythm and evenness - just do it and don't put it off.

Practice CORRECTLY every day. This may seem like an obvious statement, but there are many steps involved in daily practice:

Warm-ups are an essential part of the dedicated musician's daily regiment and unfortunately, is the step most often ignored by younger players. I have also found that many students have the misconception that the point of warm-ups is simply to get the instrument's temperature warm after sitting in a cold room. In actuality, it's your embouchure that needs to be warmed up and stretched out. When playing your instrument, you're exercising your embouchure muscles and as in any exercise routine, you shouldn't shock your muscles by immediately jumping into calisthenics without a proper warm-up. Choose something slow that first focuses exclusively on the low register; I've found that when unable to run through a complete warm-up, focusing on the low register for 5-10 minutes will help center the tone and keep my embouchure relaxed. After low register exercises, you can then move to middle and high register warm-ups. No matter what your instrument, NEVER start your practice sessions by playing through high register passages or technically challenging exercises: your embouchure muscles will stay tense and pinched, making it difficult or impossible to center your tone.

Don't put on a concert for yourself in the practice room. It's tempting for all of us as players to run through pieces we can already play or even ones we are currently working on; however, this doesn't accomplish the task of improving the skills we need to be learning. When practicing, it's important to not always start at the top every time; the result is usually that the beginning is always very strong but the middle and end of the piece suffer. Isolate problem spots to the bare minimum: identify what exactly is hanging you up in a difficult section and practice just that one element. More often than not, it can be whittled down to just a few notes and you won't waste your time practicing the entire section, most of which you can already play.

Always practice standing up. Unless you play an instrument which requires you to sit, you should stand to practice in order to achieve the best posture and breath support possible. I also find that my students' concentration level (as well as my own) is higher than when sitting down. For auditions, one should avoid sitting; even if there is a chair in the room, take a moment to move it out of the way and raise the stand to a comfortable level before you begin. Standing will assist in maximizing your ability to take in as much air as possible with each breath.

Practice breathing. Map out your breathing spots and practice taking them in the same places every time; take care to make certain that your choices make musical sense. Doing this will help you to avoid playing the "catch-up game" of constantly gasping for breaths or worse, having to stop or leave notes out simply to breathe.

Allot yourself enough time in each session to effectively practice. Create a daily practice routine. I require my advanced students to practice 2-3 hours a day (in addition to time spent in rehearsals), but that doesn't mean it all has to be done at once! You should set aside at least 20-30 minutes of uninterrupted practice time per session; anything less simply won't give you the opportunity to accomplish anything constructive.

Invest in a metronome and a tuner. No serious musician can succeed without these invaluable tools, period. I could go on and on about all of the benefits of using these devices as part of your daily practice, but instead I will only say this: if your rhythm isn't perfect and your intonation impeccable, your chances of being ranked high in an audition are slim.

Practice sight reading every day. Many auditions include a sight reading segment, but even if your upcoming audition does not, learning to sight read well will improve your ability to read ahead while playing and will also help you to identify potential problem spots more quickly when learning new pieces. As a future professional player, your sight reading skills may determine whether you get a gig and also, if you are called back. Open etude books to a new exercise and just read one down without stopping. Ask your director to give you additional music for your instrument and sight read it without stopping. Ask your private instructor or a friend to sight read duets with you and play through them without stopping. Before you begin, take a few moments to look over the piece: make note of the clef, key signature, rhythmic patterns, accidentals and dynamics. When sight reading, it is my opinion you should concentrate on each of these elements in the following order:

Correct rhythm

Correct tempo

Correct notes

Correct style and dynamics

The most important element in sight reading is to play the correct rhythm; everything else - including notes - is secondary to this. Of course, this is not to say that you can miss as many notes as you like! But playing the right rhythms helps to give the impression that you have a general "feel" for the piece. Sight reading is a learned skill which CAN be developed and mastered, but it must be practiced every day.

Play in front of people. No matter how much you practice, if you don't give yourself the experience of playing in front of others, you won't know how you are going to react when you walk into the audition room. Set up "mock auditions" with your teachers, family and friends to find out how your body and nerves will react to the pressure of an audition situation. This will also give you the opportunity to perform the required materials in such a way that you may not have been doing while practicing on your own.

Make certain your instrument is properly maintained. As a judge, it's disheartening to hear students play what would have otherwise been a solid audition but was inhibited by a malfunctioning instrument. As a player, it is devastating! Send your instrument to be checked out for repairs a few weeks before the audition, especially if it's been a while since it's been serviced. Make sure you have it back in time to practice on it to get reacquainted with any adjustments that may have been made to the touch or feel of the instrument.

Dress appropriately. Most auditions place the judges behind a curtain where they won't be able to see you. However, unless you are certain this is the procedure, don't take that chance. I once witnessed a student get disqualified due to their casual appearance at an audition. Although this case was extreme, dressing nicely does indicate that you take the event seriously and professionally, as well as showing respect to the judges.

Use your warm-up time wisely. In most audition situations, the player is allotted a few moments to blow some air through the instrument and "warm up" before playing. This may not seem like an important matter, but in reality, what you choose to do with these few seconds sets the tone for the rest of your audition. When sitting on the opposite side of the curtain as a judge, it is during the warm-up that I immediately form an opinion on that student's practice habits, their dedication (or lack thereof), and their quality of sound - simply from what they choose to play and how they play it. Use that time wisely! Unless there is a defined warm-up procedure for the competition, I instruct my flute students to play through a single scale, lower octave only, slowly and all slurred. In this, one accomplishes many tasks: centering the tone, concentrating on line and phrasing, controlling the air and vibrato, and it allows you time to gather your thoughts and relax instead of adding to your nerves by attempting to play something "flashy." Regardless of your instrument, remember that your sound is you! It won't matter how fast you can play or how solid your technique is; if you fail to maintain a beautiful sound throughout every register, it will be difficult for the judges to get past that to hear anything else.

Perform the selections the way you practiced them. Don't be influenced by what you hear others doing on the day of your audition; trust that your teacher(s) have not misguided you and most of all, trust yourself! Have a metronome handy to reinforce your tempos in your head. Check the rules concerning the use of metronomes in the audition room; many events will allow it if they are in silent mode. If not, do a final tempo check before you go into the audition room. Nerves can do funny things to your perception of speed and more often than not, you will end up trying to play the excerpts faster than you can technically handle them and this will inevitably spell disaster.

Play musically. It is not enough to play only the correct notes and rhythms; playing musically is your opportunity to show the judges that you stand out. In most cases it is the element that sets the top performers apart from all others auditioning. If scales are required, play them as musically as you would a passage from a concerto. Exaggerate dynamics to the extremes and make sure you are convincing in executing all style and articulation markings.

Remember that the judges are on your side. The truth is that the judges are hoping for every student to play their best. It also makes our job more enjoyable as it is much nicer to sit behind the curtain for hours at a time listening to the same excerpts again and again if each performance is a solid one. Upon hearing a terrific performance during an audition, I can't help but to smile and think to myself, "Thank you!"

Enjoy yourself! If you practiced diligently and played the best you could, then that's all you can ask of yourself. Never look at auditions as a competition against other players; instead, consider each audition as a performance opportunity to show off your talent and hard work. Realize that even professional musicians make mistakes and that a few wrong notes do not constitute a poor performance. You will not win every audition you take, but you must learn from every experience in order to do better the next time. Above all, have fun. Good luck!

Christine Erlander Beard joined the faculty at the University of Nebraska at Omaha in 2002 where she teaches applied flute, freshman music theory, music appreciation, chamber music, and serves as Coordinator of Woodwind Studies. From August to December 2003, Dr. Beard also taught graduate flute studies as Visiting Instructor of Flute at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln.

Christine has performed across the United States and abroad as a chamber artist and soloist, including the National Flute Association Convention in Washington, D.C.; the National Association of Composers, USA conference in Los Angeles; the Austrain-American Mozart Academy Festival Orchestra in Salzburg, Austria; the Texas Chamber Consort; the Chamber Soloists of Austin; and as an orchestral player as a member of the Northeast Arkansas, Pine Bluff, Temple, and Abilene Symphonies.

In addition to her active performance schedule, Dr. Beard is an Artist/Clinician for Gemeinhardt-Roy Seaman Piccolos. She was a piccolo clinician at both the 2001 and 2002 Texas Music Educators Association Conventions in San Antonio, TX and at the 2003 Nebraska Music Educators Conference. Her articles have been published in the Southwestern Musician and in Flutewise, and her arrangement of Eugene Damare's "The Wren Polka" for piccolo and band (published by Go Fish Music) has enjoyed performance across the United States and Europe. She enjoys collaborating with composers which has resulted in two new commissions: a flute duo entitled "Fermat's Last Theorum" by Dr. Paul Bissell; and a work for flute, soprano, and guitar entitled "Summer Songs" by Dr. Neil Flory.

Dr. Beard is founder and director of the Heartland Community Flute Choir, an amateur flute ensemble made up of over 40+ high school, college, and adult members which performs 4-6 concerts per year in and around Omaha. She also serves as Vice President on the Board of Directors for the Nebraska Flute Club, founded in 2003, which works to promote flute activities throughout the state of Nebraska.

Christine received her Bachelor of Music degree from Arkansas State University in 1995 where she graduated with departmental honors. She received her Master of Music degree from The University of Texas at Austin in 1998 and was awarded the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in 2003, also from UT/Austin. Her dissertation is entitled "Excerpts for Flute from the Wind Band Literature: An Annotated Guide to Practice, Performance and Audition Preparation Presented as a Progressive Supplementary Teaching Method". Her principal teachers include Karl F. Kraber and Joe Bonner. Dr. Beard plays on a Roy Seaman Ltd. piccolo, courtesy of Gemeinhardt.

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