The College Audition

My thoughts on this post will be brief because I am going to include a link to an article written by Dr. Michelle Stanley, the Flute Professor at Colorado State University (lots of links today). Here we go:

I am sure most people auditioning for college, or anything really, are most concerned about the physical preparation including but not limited to practicing.  However, it is important to recognize that the audition is equal parts physical and mental.  The mental preparation tends to be much more difficult.  As I have discussed practice methods quite a bit, let's look briefly at the mental aspect of the audition.

Playing in front of people is not easy, especially if you know they are judging or evaluating you in some way.  Are the music professors at the college checking to see if you possess the necessary skills to succeed?  Absolutely.  They are also wondering what musical knowledge you already have.  Yet, they don't expect you to be perfect.  If you were, you could skip college and just go straight to the major leagues.  Remember that they are also attempting to gauge your potential and your ability to adapt or respond to their criticism or suggestions.  So, try not to freak out too much.  You are going to college to improve on your skills and the admissions people are well aware of this; they went into education for the express purpose of helping young musicians reach their full potential.  In other words, they want you to succeed too.

My recommendation is to play your audition for as many people as possible prior to your audition.  Allow them to give you feedback and be open to listening to what they have to say.  It would also be smart to record yourself when you play for people, so that you can go back and hear what they are talking about in regards to your playing as well as listen to yourself, judge yourself, and know how you sound to you.  You will be your worst critic.

Seriously.  I remember one audition for my college tour in which I was told prior to the audition that there was no room in the flute studio for me.   I took the audition anyway for experience.  I thought it went horribly and walked out of the professor's office crying.  A month or so later, I received not only an acceptance letter from the school, but also a music scholarship that covered a substantial amount of the tuition.  You will be your worst, absolute worst, critic.

Without further ado, read Dr. Stanley's thoughts on preparing for college auditions: "Playing Your Best: College Music Auditions".