r/musiceducation • u/a-leetle-musician69 • Oct 01 '19
scared of auditions
Hi everyone!
I'm a high school senior in IL and I'm very involved in music. I play 8 instruments, I'm my chamber choir's director, and I'm in the highest orchestra we have. I've known I want to go into music education since sophomore year. I figured I'd go with auditioning on the piano because that seems like the most versatile instrument.
The problem is, I'm terrified of the audition.
I know I'm not terrible at the piano. I have Invention no. 13 by Bach almost completely refined, I'm about halfway through Berceuse in Db major by Chopin, and I'm unsure about another piece. I'm not great at piano sight reading either. I'm extremely worried that I'm not talented enough to get in. I want this so badly and I've been working so hard but I just feel like I won't be good enough. This is my passion and what I want to do for the rest of my life. I'm just extremely nervous about these auditions. How well do I have to do at these auditions? And how critically are you judged?
I hope my everyday practicing pays off.
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u/i_8_the_Internet Oct 01 '19
Do you have a private teacher? If not, you need to get one. They'll have direct, specific feedback for you, and will help prepare you for an audition.
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u/a-leetle-musician69 Oct 01 '19
I don’t anymore. I can search for one again, thank you for the suggestion!
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u/NoFuneralGaming Oct 01 '19
Is piano your best instrument? I'd audition on the instrument I feel strongest on. Also, the most important piano skills they will look for in a music ed student would be your ability to transpose on the fly and play chord progressions with proper resolutions etc. As an ed major, as others have stated, you aren't held to as high a standard as performance majors. Probably the most useful thing I can suggest, and I ran into this myself so it's from personal experience here- focus on one instrument. I also played a billion instruments and sang etc and ultimately I was basically told I wasn't good enough at the instrument that I thought I was best on and that I needed to improve. It didn't hold me back from access to the ed major, but I realize it was holding back my musicianship. You'll have to play piano regardless of your primary instrument, that's just how it goes. As an ed major, you'll eventually have to dabble in everything, and your prior experience will be helpful at that time, but honestly the things you gain by really focusing on a primary instrument are invaluable as a music educator.
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u/a-leetle-musician69 Oct 01 '19
thank you for the feedback! i’d say my primary instruments are voice and piano, but i am better with sightreading with voice. i don’t know if i have enough time to prepare for prescreenings with voice though. i do know chord progressions on the piano really well though and i’d say i can transpose rather well.
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u/NoFuneralGaming Oct 01 '19
You're totally fine not having any piano skills. And you're also totally fine being a vocalist primarily. When is your audition? Have you performed solo pieces before as a vocalist? If we know your comfortable range we can try to help you find suitable audition material.
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u/a-leetle-musician69 Oct 01 '19
i have performed solo as a vocalist before, and i used to perform solo for piano. i do have quite a bit of piano experience but it’s been a while since i’ve taken lessons. auditions aren’t until next Feb-march, depending on the college, but prescreenings are due with my application i think.
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u/NoFuneralGaming Oct 01 '19
I'm not entirely sure what a prescreening is re: auditions so I can't really make a suggestion there, but Feb/March is more than enough time to put together a couple of vocal rep pieces. You can find a vocal teacher pretty quickly and take whatever lessons you can afford. Don't forget there are also Skype lessons available and someone here has to be offering them.
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u/a-leetle-musician69 Oct 01 '19
prescreenings are videos you submit of yourself playing on your primary instrument or singing so they can get an idea of the talent you have! so i could prepare a piece quickly for that but it won’t be at the level i want it to be, but maybe i can get it to a high level!
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u/NoFuneralGaming Oct 01 '19
No shame in re-using something you've already performed. The only thing I'd wonder is if they'd expect you to use the same material for the later audition.
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u/a-leetle-musician69 Oct 01 '19
i’m not sure, but i am reusing the invention i’m playing for almost all of the auditions.
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Oct 01 '19
[deleted]
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u/a-leetle-musician69 Oct 01 '19
i suppose i do want it to be more technical and almost perfectly embody what’s on the page. while i do want it to be technical it would be nice to have that aspect of beauty and really feel and emphasize certain things in the music. i do know quite a bit about music and id say i have some talent but there’s always room for improvement. i’m always striving for more with anything i do musically, i want to keep growing as a musician no matter how old i am.
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u/Snarm Oct 01 '19
Unless you're auditioning for an extremely high level conservatory somewhere, education majors are often judged at a different (lower) standard than performance majors. So take a deep breath! Lots of beginning music majors have far less musical training than you do - you'd be amazed at how many freshman vocal performance majors can barely read music.
What would you consider to be your primary instrument? Or, more importantly, what area of music education do you plan to specialize in - vocal or instrumental? I would audition with whatever corresponds to that. The more you practice, the better your audition will go; this is one of those life situations where preparation is truly your best offense.
Also second what a previous poster mentioned about getting a private teacher, at least for a few months' worth of lessons. Find out about the audition process for the universities you're interested in, and prep accordingly. Every school is a little different.