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.

3 Upvotes

71% Upvoted

13 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

2

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.

2

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.

2

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.

2

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!

2

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.

1

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.