For Students: Tips on Preparing for Auditions

If you’re like me and every other musician, you get nervous when you go on stage, play an audition, or compete in a competition. Nerves are a normal part of life, and if you can learn how to handle them, you can use them to benefit your playing. The most important aspect I have learned is that auditioning is a skill in itself that you have to practice in order to improve. If you can have confidence in yourself, your preparation, and enjoy playing music in the moment, auditions will not seem like stressful events but ways to show off your playing. This article will focus on some ways of approaching auditions in a structured way.

Mental Resiliency

Learning how to quiet the inner critic in your head is challenging. Through exercise, meditation, and preparation, successful auditions can be attained from having both a sense of confidence and composure. First, let’s talk about what a successful audition looks like: it is not going to be perfect. Perfection is a standard to strive for but never attain completely. Being a perfectionist can come with too much anxiety and sacrifice to produce truly positive results long-term. Achieve excellence not perfection.

Exercise

Exercising can help lower your stress level and will regulate your sleep, which is also important to having good auditions. I think going for a walk once a day, running, or swimming, and even some weight training and core workouts could benefit your overall health and ability to perform under pressure.

Meditation

I try to meditate once a day, and if you are not familiar with meditation, try looking at some common mediation apps. I use Calm, and there are numerous resources for guided meditations, music for study and sleep, and even sleep stories to help you fall asleep. Meditating is allowing what is, and to let your thoughts come and go without attaching to them. This allows you to quiet your worries as well as not be distracted by external noises that can distract you in auditions.

Preparation

Perhaps the most important aspect of taking an audition is the preparation. Putting the time in to learn the notes, practice technique, and do run-throughs of the material can allow you to perform well under pressure. Things like scales, rudiments, tuning, and sight-reading are skills professional musicians work on every day.

Recorded vs. Live Auditions

Recorded Auditions

In some ways, being able to get the perfect take seems more promising than getting one chance to do it live. But in reality, you will never get that absolute perfect take. You might come very close, but you can drive yourself crazy trying to get it. The best strategy you can have is to give yourself multiple sessions over multiple days to get the best take possible. 

Live Auditions

One of my teachers used to tell me the beautiful and also scary thing about music is you get one shot. The key to remember about taking auditions is to have a positive outlook. You’ve spent all this time preparing the list, and look at it as an opportunity to present all the hard work you’ve done. 

Achieving Balance

Taking Breaks

Another important factor of preparing for auditions is to give yourself breaks. If you over-practice, you might burn out and have less motivation to keep working. Physically, you could develop tension. Take the time to watch a movie once in a while, spend time with family and friends, or read a book.

Acceptance

At the end of the day, there’s only so much you can control. You can’t control which order you play in, what the judges are thinking, the equipment you have to play on, or the acoustics of the room. All you can control is how you’ve prepared and perform that day. Focus on the process not on the results, and this mindset will allow you to take the pressure off of yourself and enjoy playing your instrument.

Taking Auditions

If you can convey a sense of confidence, musicianship, and poise behind the screen while also showing solid fundamentals, you will stand out. Part of the way to achieve this confidence is not only through your preparation but also your ability to perform under pressure. Mock auditions, self-recording, and research of sports psychology techniques can help you to handle your nerves. 

Mock Auditions

Run through your auditions for your band director and other students to practice what you will experience on audition day. Practice sight-reading and receive comments about your playing.

Self-Recording

Try recording mock auditions and practice sessions, so that you can listen back to how you sound. Aspects to listen for are solid time, accuracy of pitches and intonation, dynamics, and phrasing.

Mental Practice

One tip I learned was on the use of mental practicing and how it can enhance live performance. There are studies on athletes doing an activity and then imaging the activity, and both gained benefits. Use this technique to imagine yourself having successful auditions. Writers to research are Don Greene, Dr. Bob Rotella, and Barry Green.

Behind the Screen

Use the power of your breath as a focus when you’re nervous. Taking a few deep breaths can calm any nerves, and it sounds simple but can be hard to remember when the fight of flight response kicks in. I write adjectives on each excerpt or piece to get myself into a way of thinking that is musical and not technical. If you can keep your focus even when you make mistakes, you will be able to achieve success in auditions.

Departure Points

I once had a great teacher that would use musical and technical examples as departure points: a basic ground from which to expand upon over time. I hope these ideas can help to guide you in your understanding and approach to the joys of music-making as well as to the skills you can learn to discipline your mind to be able to perform under any circumstances.