I was inspired to write this post because of the feedback and interest in my articles Orchestras are Ancient, Crumbly Ruins and Why Do We Grant So Many Trumpet Degrees? and because of a fascinating article I read from the Boston Magazine called, “The Audition,” from July 2012. The article provides a very accurate portrayal of the intense competition of the orchestral audition, in this case of a percussion audition for the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

The mental stress that the author, Jennie Dorris, depicts is spot on and equally descriptive of trumpeters trying to win an orchestra job. I actually know one of the percussionists she writes about in the article–he was a colleague of mine in the U. S. Navy Band, so this article really impacted me personally. If you have about 15 minutes, I really recommend reading this article. Do it.

Now that my rants (about the disproportion of trumpet-degreed players to jobs and the sorry state many orchestras find themselves in) have somewhat subsided, I want to look more closely at this process that classical trumpeters so often endure.

The key piece of advice is to be a great trumpeter. You have to put on your Rocky Balboa. You will have to perspire, weep, and bleed your way into an orchestra. And this is good. It is a huge opportunity to grow as human beings and as musicians.

Your audition preparation has to rest on a foundation of years of preparation of the top 50 or so audition pieces (list at the bottom of this post). But especial attention should be on the top 10 excerpts, with even deeper foundation built up for the top 5 excerpts. You should work on the top five excerpts every day, religiously. The other excerpts should be given proportionately less attention the further down the list. Again, this is the FOUNDATION before the specific preparation for an audition.

When you prepare for a specific audition, keep in mind that this is like the Olympics for trumpeters. That being said, each trumpeter will have her own method of preparation. Here are my helpful tips:

1. Set aside a LOT of time to prepare. Months and months if possible.
2. Develop a listening list of the pieces as a whole, so that you can digest the aesthetic of each composition.
3. Try to edit each recording (with a program like Garageband) so that you have only the specific excerpt(s). Also consider listening to these excerpts with an audio program that can slow time down or speed things up a bit without changing pitch (or that CAN change pitch if you need that).
4. Practice with “reality checks.” By this I mean metronomes, tuners and recording devices. Get used to observing your playing objectively so that you can improve.
5. Keep a practice journal and practice with specific goals in mind. Record in this your time spent on practicing excerpts, your appraisal of your own playing, your “gut feeling” after performing an excerpt.
6. Develop a pattern of physical movements that help you begin each pieces as successfully as possible. Habituate this pattern.
7. Use quality control (set arbitrary goals of–for instance–5 times in a row without a mistake) at various levels of granularity. At the beginning, you will often be working on short passages for lots of “perfect” repetitions. At the end, you will be working on large chunks of music with fewer repetitions.
8. Play for friends and family at first. Then gradually widen your audience to more distant and more critical ears.
9. Work with a coach/teacher.
10. Don’t forget your basic skills on the trumpet. Remember that the audition excerpts were chosen to reveal your basic skill level.
11. Be as fit as possible and as rested as possible during the preparatory phase.
12. As you get very close to the audition, begin to forget about the details. Enjoy the music. Listen to other music. Rest more and more (but not too much, of course). Begin to cultivate mental practice (where you mentally rehearse the music–virtually hearing each note and passage as realistically as possible). Do all things that make you upbeat, happy, yet focused.

 

The 50 Most-Frequently Requested Orchestral Excerpts for Trumpet in Auditions:

	Composer	Work
1.	Stravinsky	Petrouchka
2.	Mahler	Symphony No. 5
3.	Respighi	Pines Of Rome
4.	Moussorgsky/Ravel	Pictures At An Exhibition
5.	Beethoven	Leonore Overture No. 3
6.	Ravel	Piano Concerto In G
7.	Strauss, R.	Ein Heldenleben
8.	Mahler	Symphony No. 3
9.	Strauss, R.	Don Juan
10.	Brahms	Academic Festival Overture
11.	Bartok	Concerto For Orchestra
12.	Bach	Magnificat
13.	Rimsky-Korsakov	Scheherazade
14.	Shostakovich	Symphony No. 1
15.	Wagner	Parsifal Prelude
16.	Gershwin	An American In Paris
17.	Debussy	Nocturnes–Fetes
18.	Brahms	Symphony No. 2
19.	Mahler	Symphony No. 2
20.	Bach	Brandenburg Concerto No. 2
21.	Schumann	Symphony No. 2
22.	Strauss, R.	Symphony Domestica
23.	Strauss, R.	Also Sprach Zarathustra
24.	Debussy	La Mer
25.	Stravinsky	Firebird
26.	Gershwin	Piano Concerto In F
27.	Mahler	Symphony No. 1
28.	Handel	Messiah
29.	Bach	Mass In b minor
30.	Bizet	Carmen Prelude
31.	Wagner	Meistersinger Overture
32.	Wagner	Tannhauser Overture
33.	Beethoven	Leonore Overture No. 2
34.	Rimsky-Korsakov	Capriccio Espagnole
35.	Tchaikovsky	Capriccio Italien
36.	Bach	Orchestral Suite No. 3
37.	Stravinsky	Pulchinella
38.	Prokofiev	Symphony No. 5
39.	Ravel	Bolero
40.	Wagner	Siegfried’s Funeral Music
41.	Bach	Christmas Oratorio
42.	Tchaikovsky	Symphony No. 4
43.	Strauss, R.	Don Quixote
44.	Prokofiev	Lt. Kije
45.	Ravel	Alborado Del Gracioso
46.	Rimsky-Korsakov	Le Coq d’Or
47.	Shostakovich	Piano Concerto No. 1
48.	Sibelius	Symphony No. 2
49.	Stravinsky	Rite Of Spring
50.	Ravel	Rhapsody Espagnole

No tags for this post.