Posted by Sean Chisham on December 17, 2001 at 18:07:35:
In Reply to: area auditions posted by Tubaman186 on December 17, 2001 at 15:13:58:
I judged Maryland All-State last year and this year. The person who got first chair had a great sound and made musical sense. All but 4 or 5 of those people auditioning sounded as if they were not even trying to make music. They just walked into the room and make disorganized noise. Please, please do the judges a favor and not only work on getting all the notes in correct time, but also spend most of your time making some kind of musical statement. Spend the first week or two figuring out the notes, if they are challenging, then spend the rest of the time in musical discovery.
I can tell you, that the people who made the band did not necessarily play the most correct notes. They were the ones which were the most enjoyable to listen to.
Perhaps more people were trying to express music, but they were so subtle that it was almost impossible to tell. Give a real and throughly convincing pianissimo and a real forte. We heard more mezzo piano's and mezzo forte's than we ever want to hear again. If there are two excerpts/etudes/sections/whatever which are obviously different in style, then make a true difference. Make a convincing difference. Show the judges that you control the music instead of just trying to survive until the last bar.
From what I heard, it would be nearly impossible to overexaggerate musical notations, such as dynamics, articulations, legatos, crecendos/decrecendos, etc. When practicing them, take a chance and overdue them to the point that you think it sounds silly. Now record that rendition and tell me what you think of it. It probably sounds much more subtle on the tape than you may have though under that bell.
As far as adding things to *WOW* the judges. Gimmicks don't work. They usually just backfire. Maryland, for example, only requires 1 octave for the scales. The overwhelming majority of students who tried to play the scales 2 octaves, just to show off, sounded like they did not know what they were doing.
Just play what you have been assigned, but make a statement.
Here are some superlatives to express what you should aim for.
Contrast, contrast, contrast.
Musical expression.
Beautiful sound.
Control, control, mastery.
Extertain them.