Posted by Sean Chisham on March 17, 2001 at 22:39:33:
In Reply to: Auditions posted by Ryan M on March 17, 2001 at 21:57:35:
One word says it all. Hours. As in hours and hours of practice. Pile it on for a year or two or three or lifetime. Your goal must be to be better than you were yesterday. Work as if the audition is tommorrow. Tommorrow is already here. You must set your sites on becoming the best musician in the entire world. Do some soul searching. Is there anything you could possibly fathom that someone might do to improve their ability to convey ideas with sound? Someone is already doing it, and that someone will be at your next audition. There is no such thing as "enough". If you think 4 hrs/day will do it, then why not 6?
The competition is so fierce, that most people don't truly have a grasp of how much preparation the winners of these auditions put in. It really takes a herculian effort of sweat and tears, unless you love the process of practicing and building on a daily basis. "If you love your work, then you will never have to work again."
You should see real returns at least 3 or 4 times per week.
You can't whip yourself into that position unless you genuinelly hungery for musical development. If your goal is simply to get a gig, then you may never get there. This can get frustrating after a while and burn you out. If your goal is to become better everyday and strive to a level of excellence much higher than just 1 week ago, then you will. Keep yourself motivated by taking lesson with someone who will push you. Listen to as many performers as possible. Go to concerts. Go to conferences. Become obsessed and love it.
The obsession must manifest itself in sheer hours and hours of focussed musical exploration and development over a lifetime. Set lofty mid length goals and reach them, such as performing a challenging concerto which you can barely read down now at half the tempo. Book yourself for a public performance and play the $%^(AT) out of the tunes.
Find the best teacher you can possibly imagine studying with and follow him/her blindly. An excellent indicator of how good a teacher is to find one who has many students in positions you are after. If you can't trust the teacher blindly then find someone you can. Don't try to second guess your mentors leadership. Your ideas haven't gotten you a job yet, but that teacher's ideas have gotten many students gainful employment. After you get a job or outgrow the teacher, then you can start to deviate down your own paths a bit more.
Now, go have fun.
sean