The Audition Process (My Perspective) - Very Long

Derek Reaban · Posted: Thu Aug 28, 2003 11:26 am Post subject:

Aaron,

I'm certainly glad that you enjoyed the post. Best of luck with your placement audition in early September. I hope you have a chance to read Effortless Mastery between now and your audition. It will give you some very freeing ideas prior to your audition, and a wonderful path for tapping into a new way to approach making music during your time in school.

Take care.

_________________
Derek Reaban
Tempe, Arizona

[ This Message was edited by: Derek Reaban on 2003-08-28 14:27 ]

jhatpro · Posted: Sat Apr 23, 2011 5:25 am Post subject:

Even though it's been eight years this still ranks as one of the best posts I've read on TH. Informative, vivid, compelling. Thanks, Derek!
_________________
Jim Hatfield

"The notes are there - find them.â€ Mingus

2021 Martinus Geelan Custom
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etc-etc · Heavyweight Member Joined: 19 Jan 2008 Posts: 6177

Jim,

Thanks for bringing this post back to attention!

Derek Reaban · Posted: Mon Apr 25, 2011 10:52 am Post subject:

Jim,

Wow! An oldie but a goodie. It seems like yesterday that went through that experience. I'm certainly glad I wrote about it in detail because it brought back fond memories. Thanks for bumping it up.
_________________
Derek Reaban
Tempe, Arizona
Tempe Winds / Symphony of the Southwest

Mike W · Posted: Mon Apr 25, 2011 12:29 pm Post subject:

Hey Derek,
I love reading this kind of stuff-- all that goes on 'behind the scenes that make the machine move'. I would love to pick your brain, so to speak, about auditioning for orchestras.

Mike

OrchestraTrump · Posted: Fri Apr 29, 2011 3:50 pm Post subject:

wow

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rubberduckie · Posted: Sat Apr 30, 2011 2:16 pm Post subject:

Thanks Derek! I love reading your posts.

I once auditioned, while at Northwestern, for second trumpet of a west coast orchestra (not mentioning which!) and I completely folded on the first excerpt. Discouraged, I played the rest of the audition knowing that I probably wouldn't advance. I was right. 4 excerpts and out. However, I had kept my mini disc recorder in my trumpet case.

At the time, I had thought it was just that one excerpt that eliminated me. I brought the tape to my lesson with Charlie Geyer. What we found upon listening was that there were many other things to be learned at that audition. My time was generally bad, and my sound wasn't as lush as I imagined originally. I was so discouraged initially, but hearing myself made me realize how much I could improve upon, and also helped me learn how my trumpet playing changes under pressure.

Lesson learned. Tape your auditions.

RD

Derek Reaban · Posted: Mon May 02, 2011 9:43 am Post subject:

Matt,

It’s the learning based on experience that allows us to make those incremental gains and push the bar a little higher. I know how high you have set the bar, but it’s really cool to hear that we both took our recordings home to our instructors to figure out how to make things a little better the next time! I still think of all the hours of work that I put into that audition experience, and then was amazed how much more I was able to learn after the actual event. Lessons learned!

On another note, when I met you in Vail with my Son last summer he was just beginning his journey as a trumpet player. Based on almost daily practice with me for the rest of the summer, he managed to get into the 8th grade jazz band as a 6th grader (as 1st trumpet)! His incentive for all of this practice was the chance to get to take the school trip to Disneyland to participate in the Heritage Music Festival. Well, he just got back from the trip and is totally pumped up and can’t wait until next year. The clinician for his band was a trumpet player that completely inspired him to reach for the next level (I’m hoping hear who he worked with from his band director). He told me that his goal for this summer is to get much better at sight reading (I’m good with that!).

I’m excited about these really positive experiences to get the ignition source lit and fuel his motivation for continued improvement.

Hope all is well.

Mike,

Send me a message some time and I could certainly share any audition experiences you’d like to hear about.
_________________
Derek Reaban
Tempe, Arizona
Tempe Winds / Symphony of the Southwest

6pk · Posted: Mon May 02, 2011 2:26 pm Post subject:

wow, this is fascinating looking back at this post! Still very helpful and inspiring though Derek, thanks again. I am quite embarrassed by how "gun ho" my post it is, how unbritish of me!