| Mental and Physical Prep:
To start with physical, you have to be prepared for an incredibly intense short period of playing in one of these auditions (as with many professional auditions). We're talking about 10-20 minutes max for these auditions in most cases. The endurance required to play very well in these auditions is unbelievably different than playing a full-length solo/quintet recital (sprinter vs. marathon runner), or being in good ensemble concert shape (tennis player vs. baseball player?). You can work out your own athletic analogies if you so choose ...
Now to the often neglected mental side of things. First some book recommendations: "Psycho Cybernetics" by Maxwell Maltz, "Performance Success" by Don Greene (much better than his previous two I believe), and a host of books written by sports coaches (pick your favorites). Also, William Lucas' article from an ITG journal from 1999(?) is terrific. He really captures a lot of the mental and physical prep concepts a lot more refined than I will here (and from a broader experiece base than I have).
According to Dr. Maltz's research in the 1960's, our brain cannot distinguish, especially on the subconscious level, the difference between a real experience and a vividly imagined one. Why should your first college audition be your first college audition experience? Mentally see yourself performing your program (in both favorable and unfavorable performing orders) amazingly! Nail it 50 times in your head vividly with all of the nuance you want with the best sound you can imagine. "Look" at the faces of the people on panels you'll be playing for (pictures of faculty members are often available on the internet sites of the schools if you don't already know the teachers). Find a quiet place at a regular time a few times (3-4 times?) per week for several weeks leading up to the auditions.
For mental rehearsal, I recommend having your eyes open. There are physiological implications of having your eyes closed that are unfavorable to what we are trying to accomplish here based on a few articles I've read. Have your music open in front of you (unless you plan on performing your entire program memorized, which is fine also) and voice the parts as in a whisper while imagining the best sound in your head. If you sing as terribly as I do, hearing yourself singing the pieces is hardly a good experience! But, I can hear the pitches, nuance and a great sound in my head while voicing the rhythms aloud.
Leading up to the auditions, I stepped up my mental prep and actually didn't physically play my audition rep all that much. I tried to scale back on heavy practicing as much as my schedlued allowed and rather played in shorter spurts (5-20 minutes) at all different times throughout the day from early in the morning to very late at night sometimes. That way I was never caught off-guard when my body felt a little weird after coming off an airplane, sleeping in a motel (with who knows what distractions from next door ... motels get some interesting mid-week guests!), getting a less-than-ideal audition slot, etc. I was prepared to play well at anytime, anyplace, anywhere for that audition period with very little extended warm-up time. All I needed was a few seconds playing softly with a practice mute in or open to re-establish healthy response and I was all set to go (after an initial warm-up during my first session that day).
My point of view was, I have the musical stuff and technical stuff all worked out on my program by several weeks before the auditions. Why spend countless hours drilling it the week of an audition. Just get me there in good physical shape and I am already mentally prepared. It keeps the repertoire fresh and somewhat spontaneous also. You're more free to do things that you wish. I hope we don't get stuck in one way of doing things when we practice.
Enough rambling for this time around. I hope some of this info will prove useful to those taking auditions this winter. Let us know what worked and what didn't for you. What have other people done as far as mental prep work? Can you describe your process to us as I have above? Any disagreements with what I've written above? Let us know and tell us an alternate suggestion as to a better approach. I'm always looking for new tricks and different effective approaches!
- Mikey B |