BFlinch83

Hi Mr. Hooten:

I was just wondering if you could elaborate on the type of preparation that you used for the Houston and Atlanta auditions. Obviously you've figured something out that not many others have.

I've read many informative articles that Chris Martin has published on this process, but I was just curious as to yours.

Thanks!

thomashooten

Audition prep ideas


First of all this was a long process that began years ago. One of the first things that comes to mind
when thinking about my overall progress is always being honest about where I am with my abilities.
What you can do when practicing is what you'll be able to do in the audtion. It will never be any better than
your practicing. In terms of practicing, I kept it specific in terms of what I was going to need for each piece.
for example: Sheherezade was going to require different types of multiple tonguing. So that was done everyday!
Piccolo, Low B Flat playing, E flat for Haydn, Rotary (soft and loud) ..... all of these thing were incoporated into my practice session.
There were others as well. Sight Reading, transposition,.... and in some cases I would mix up what horns I would play on and
try to do two things at once to save chop time..... ex would be Sight Reading and Transposition,,,, or Rotary playing and multiple tonguing,
etc.....

Another big factor in learning how to polish these excerpts was singing..... yes singing.... and no I don't have a good voice.
Really talking to time to record myself singing, again to save chop time. The reason to save chop time was because I thought it would be
important to get my chops in shape to play any of the excerpts. This didn't mean running them over and over although SOMETIMES I did that.
More importantly to hone my skills and coordination in playing to have all the skills ready to play any excerpt.

So I would do my routine of practicing all the skills needed to play the excerpts and then sing them so I knew what
I needed to do musically then practice them on the trumpet. Don't get me wrong this is not how I did this everyday.
This was more like the underlying concept behind my preparation. The routine was everyday but I did try to keep the approach within the formula
loose so that I didn't get in a rut. This also involved listening to recordings and playing for friends and colleges

The way i kept track of this was with an excel sheet. Two sheets, The first was one that had all of the excerpts on the left side. Across the top were
the days of the month. I just wanted to see if I was not playing any particular one that much.
The second sheet was what really helped me get in great shape.
On the left side were all the skills needed to perform the excerpts. (B Flat, E flat, Rotary, Piccolo, Soft, Loud, Single Tong, Double Tong, Triple
Tong, Sight reading, Transposition, Endurance, Singing, intervals, Slurs,....etc.. These all or most of these were done everyday for probably no more than 5-10 minutes each. Again across the top were the dates.
I thought of it as a game while practicing. Seeing how many different ways can I get these things done while trying to avoid stale playing.
I really noticed that the things I weren't particularly good at I tended to not do as much (referring back to the excel sheet).... Shocking!!!!

One other part of my preparation was mental. I was constantly building positive associations to everything about the audition
I could think of. Walking on stage and feeling strong and confident.(thats a whole other article) Holding my trumpet before playing Mahler 5
and feeling REALLY confident. Thinking of the audition and taking full deep breaths, smiling and remembering that I'm lucky to play music for a living and that
no matter what happens at this audition I've learned a lot in the process.

This was just off the top of my head and if you have more questions Please ask!!!!!!!

robertwhite

Beautiful, Tom! Thanks so much for taking the time to share those thoughts.

My favorite point you made was the noticing that the skills in need of the most work are usually the ones avoided in the practice room.

How many of us have the honesty to really acknowledge that, say, our upper register multiple tonguing is in poor shape and then really do something about it? Not just one session, but a long term plan of turning weakness into strength.

Anyway, great post. Thanks!

MJ

Damn Nice post Tom

Mzony

Hey Tom,
So can you tell us more about your mental aproach to the big day?

Mike

__________________
Zony

BFlinch83

Ok, this is great! I know sooooo many professional musicians that are just not happy, and each time I sit on stage with a really good orchestra, I can't figure it out. We are SO lucky to play great music for a career!

Well said, Tom! Thanks for posting a reply!

P.S. Your talk of confidence reminded me of a story one of my old teachers told about winning his first professional job. He was so confident that he packed his tails the day of the audition. When he won, they asked when he could start and he replied he could start tonight. Haha!

MrClean

Great stuff, Tom.

All you youngsters (and some of us oldsters) need to listen *very* carefully to some excellent advice from a guy who is red hot right now.

Jim

TopGun

Thanks for the comments.

robertwhite

Tom, I'd love to hear more about your mental preparation. Care to detail any of your confidence-developing ideas?

bnbtrpt

Its great to have such a insightful post. On your first day too? Great to have you here.