Re: auditions


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Posted by Rick Denney on January 14, 2003 at 16:11:22:

In Reply to: auditions posted by Tim on January 13, 2003 at 17:33:52:

Visualize success. Create a mental image of you confidently walking into the audition room, sitting down, bringing the tuba to your lips, listening to the music play in your mind for a few seconds, playing the music as well as you know you can play it (but no better--this is visualization, not fantasy), rising from the chair knowing you played it at your best, and confidently leaving the stage.

Practice this visualization in your mind. Work through every detail of how it will go. Decide how you will feel at given points in the music, and then practice feeling those things in your practice. Yes, you can decide what you will feel.

Distinguish between practicing technique and practicing music. If you have trouble spots, work on the fundamentals. Problems with fingerings? Work on relevant scales. Problems with intervals? Work on relevant interval exercises. Do not practice mistakes. I'm especially guilty of this.

Physically practice what you have visualized. Walk into a room, sit down, bring the horn to your lips, hear the music in your mind, play the music as you hear it (all the way through, mistakes and all--no stopping), and so on, just as you visualized it. Hearing the music in your mind is your key to transition from thinking to doing--and it will help control the tendency to start out too fast.

In my car-racing days, I had very little opportunity to practice on a race track, so I had to visualize everything. I realized that everything is a decision! I'd come out of a turn on the wrong side of the track to start the next turn. The momentum of the car would keep me in the wrong place. If I waited until then to decide what to do, I'd be into the second turn on the slow line before I knew it. But I'd visualize moving the steering wheel and driving the car to the right place to be on the fast line for the next turn, on purpose. That was my secret weapon against others who had faster reactions than I did, or more experience.

Rick "who thinks your brain needs as much practice as your lips" Denney


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