Mike Truesdell and I have been steadily recording in advance of our eventual MikeDrop podcast drop. We got impatient and went live last Friday to share some ideas, tips, and best practices for college auditions. You can watch it here:

​

Mike and I offered some specific tips and things to consider before auditioning. But, our minds drifted to the big picture. It is more important, we reckoned, to think of the audition as a chance to present the best version of one’s self and to evaluable the school at hand than to think of the experience as a competition with the other auditioning musicians. A small tweak, but quite impactful!

I shared my conception of the goal of studying music: becoming a better human, a better musician, a better percussionist, in that order:

My number one tip for students preparing for auditions of any kind is to focus on long-term musical and personal growth over the audition. Think of your development this way:

Prioritize your practice to put them in this order. The audition is not the end point on your musical journey, it’s actually quite close to the beginning.

Two More Ideas

Only practicing the audition music is a recipe for disaster.

Repertoire exposure is one of the largest determinants of musical fluency. Knowledge of a larger body of repertoire helps a performer articulate what is unique about a specific work, helping a performer to plan interpretations. Conversely, awareness of what is “of a type” with other similar pieces can help a percussionist plan their practice to maximize long-term growth. There seem to be a lot of double strokes in ALL of the Pratt Contest Solos, so perhaps double strokes might be a focus of one’s practice? Finally, there is a supreme sense of confidence that comes from knowing that the audition repertoire is just a small percentage of the music you know.

👞 Shoes

Mike and I discussed the value of mock auditions, provided that they are actually ‘mocking’ what would happen at an audition: coming into a room, playing everything once, and leaving. One additional recommendation here. Wearing the shoes you’ll be wearing at the audition is significantly more impactful than any other piece of clothing. Since percussionists are often moving around when we play, shoes make a big difference. And, with today’s stylistic norms, athletic sneakers are further than ever from a traditional dress shoe. You might be a different height or weight with concert shoes, or significantly noisier afoot!

Change

I’m finding that making shorter videos is a nice mid-point between my longer-form writing and doing nothing. I don’t think I’m headed for TikTok just yet, but look out for a little more OLP video content. Please let me know if it’s helpful!

Happy practicing!

​​

​Unsubscribe / Manage Preferences​