Audition Challenge Week 2
Man, oh man. Things are getting real. The audition is next week. NEXT WEEK. After that I'm free as a bird until the next audition creeps up.
Auditions are like that, you know. Creepy. They sneak up behind you, acting all innocent, pretending to be your friend. They're all like "Heeeeeyyyyy buddy. Wanna get some ice cream? Wanna play some cool tunes? Wanna take a chance on your hopes and dreams of somebody paying you in dollars to blow into a metal tube and wiggle your fingers?" And then, when they've lulled you into a sense of false security, they strike. All of a sudden it's "Remember that time you had a panic attack on stage? That was craaaaaaaazy!" and "Remember that time Classical Symphony was asked and you cacked the final high D and almost swore out loud? Hilarious!" That's when they get inside your head, making you think all the hard work you put in is going to be for nothing once you walk on that stage. Not exactly the mindset you want going into a performance.
Auditions, in their down time, writing creepy, horror, slasher fan fiction.
Our evil overlord, Auditions, isn't going to win this time. I'm quite determined to leave the hall happy with how I played, and proud of how I prepared. And it's true, coming to the end of this process, I feel much more solid and consistent, and certain things I struggled with in previous auditions, or even just a few weeks ago, are not a concern for me anymore. That's not to say that things are perfect or that I don't have aspects of my playing that I need to continue to improve that maybe I've neglected recently. It's not possible to work on everything all the time, but I had some goals going into this audition that I wanted to accomplish, and I think I have done so.
Improve the consistency of my soft playing: check
Improve note beginnings: check
Focus on musicality and interpretation: check? Jury's still out on that one. Hard to say.
Of course, each piece has it's own challenges that need to be overcome, and those challenges change from audition to audition. But this time around... mission accomplished. Or, it will be by next week.
Hopefully.
All this week, and a bit of last week, I've been running excerpts and doing mocks, getting used to (potentially) long days, and practicing visualization. The visualization is becoming more routine before I start each piece. I notice I dance quite a bit - not sure if it's a side effect or a tool at this point, but I figure nobody but the proctor is going to see me awkwardly boogie, so I'm not terribly concerned.
Two videos, but they were filmed on the same day, I promise. Three-round mock audition, the first two done in the first video, and the final round in the second.
