High School Band Auditions

Just a board where you post how you did. Or how you think you did, which in my case, wasn't that well.

Yeaahh... Everyone came in with these fancy flute pieces as their prepared piece. Most were around 1 1/2 to 2 pages long making my 1/2 page prepared piece that didn't have fancy chromatic sixteenth scales at an allegro tempo seem very very dull... T_T

Oh and everyone had a B-foot joint and could play really low notes. DX

TO MUCH TECHNICAL TALK I gotz a headache now

whats a sondeos?

I DONT KNOW

I no even in band! so I no think i do that well in something that I no do

ME AGREE
PLUS BAD GRAMMERS IZ GOODS

Aaauuuggggghhhhhh!!!!!!!!! Mine is tomorrow! So nervous.....!!!!!!! Rachel, you need to tell me exactly what happens!

BAD GRAMMERZZ WIL TAKE OVERS DE WORLDZZZZZZZZZZZ

Okay, so you walk in and everyone is warming up and the band teacher (don't know her name) is sitting behind the screen. There'll be a clipboard passed around and you write your name on it, and whatever number is next to it is your number. You need two copies of your prepared piece, one will be given to a student who'll be assigned to collect them. Whichever copy you're giving needs your number (from the clipboard) on it.

So the teacher will come out when everyone's done writing their names on the clipboard and giving in their music and stuff. She'll take the music, which should ONLY have your number (NO NAME) on it. Then she'll go back behind the screen, and it'll start.

There'll be a big sign in front of the screen with a list of scale sets. She'll call out something like, "Number one, please play set 4!" and then they look at the sign and play the two scales under set one. Just so you know, all of the sets had either a G-flat, D-flat, or B scale for one of the two scales. And they were sometimes written as F-sharp or C-flat. Oh and those are the concert pitch scales. I don't know if trumpet is a concert pitch instrument or not, but those are concert pitch. It may be different.

Moving on, she'll give you time to warm up before the chromatic and prepared piece. With the prepared piece, she said she might cut you off early or have skip the beginning or certain parts if your piece is too long. That way she can hear the technical details or simply because there isn't enough time to get through a 3 page prepared piece.

For the sight-reading, the first person will go up and begin to study, and then the second person will come up a little bit before they have to play. There are two stands, and it works as a warning to the first person that their time is almost up. You play, then go sit down, and you're done. Don't leave until everyone is finished though, because they'll need some help moving the stands back to the correct rooms. They don't use the band or orchestra room.

Aaaaannnddd I think that's it. Oh and you don't have to worry about random high schoolers giving you a hard time. There were only a few people in the school. And they mostly ignore you.

EDIT: I remember her name! Ms. Hall! Or is it Mrs. Hall? Or have I horribly misspelled it?

that was loooooong

But thorough, and that's what matters.

Very true
Sorry

I don't quite get the sight-reading part. She calls you up and do you go to the front of the room or what ever, look at it for a while, and play when you're ready? Or is the stand in some other room? Or does she tell you when to start playing? What is the second stand for? Does everyone sightread the same piece? And for the prepared piece, will she just yeel out "trumpet 3, play your prepared piece" or do you go somewhere else? Does everyone else have really hard and varied pieces, cause mine's really easy...

Also, I think we all just play whatever the scale is on our instrument. So Now I know to practice those. So you only play 2 scales? And then listen to everyone else? Which ones did you play? Does everyone stare at you while you're playing(aack!)? And what do you mean by a few people in the school? Like 10 or 20? Cause I bet there'll be more trumpets....

Heheh, lots of questions. Sorry. Answer them quick, please!

I FEEL SO CONFUZELLED!!!!

If you don't have something constructive to say in the thread, don't post. After a while this is called SPAMMING.

BTW, I just got back from mine. Augh! Joe and I got there late, so only a few people had done their scales, but they had to weirdly switch numbers around. It was funny, because someone would whisper, "What's your number?" and they couldn't say it outloud because Ms Hall would hear it and it would screw up their chances. So the guy would mouth "four" and hold up 4 fingers. Very hilarious. So I was 13. And then Joe ran to the office so that he could get his music from his mom, but then she came down to the room and Tori's sister's like, "Matt Urbanek, your brother just went down to the office and your mother's at the door!" It took a while for him to get back...Anyway, I did scales F and Db. Except the F had a line under it so at first I wasn't sure if it was an F or a E, but then the person next to me said, "It's an F", so I played it okay. Then my chromatic scale which, BTW pretty much everyone else had way faster, and most of the Woodson people had up to high C. And then the prepared pieces, which everyone else did probably better, and they were all harder, I bet. Mine was so incredibly lame and easy, I was surprised they didn't just kick me out. The sight-read was okay, I thought it'd be longer and harder, it just had a weird note and rhythm that I couldn't quite get. And also my lips decided that they didn't want to play high notes very well. And then it was over, 'cause there were only 15 of us, but apparently there were more that couldn't come or something.
In short, I sucked. Help. Also, I think one of the trumpets rides my bus. Not that that's relevant or anything....

Good luck?

Did mine two weeks a go for Mr. Kosko. A Friday I think.

So five minutes left until the bell. Kevin (C) and I were like "He didn't call us yet!!!". And then he was like "Eighth graders who haven't auditioned yet, GO!" So I went there right when the bell rang. I didn't now whether to take my time or rush.

Anyways, the scales were A and A flat. Easy right? Yepp. BUT...I screwed up both. Played the A twice because I accidentally played an extra flat. The A flat scale, I played that one 4 times. Kept forgetting the C natural going down. So yepp.

Chromatic was easy. Played the lowest note to the high F (three octaves) . Aced it, except for a short pause between C and C#. The prepared piece was easy, although I was most nervous bout it. Flight of the Piasa. The part where woodwinds do the "Flying Fingers" at 144 or so. Aced that part too.

In all, less than stellar, but I made it!!!
No band next year. Probably back by junior year if not sophomore.

There's another to the long replies.