Audition Preparation Tips Since we do not know which group you will be placed in until you perform an audition during your first morning on campus, we are unable to send you the concert music in advance. There is a span of less than 48 hours from the first orchestral rehearsal on Friday, where you see the music for the first time, until the final concert on Sunday. Sight-reading skills are an important component of each group’s success. That is why we have changed the audition process to focus on and assess your ability to sight-read accurately. Sight-reading is a crucial skill which encompasses many aspects of your musicianship. It is valuable to develop the ability to quickly and accurately understand and assimilate the varied information indicated in musical notation including pitches, rhythms, tempos, dynamics and articulation. As with any audition, judges can also assess your technique, tone, intonation, and musicality through sight-reading. You may normally perform much more difficult music than the sight-reading excerpts you see on the stand for auditions. Of course the weeks and months of study and practice you have spent learning that difficult music, and the technical skills you have gained from that experience, will serve you well when you are sight-reading in your audition. You can practice sight-reading before the audition! The more you challenge yourself by playing music you have never seen before, the better you will get at sight-reading. Here are a few tips to help you practice this skill. Before beginning to play look over the music and take note of the following things: Time Signature (4/4, ¾, cut time etc.) Key Signature (how many sharps or flats) Dynamic indications (piano, forte, crescendo etc.) Tempo Indications (Allegro, Adagio, etc. as well as metronome markings) Articulations (slurs, staccatos, accents etc.) Take a few moments before you begin in order to establish a clear pulse in your head. When you begin to play, stick to that tempo as much as possible. Force yourself to continue moving forward no matter what. Do not stop, circle back or restart any passage. Keep the steady pulse going from beginning to end. A metronome can be an enormous help in establishing and maintaining pulse but eventually you also should practice internalizing the pulse without a metronome. Begin with simple music, perhaps hymns from church or passages from a beginning method book that are unfamiliar to you. Practice staying steady within a moderate tempo and use music with rhythms no faster than a quarter note. Incorporate pieces with eighths, sixteenths and triplets as you develop confidence. .