We do a concert with a hired orchestra every spring at my church. A few years ago we did Elijah. My son was singing the “boy” solo. We had just finished with our warm up and were waiting for the word to leave for the choir loft. I had half an ear on the conversation between the soloists who were standing to my right. I was listening to see if my son joined in with the chatter. He did not.
I believe it was the tenor who asked the bass, “Jeffrey, are you ready yet?” Dr. Jeffrey Snider is a large bear of a man who has a huge voice. He replied, in his resonant bass soloist voice, “No, but it has never stopped me before.” Everyone who heard it had a good chuckle.
During the concert, Dr. Snider certainly sounded like he was ready. Maybe he was trying to be funny. Maybe not, though. I am not sure if we are totally “ready” to perform music.
I think it is more about being “prepared.” I believe we more naturally understand preparedness in terms of degree. Being prepared is not a yes or no thing. It is possible to be more prepared and less prepared. Sometimes the music is more challenging. Sometimes the are more people auditioning. Sometimes less. Even people who are very well prepared may not be perfectly ready. But the more we practices (and practice right) the better we perform and the more our standards grow. One high school student realized that the Freshman at his high school weren’t really getting worse every year. He was getting better and was more able to hear smaller and smaller mistakes. You will take your improved skill set out of the audition room and into the next adventure no matter how the audition plays out.
Musicians sometimes have performances or auditions that loom in importance. You may have something important in the near future. How prepared are you? I would venture to say that a huge number of those who audition are far more prepared on audition day than they were when the first audition pieces were. Far, far more prepared. But given their improved musical sense most students auditioning do not think they are perfect yet.
Once upon a time one student walked our of his audition and self-proclaimed it “acceptable.” Not awesome-super-good-amazing. Not the best run ever. But acceptable given his level of preparedness. When the list was posted he was principal on his instrument in the all-state orchestra. It was a successful audition, even though it was not perfection.
So after all the practice is done and you are waiting to play it is most productive to mentally review what you are doing and go for your personal best. Your personal best as well as your personal average are going to be much higher since you have practiced. Are you “ready”? Maybe not, but it has never stopped anyone. The practice time is over. You are as prepared as you are. Go perform! Make music. Go for tone. Even mistakes sound better with good tone. Keep your head in the game. If something happens like, say, a mistake, for get it and keep going. People actually make the gig after making actual mistakes. If their practice has increased their performance standards they will be more able to hear mistakes. And so if you make a perceived mistake just go on and perform the next thing. Keep your head in the moment of performing, concentrating on the moment and perhaps the near future.
There is no room in the mental apparatus for reviewing the performance during the performance. So perfomr and have fun and make as much music as you can. There is another day after auditions. But if you have prepared at all you are going to be a much better player for the next thing, whatever it is. Auditions are as much about learning as they are about the outcome. If you learn from auditions and, yes, performances, you will continually hone your craft.
Ready or not, here it comes. Go for it.
The Happy Rock Way 