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I was a participant in a masterclass yesterday with an established professional musician of well over 20 years. During the afternoon, myself and my colleagues played various excerpts and the question of taking auditions came up.

The question that was asked was about taking auditions for the experience. To which the person giving the masterclass replied, "Experiencing what? Failure?"

He expanded and said that you shouldn't take an audition unless you are absolutely 100% committed to it and truly believe you have a chance at winning and actually want to accept the job. It's not worth the money, time and effort you put into it if you're taking an audition for the "experience"

Thoughts?

Agree.

Thanks Wade! A very informative post! I completely agree with you and the discussion I had yesterday with our clinician.

I've been giving lots of thought about the few auditions that are out there right now people having been saying "Go take it! What do you have to lose?" A LOT!

1. Time
2. Money

Both things that aren't exactly in abundance for a student.

I've prepared auditions for summer festivals and auditions for my undergrad and now diploma studies and I don't need to tell everyone reading this that it is exhausting, time consuming work. To echo you, Wade, there is NO reason for someone to take an audition unless they are completely confident that they can show up and play better than every single person at that audition. Period.

I strongly agree with what Wade said.

This is NOT an interview situation.
The only standard is perfection.
Practicing and experiencing the actual preparation will not help you an iota.

And most of the time, for someone not ready, after the first or second note the response will be, "Thank you. NEXT!"

Jay Friedman's website has excellent articles on the path to becoming a ready contestant.

http://www.jayfriedman.net/" target="_blank