all-west

I have had a very successful year this year with my all-west tryouts. I will relay some things that i have learned.

1. Be able to perform the music. don't just be able to play it. If you perform the music in front of people they should at least think about clapping for you.
2. remember to breath. This is very important. When I play, I tend to take a lot of small little breaths. This causes me to not have enough air to live on. This leads to panic. it will also cause your adrenalin to go out of control and lead to uncontrollable shaking. when you have time in the audition take a few full breaths through your nose.
3. Begin the scale not more than ten seconds after they tell you to play it. This lets them know that you know the scale and didn't have to figure it out.
4. play the scale aggressively two octaves. play it a little over mf and fast. However, maintain a good sound and a sense of firm control.
5. Play the chromatic in a triplet pattern. This just sounds cool.
6. Do not, under any circumstances, talk in the audition. This pisses off the judge, the proctor, and God. The Judge doesn't want to hear your voice because it lets him know a lot about you. this destroys the blind audition. It also makes it not fair for the other trombone players. He might recognize your voice and be tempted to give you a higher chair. He might also hate girl trombone players. If you are a girl, speaking would cause you to lose where you might have won. The proctor doesn't want you to speak. His job is to guide you through the audition and make sure that it stays blind. You might get him fired if you speak. You would invoke the wrath of God because it could put undue temptation on the judge. You might cause the judge to sin and give you an unfair advantage. God hates sin. Don't cause of it.
7. don't point your bell directly at the judge. The sound that comes directly out of your bell is not very clean. it has all kinds of little impurities that you don't know about. it will also sound less focused coming straight from the bell. In order to keep the judge from hearing the trash in your sound, don't let him hear it straight from the bell. I usually point my bell at a right angle to the judge. I actually pick up the stand and move it so that I can point my bell at a right angle to the judge.
8. Play with joy. The judge is able to almost read your thoughts. Your emotions will come through in the way that you play. I smile at the proctor to try to get myself to be happy. It also creeps out the proctor. I find this funny.
9. Learn scales and arpeggios to help with sight reading. Music is built on scales and arpeggios. If you know your scales and arpeggios you will recognize them in the sight reading. This will be one less thing you have to think about. it will let you play more musically
10. In your thirty seconds to look over the music do the slide positions and fingerings for the whole thing. when time is called, you can empty your spit valve to gain a few extra seconds.

These are just a few of my thoughts. I have field tested them and they have proven useful. you might also find them useful.