The benefits of student music auditions

I like to encourage all my clarinet students to participate in district and state band auditions each year. Music auditions are a great opportunity for students to learn valuable life skills - not just students who want to pursue a music career, but for ALL students' real life situations in college and into adulthood.

Here is my adjudication form from when I was in 9th grade! My audition piece from 1974 happens to be the Massachusetts Senior District audition piece for this fall!

Here are some benefits of music auditions:

• Setting a goal and committing to working towards it with your best effort

• Recognizing that excellence only comes with hard work and is not just a result of "talent"

• Time management - audition preparation is a process and must be paced over the time leading to the audition date. "Cramming" right before the audition doesn't work.

• Learning to present your best self under pressure and competition

• Coping with adversity - not everyone who auditions is accepted - even if the performance is excellent

I did pretty good back then. Will you take on the challenge?