It’s been a while. Back in 2019 I promised you a new Audition Peeve every week “to the best of my ability.” Turns out my ability was six weeks. Sorry.
But I’ve played a LOT of auditions since then, plus every single SaveMyAudition class, and the peeves didn’t stop just because I stopped writing them down. So… we’re back.
Let me set the scene
You walk up to the piano. You open your book to “Vanilla Ice Cream.” And then it starts.
“Okay, so it starts here. And there’s a fermata here, so you’ll wait for me. And then here it speeds up, see where it says accel? And then there’s another fermata. And then it slows down here. And then…”
I know. I can see it. It’s right there. In ink.
I’ve probably been playing “Vanilla Ice Cream” since before you were born. The song is 63 years old. It’s a standard. We’ve got this. And even if I’d never seen it before in my life, the fermata is printed on the page. That’s the whole point of printing it.
Why it drives me nuts
If you’ve read Audition Peeves #5, this is the spoken version of highlighting. Same problem, out loud.
It tells me you don’t trust me. Reading what’s on the page is the job. Let me do my job.
It buries the stuff that matters. If you tell me ten things, I’m trying to remember ten things. The one thing you actually do differently gets lost in the pile.
The room is waiting. Those few seconds at the piano are not the time for a guided tour of your sheet music.
So what SHOULD you tell me?
Three things.
The tempo and the feel. Sing me a line or two at the speed you’re actually going to sing it. That’s the one thing the page can’t tell me. (And please, get the feel right. Audition Peeves #1 is still a thing.)
Anything you do that ISN’T written on the page. You skip the fermata. You hold a note way longer than it’s written. You take a big pause before the last line. You want the ending up instead of down. THAT is what I need to hear about, because I can’t read your mind. If you’re doing something wildly different from what’s printed, tell me.
The one spot that trips pianists up. Even a standard that any audition pianist worth their salt should know can have a tricky bit. A page turn in a bad place, a weird bar, a cut that jumps somewhere unexpected. Same deal as Peeves #5: if there’s a part that keeps tripping up the pianist in the room, point it out. ONE spot. Don’t let it get lost in the sauce of a million other instructions.
Everything else? It’s on the page. I’ve got it.
The rule
If it’s on the page, I’ve got it. If it’s only in your head, or it’s the one spot that keeps tripping pianists up, tell me.
Before your next audition, go through your book and, for each song, ask yourself one question: is what I’m about to say to the pianist already written on the page? If yes, skip it. If no, keep it, and practice saying it in one sentence.
Trust. We’ve got it.
Every audition counts.
