So here’s an update on my audition preparation. Yesterday was the last day of “phase 1”, aka the woodshedding phase. I am happy to report that I have everything pretty much under my fingers. “Pretty much” being the key words here…some excerpts are certainly not clean (*cough* Dance of the Hours *cough*), and the Rossini is making me want to stab someone or something.
The first couple weeks of this phase were fine. But then the last couple weeks, when I started to get these excerpts up to tempo, that’s when I started to get aggravated. Most of the time I would leave my practice session totally pissed off and frustrated. I would spend 20 minutes just on one measure sometimes. It was a welcome feeling when that wasn’t the case.
All frustrations aside, the goal setting technique really helped me be more efficient. For each excerpt, I had a worksheet in which I would outline specific goals for the next time I practiced the particular excerpt. It really helped keep me focused.
For the next four weeks or so, I plan on making recordings on a daily basis and cleaning the technique. Now I start work on ALL the excerpts. For the last four weeks I have only worked on six of them. I have all the excerpts separated out into three groups (four excerpts each day – I’ve included the Rossini twice in the rotation since it’s the solo and its freaking hard), and I still will be practicing six days a week. It’s exhausting, but if I have any hope to win this audition, this is how it has to be.
Here we go!
Sandy Herrera, Clarinet 