Concert Band Auditions

Now that marching band is over during first hour I have concert band. This is really depressing for me because concert band is really boring. But it is also kind of nice in a way because it is a lot less time consuming. No more 3 hour, Thursday night practices or being gone at competitions all weekend. So in that respect it is nice to just relax a little bit. Unfortunately though, I didn’t get to relax until auditions for concert band were over. I had my audition for concert band on Thursday. It went pretty well and I was very happy with my chair. I am currently 2nd chair flute in Symphonic Sand. For those of you not in band, here is a little background information. There are three bands: Concert Band, Symphonic Band, and Wind Symphony. Concert Band is the name of the lowest band, usually made up of freshmen. This can be kind of confusing though because concert band is also the general name for band during 2nd and 3rd term when we don’t march. Symphonic Band is the middle band and it is made up mostly of sophomores and juniors (that’s me!). Wind Symphony is the top band and it is mostly made up of seniors. This being said, the grade of which you are in has nothing to do with your placement within the band.

So I am 2nd chair in the middle band, Symphonic Band. I am very happy with this because last year I was last chair in this band of about 8 flutes, and this year I am 2nd. A lot of my friends are in Wind Symphony but I don’t mind because the flute section is really competitive. Where I am at right now in my placing is actually a pretty high chair, even though it might not be considered that in other sections.

My audition went pretty well but not perfectly, not that anybody’s ever does. The audition process can get complicated at times but it is not too bad. Firstly, our director posts our identification numbers on the wall with the times we are to audition at. These auditions are live but also blind. This means our director is in the room but she doesn’t know who the person auditioning is. This is so that all seating arrangements are fair and there is no bias. When you go into the room, you write your name on a sheet so she knows the order of which everyone has come in, in case anybody is missing from the identification sheet. Then she will start naming scales, if you know the scale she calls out then you play it, if you don’t, just remain silent and she will go onto the next scale. There are 12 major scales and she will eventually call them all out. It is important that you don’t speak because then she will know who you are, which will ruin the whole point of the blind audition. After this she instructs you to play an etude that you have prepared. An etude is just a short song. Before auditions she hands out two etudes on a sheet of paper, you receive more points if you play the harder of the two etudes. I played the harder one. Then there is the sight reading. Sight reading is playing a sheet of music that you have never seen before. This is usually scary because you only get one shot to play the sheet of music that you have never seen before and therefore haven’t gotten a chance to practice. Because of this, usually the sight reading portion has a fairly easy key signature and does not express a wide range of notes.

On Monday, concert band begins to rehearse. Unfortunately, this is the beginning of a boring season of concert band. I am a little more excited than last year, because my chair is higher. I like where I am, because if I was first chair I would have to play the solos and the piccolo, which would not be fun. I also know that the music will be harder because I will play Flute 1 music instead of Flute 2 music but I am still partially excited. Usually, during first term we have band for two days and then get one day off. This is because there are 3 bands, and only two directors. Second term, one band gets moved to rehearsing second hour, but until then we have to make do. It was always nice to have a study hall every two days but I don’t think that will happen this year because the freshmen already have 2nd hour because they didn’t do marching band this year. So I guess that issue is now simply a problem of the past.