You have prepared for an audition or competition for months, and you think you have done your best, but the day comes when they tell you that you did not make it to the final round or were not accepted into the orchestra of your dreams. And as sympathetic as the messengers might have been, you are left alone with the problem of what now. Where do I go from here?
The first thing to do is calm down and accept what has happened. First, find a quiet place and comfortably think about the situation. Many people have been there, so you are not alone.
Next, remember how you arrived at the said date, your practicing schedule for your lessons, the things your teacher said to you or explained to you, and the audition. Remember how it went, what you did, and how you did it. Remember everything that transpired in preparation for this audition to reflect on where to improve. Be honest with yourself.
The big question is if there was something you could have done differently to achieve better results.
It is easy to say well, I did all that work, but it did not amount to anything. But it is wiser to have a mental rundown of the events leading up to your audition and determine what could be better in the future in terms of auditions.
Ask yourself these questions.
Did I practice every day?
How long did I practice?
Did I put in the required hours for my specific instrument and age? as prescribed by my teacher?
Did I start with a warm-up? Did I do technical work?
Did I have enough time with my accompanist?
Did I show up for my lessons every week?
Am I practicing properly?
Did I stop when there was a problem and address that issue during my hours of practice? Or did I go forward and ignore the problems.
What setbacks did I experience during the performance?
What did I learn from this experience?
How will I do things differently next time?
While you don’t want to spend too much time on what happened, you also want to figure out what not to do for the next stage of your musical development. Also, it is essential to know that we should do this in terms of successful auditions as well and not just ones that did not bring the desired outcome.
You also don’t want to spend time on emotional breakdowns. It is essential to get going. Just rise from the fall and continue walking.
Ultimately, we are not competing with others. And whatever we do to improve ourselves, we do it for us.
Playing auditions and competitions is a great way to improve your skills. You may not know how to answer this question right after a failed audition, but if you persevere and audition again for another event, you will know and feel how far you have come in your playing and how you present yourself in auditions.
After determining a few ideas on what could have been better, write them down if necessary. Make notes and make a plan. Regroup and reorganize yourself. And take heart.
The issues you faced could have had something to do with your instrument. Your instrument lost a string, and you had to play with a substitute. Or your instrument did not react well to the dryness in the room. Or you physically did not feel your best on that day. It can happen to anyone.
If you leave it there, having this information and jotting down ideas on what needs improvement is not good enough.
You want to be the best you can be; you have to achieve the level you are happy with. You take charge of your learning and improve yourself. Therefore, make a plan and incorporate the changes you need to make.
For example, if the issue concerns your daily routine, then establish one. It is good to have a morning and afternoon routine; how will you adjust your time to have a healthy, solid practicing routine. What can you change in your routine? It may be not the hours but the way you practice. Are you practicing in a relaxed way without tension? Do you spend time on problem spots or play them once and move along? The latter leaves things up to chance for performances. If you want a performance where things happen naturally and smoothly without struggling under challenging passages, you must work those out during your practice and take time.
Sometimes, when we don’t feel our best, we have not slept properly, we don’t perform our best. Was there a circumstance like that? How can you prevent such things from happening? Think about it; don’t dwell on anything; always learn from such experiences and move on.
In the end, the best performances are those we feel satisfied with. We are happy that we performed and what transpired on stage in our performance. It does not mean we were perfect, it only means that we actualized our best what we had worked on at that moment in time. Therefore, strive for that. Always be honest with yourself, as we usually know when we did well. If you like what you are doing, chances are others will too.
Therefore, learn from the audition experience, and after your self-reflection, proceed and sign up for more auditions if that is your goal. Because you can only decide what your goals are.
Do you reflect back on your auditions no matter the outcome? Please share with us in the comments below.
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