ASU Music School Audition

Well, yesterday was my audition day. As you could probably tell from my earlier post I was pretty nervous about it! I had good reason to be!!!

On Thursday I had my last voice lesson before the audition and it went HORRIBLE! I'm not just saying that because I had high expectations, it really wasn't good at all and I walked out of that lesson feeling very very frustrated and discouraged! I had had a previous lesson on Tuesday and it was AMAZING! I felt so excited after it and felt pretty confident but my feelings of confidence were dashed to bits after Thursday. I was driving home from my voice lesson and was just really getting down on myself. The rest of the day seemed to not be so good and on top of that I was not feeling well at all! I slept for a little while and it seemed to help but I was still pretty nervous about what was going to happen on Saturday. I was chilling out with my family that night and I got a phone call from one of my really good friends. He was on tour with the EAC choir and he called me from Provo after a performance they had done. He was so excited and I was excited to hear from him. After he told me where he was at, he told me that he didn't have a lot of time to talk because he had to get to the buses, but he said, "I know that your audition is this Saturday. How are you feeling about it?" First of all, I couldn't believe he remembered, second of all I couldn't believe he was taking the time to talk to me about it since he was obviously very busy, and third, I was just so grateful to be able to talk to someone that cared and was willing to listen for a minute while I vented. After I gave a condensed version of my day and how i was feeling he told me I didn't need to worry, that everything was going to be fine. He told me how talented I was and that I had a wonderful gift. His words meant the world to me. I needed them at that moment. I immediately just felt something lift from my shoulders and I felt so much relief. He was right. I asked him about some of the things they were doing on choir tour and he just cheered me up with his excitement and encouragement. Then before we got off the phone he told me that he was praying for me and that everything was going to be ok. I was about in tears at this point. Heavenly Father really knows us so well! I was so grateful for that simple phone call. In all, we didn't even talk for 5 minutes before he had to leave, but that simple act meant more to me than anything. I am grateful that he took that time.

Friday I spent my day running through my songs and practicing a piano piece I had to have ready as well. I felt ok, but still nervous. I got a blessing from my dad that night and I went to bed early and I was feeling ok about things. I slept really well (which I was very grateful for!) and woke up at 5:30 and got ready and did vocal exercises and practiced my songs a little bit. Then my dad and I were off to the audition! My dad talked to me the whole way there but my brain was just reeling with a gazillion thoughts about the day and all the "what if's" and so I didn't really say a whole lot. I was so grateful that my dad was there though!! He proved to be priceless for me all day! He was like my personal assistant, there for me through everything I had to do and making sure that all the logistical things were taken care of for me. I really really appreciated that! So anyway, I checked in and then we went and found all the rooms I would be using throughout the day for the various tests and interviews and such that I had. After that I had about 20 minutes to run through my songs a couple times and do some more vocal exercises. Then I was off to the audition!

I was the second performer of the day! Advantage: my judges had fresh ears! I met my accompanist and we went over a few things that I needed from him. There was another girl that was also trying out for the music therapy program who had him as her accompanist as well and she didn't have anything prepared for him! It was a disaster! We were supposed to have everything in a notebook for him and just ready to go for him to play. She had copied pages only. No notebook, and he was a little frustrated. Then she said well I you can use my book, but her book was one that would not stay open easily and he began getting pretty annoyed with the situation. The performer before me had just finished her audition...I had to go in. Before the performer walked out he told the girl after me that he needed to run to his office to get his own spiral bound book for her songs. He ran down the hall, and got back just before they called my name to come into the recital hall! WOW! As we were walking in he thanked me for being so well prepared and that it really made all the difference. I was glad! I was even more glad that I wasn't the one who got him so upset! Not fun! Anyway, I then began my performance and I did really well! I was pleased with it! I messed up a few measures in my first song but i pulled out of it and corrected myself pretty well which I could tell the judges were pleased with. After I was done I walked out of the room with my accompanist who told me I did very well and my dad was outside the door. He had watched me through a little window in the door. He gave me a big hug and I was so relieved I was done!

After my audition I had sight singing to do. Outside the door there was a list of directions for what I needed to do once inside. It was intense! It started out by saying that the score of your audition and the score of your sight singing would determine if you qualify for any scholarship money. No pressure!! I was pretty scared at this point. Scholarships would be VERY helpful and sight singing is definitely NOT my strong point! It was my turn and I walked in and I had to sit at a piano. I was to read at least 3 examples, each two lines long, maybe 4 depending on how well you were doing. After I sat down I had to look at each example, tell the judge what key it was in, and the only note I had to go off of was the tonic pitch. No triad, no nothing other than tonic. WOW! that was different than what I was used to. The first two examples were both major and were pretty simple. The third example was in minor! Yikes! I don't like those! It made me laugh when he acted so surprised about me getting the key right. It was in B minor. He told that close to no one ever gets the minor keys right and that he was so glad I was able to recognize when it was a minor key. That was happy! So I got through that one a lot better than I thought I would. He then asked me to turn the page and go to the 4th example. Good sign! I was doing pretty good! Only this time, it was in triple meter and it was four lines long and it had a ton of accidentals! Oh boy! So I started it and I actually didn't do too bad! I was pretty pumped by how well I did! I walked out pretty confident.

After sight singing I had my music therapy interview. It went amazing!! When I first saw her I realized that she had been there for my audition! I was so glad that she had gone to watch me perform! We sat in her office and she asked me a bunch of questions, like what kind of music I liked, what instruments I played, she asked if I would sing a jazz song for her, why I wanted to be a music therapist. After some questions and talking she wanted me to sing a song for her while she played the piano. I had to choose a song from a huge book she had. I chose "Amazing Grace." Easy enough! Then she told me that she was just going to start playing and that I had to come in whenever I felt like it on whatever note I thought would be a good starting pitch (obviously going along with what she was playing). So I did that, nothing too hard, and then she had me improv some vocal stuff, just singing pitches that I thought would sound good with what she was playing on the piano. That was interesting but went well. Then she wanted me to play the piano for her. She wanted me to sight read a song, only the melody line, so I did that which was super super simple. I almost couldn't believe she was really asking me to do it. Then she asked me if I could read chord symbols. I told her I could, so then I played the melody and applied the chords in my left hand. That went really well too! She was impressed that I was able to do that. Good sign I guess! Then she asked me a few more questions and we were done. Before I left she told me that she felt I was perfect for the program, that I had all the skills I needed to be able to do well. I was so pleased! I couldn't have asked for a better interview! Another really cool thing she told me was that after I had performed at my audition she talked with the judges and they told her I would no longer need to take voice lessons at a college level. If I get in, I will not have that to worry about which I feel for me is a huge blessing! Some of my biggest stress as a music major are my voice lessons and all the time that it requires! I was so grateful for that!

After my interview I had a little bit of a break, so my dad took me out to lunch and we talked about how everything had gone so far. I was so happy! I was just thrilled with how everything had gone up to that point and the hugest part of my stress for that day was gone! After lunch I went back to the school and found a practice room for me to go over my piano song a few times before my piano diagnostic test. After I was done I went up to the room with my dad and we waited for a little while. But no one was around! It was weird! All day there had been signs on the places where we needed to be and there wasn't really anything on this particular room. My time for my test came and went. My dad decided to go downstairs to the check in desk to see if the room had been moved. I stayed there but my dad soon came to tell me that the woman who had sent me the e-mail with all of my rooms for that day had actually told me the wrong room number. I was supposed to be in a completely different building! AH! Being late to something like that is not good! So my dad asked her if she would go to the room and explain the cause for my tardiness so that I wouldn't get in trouble or anything which I definitely appreciated! As I got to the room the woman who had made the mistake was waiting outside the correct room and the person in charge of my test came out and she apologized for the mistake and everything was fine. I actually found it kind of funny. I wasn't that worried about it, and this was the last thing I needed to do that day and it was definitely the least stressful! I had already looked at the requirements for the piano classes and I had figured with what I knew already I would be put in the second semester piano class. Once I walked into the room my judge asked what I had been told about the piano diagnostic. I said that all I knew was that I needed to prepare a song for him. He said ok and told me to sit at the piano and play what I had prepared. I was pretty confident during my entire test which I think he was a little taken back by. He asked me to do a Major and a minor scale which wasn't difficult at all, and then he had me sightread an etude, which was ridiculously easy! Then I had to transpose the song down a fifth which wasn't that bad. After that he asked if I had ever played a melody with the roman numeral symbols underneath. (Ha! Ha! Kinda the same thing I had to do in my interview) I told him that I did and so he told me that he would play the melody for me and all I had to do was drop in the chord when it came up. Easy enough! So I did that and he told me he was pretty impressed that I was able to do that! I was excited! It was good! So I was put into 2nd semester piano as I thought I would be so I was happy about that! He asked me before I left if I still had my audition to do and I looked at him and told him that I was completely done and that I was so happy! He congratulated me and laughed at my over exuberance. I couldn't help it though! I was so happy to be done and I was even happier that I felt so good about how I had done! I was sky high!

So I should know in three weeks if I made the program! Yay! I am definitely anxious! No matter how good I feel about how I did, there were a ton of people trying out and there is still a chance I didn't make it, but we shall see! I find out three weeks after that, so towards the end of March, if I qualified for any scholarships as well. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!!!

I am so grateful that things went well and that I felt I was able to do everything to the best of my ability! It made everything go so much smoother! I was definitely blessed! I can't deny that! The Lord was really looking out for me and helping me to be at peace about everything I had to do. I am so so so grateful for that!