Link to this year's region etudes...now go practice!!!!
2023-2024 All-State Audition Material.pdf
Etude #1, playing examples.
Etude #2, playing examples.
Sage advice below from trumpeter Jens Lindemann.
8h ·
Tips on winning solo competitions…tough love below!!!
Do NOT tune on stage
Do NOT bring water on stage
Do NOT bring music on stage
Do NOT point off-axis on stage
Do NOT play wrong notes
Do NOT break speed records
Do NOT play ugly
Do NOT play like the back row
Do NOT NOT smile (double negative)
Let me start off by saying I absolutely love solo competitions. Between the ages of 17-24 I did over 40 of them which is almost certainly a record for any brass player in history. Everything from local, regional, provincial, national and international competitions and I’m very proud to say I lost most of them well before winning a number of the most prominent ones in the world. I’m also very fond of telling students that you never learn anything when you win a competition. That is just an affirmation of a job well done this specific time. You only really learn when you don’t get something that you want. I’m also prone to saying that you can’t have ‘experience’ until you’ve actually experienced something…that’s how the word works.
So these tough love comments come from a personal passion and many years of experience as a competitor, judge, soloist and educator. They are intended to help you, the solo competitor, control as many variables as possible.
1. Do NOT tune on stage. A professional soloist knows how to walk out and start playing with a confident first sound. Everybody has a free tuning app on their phone so use it backstage. The piano is presumably, in tune at the pitch that you will already have researched for that country. Now, when you get to your first playing rest, make a slight adjustment if necessary. If not necessary, then PRETEND to make an adjustment as it immediately puts a skeptical listener at ease and places you in charge of the situation. Brass intonation has nothing to do with the slide position anyway. Centered notes on brass instruments are there because your ear knows exactly where to put them. At the professional level, slides are only used to adjust color, resonance, and your own feel for the instrument. When you really understand that, you will also understand that a trumpet (or any brass instrument) is just an amplifier for what’s in your head. We are not a fixed percussion instrument like the piano. And don’t “try-a-note” when you walk out. Your entire musical presentation is about to do that anyway so just be honest with yourself and accept that playing anything on stage as an excuse to check acoustics is exactly that, an excuse.
2. Do not bring water on stage because it makes you look like an amateur. Professional soloists at the highest level don’t do it and they are capable of that because they practice not bringing water on stage. If it is not there, you won’t crave it so learn to trust yourself more.
3. Memorize everything possible and everything IS possible. Some people can memorize quickly, some people take more time. Either way, it is a variable that YOU the soloist are able to control and it is impressive because it shows you went the extra mile. When you prepare for a major solo competition, you’re not talking about days or weeks, you should be looking at about 8 months to a year in mind and plenty of chances to play your material well in advance for others whether in concert or classroom setting. No one has a good excuse not to memorize, unless they simply don’t want to. Don’t try justifying it saying you are serving the music by bringing it to the stage. Just be honest and admit to yourself that it is not prepared enough for you to play memorized. This is a simple variable for you to control and you would be considered amateur hour in the piano world for using music in a competition.
4. Point straight out…period. When you play facing the pianist or away from the listener, it looks like you are rehearsing. The only time the trumpet should be pointed off-axis as a soloist is if you are using it specifically as a coloristic technique and then it has some merit. Even then, as with mutes, it should be considered an occasional effect and never the norm.
5. Of course it is virtually impossible to play without some wrong notes. However, we as brass players don’t push each other nearly hard enough for technical accuracy. We play a high risk instrument that makes mistakes sound very obvious. So, practice and perform with different standards for yourself because your musical intention is of little to no value if you are missing too many notes.
6. Do not break speed records thinking that you will impress judges…you won’t. In fact, quite the opposite. There is playing slightly on the dangerous side of a tempo, and then there is absurd. That’s a tough one to explain with objectivity, but believe me, when you’ve heard up to 90 people perform in a single contest, I can promise you that the fastest possible tempo will not serve you well in the end.
7. Never underestimate the power of lyricism, and what kind of an affect a beautiful line and tone has on the listener. Always strive for the most gorgeous sound possible and make that tone consistent without sonic undulations. Fancy way of saying make sure you’re playing right in the middle of the pitch center and a sound rich with overtones. Aggressive, loud, ugly playing has no place on stage unless it is as an effect. I can assure you that will happen in only the rarest of situations in modern music because it is specifically requested…even contemporary composers want their works to be heard a second time.
8. Most classical brass players are taught by orchestra players, who know exactly what to do when sitting in the back row because that is a specific craft. When you move to the front of the stage, play like you belong there. An orchestral approach to playing like a soloist is NOT why you are standing beside the violin section or even in front of a piano for recital style. We are interested in your solo personality and that is a differently trained mindset. Play with a soulful freedom that feels compelled to share and not with trepidation as though you may be a brick in the wall. Soloistic expression resonates with listeners because it shows confidence and that is an obvious requirement for the task.
9. Smile when you walk on stage and look genuinely happy to be there because presumably, you are excited to share what you have prepared. If not, why are you standing there to begin with?