| Re: Jazzzmom's original question: IMHO, as a lowly non-musician mother of a musician, I think you can drive yourself crazy trying to analyze auditions. D is a perfectionist and rarely feels great about an audition. And often enough, when she has felt really good about an audition, she hasn't been accepted. Her feelings about an audition tell me nothing really. However, for her school auditions, she was accepted at every school where she received very positive feedback at the audition.
Striving for absolute perfection is a danger for students, in my very humble opinion. On one of my D's school auditions 2 years ago, I sat outside a violin studio while my D auditioned in another part of the school. I heard 6 or 7 violin auditions through the door, and all sounded fine to me. What do I know anyway? Then one student went in and played on a much higher level. I have no idea whether she made any technical mistakes, but she clearly was singing with her violin in a way that the other students had not. It was obvious to me, and sure enough, the teacher and student came out of the room with the teacher gushing with praise to the waiting parent and student. I don't think some technical issues would have changed the result of her audition. IMHO, striving for absolute technical perfection sometimes causes a student to play their instrument too safely and may eliminate that "singing" quality. But then again, what do I know? |