How to avoid surprises in your audition/exam

Practice is all well and good, but how are you going to be in the actual exam/audition situation? Here is how you can make sure that you are ready to perform your best.

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Transcript

Welcome & Journey To Conservatoire

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello and welcome to the Confident Musitioning Podcast. My name is Eleanor and I am a British American oboist studying at the Royal Conservatory of Scotland. Literally my dream school. And it took me a long way to get there. I applied and auditioned for 12 schools in three different countries. It was a lot of hard work. But oh my gosh, so worth it. I want you to have the confidence to work hard in achieving your goals. So come with me as we go on this journey together. So sit down, pull up a chair, take a seat, or if you're on the go, welcome to the Confident Musitioning Podcast. I am currently going through the process of preparing for my midterm exams at my conservatoire, and one of the things that I am doing is mock exams, which is pretty cool. And you can also do mock auditions, and they're really helpful. And I want to tell you about them because I am so invested in providing you with the support that is gonna help you grow as a musician. And I think mock exams and mock auditions are so crucial, so I want to tell you about them. I recently did a mock exam for this exam that I am preparing for, and honestly, it was so helpful because things came up that I didn't realize were gonna be an issue. Do you know what I mean? Like mock auditions, mock exams basically provide you with a safety net so that you can make all of the mistakes that you're gonna make in the mock audition or exam so that when it comes time for the actual one, you're not making those mistakes. And it's really great, and it's not like a surprise. So that's what I did. And I learned in this mock exam that I um really needed to get better at playing things like straight through. I was really good at you know practicing little bits of it, but actually going straight through pieces and and achieves and whatnot weren't it wasn't so great. So I knew that I needed to do that, and that came up in the the mock exam. And it's great that it came up in the mock exam rather than the actual exam. I really recommend these, and so let's dive into basically why it's the case, why we should do it, and ways to do it. Okay, so let's dive right in. The first thing is why mock auditions? Why are we doing mock auditions? What's the point? Mock auditions, mock exams. I'm gonna kind of use that interchangeably because it's the same idea. An exam, a playing exam, and an audition. I suppose an audition is kind of similar, like it's kind of a type of exam, um, in a way. It's basically the same thing. So I'm gonna be using these terms interchangeably. They mean they they can be applied to both situations, okay? So why mock auditions, why mock exams? A few things. Firstly, let's take a look at the physical side of it. Things come up that you realize you need to work on more, like running through things, like what I just said, but also things like having answers to questions prepared. Um, I did a mock exam once, or a mock audition once, um, where there was a question and I um didn't answer it in the way that I should have, and I didn't realize that until after. It was like, oh my gosh, I'm really grateful that you know I I did that. It was it was pretty silly. It was um a question, it was like, what's your favorite oboe solo? And of course I have so many favorite oboe solos, but it in that like time and moment, my bl my brain just went completely blank, and I could not think of a single one, and I said a core anglay solo, and then afterwards I was like, that was bad. Um, I'm gonna prep better for my um my questions, and so I did, and then when it was time to do the actual auditions, it was so much better, and I'm really grateful that I did that. So that is really helpful. Like things will show up, also physical things like um nerves. You your nerves might show up in a way that you don't realize. Maybe your palms get sweaty, maybe your mouth goes dry, maybe you know, all of these things, maybe something surprises you, and you're like, oh my gosh, I didn't realize I would I would show that kind of um that kind of nerves, you know, in in this way. That's really amazing to figure out in the exam, in the mock exam rather than the actual exam or audition, okay? And so that's another thing that's really, really helpful, a physical side of it. Now let's talk about the mental. Basically, your brain, this is really fun, your brain gets used to the idea of doing an exam or an audition um by just doing it. Your brain sees this and goes, oh yeah, this is this is uh the exam. This is the audition, that's great, and you do it, and then by the time it actually comes around to do the actual thing, you're like, Oh, you know, I'm ready for it. Your brain is ready for it, you are ready for it. You're like, yeah, no, I got this. Like this, this is this is chill. I get this, this is understandable, like this is this is great. And you get it, and it's it's cool, it's amazing. So that's another thing as well. Like your brain just gets used to it, and then you're able to be a little calmer in the actual thing, especially if you can get the exam or audition space. I know this is not always the case for me for this exam. I was able to book the exact room that I'm gonna have the exam in, which was amazing because then it's gonna help my brain with that. It's not always the case. If you can't do that, that's perfectly fine. But maybe book a room that's similar or a space that's similar. If you can't do that, then that's also perfectly fine. If it's gonna be in a theater, maybe try and book a theater, even if it's a different theater. Um, just like kind of think along those lines. Try and simulate it as much as you possibly can because mentally it's really, really helpful. Um, to do that, because then your brain just is like, oh yeah, this is what this is, it's true. And you also are able to kind of see, you know, your brain might do things that you're not expecting. You know, it might it might think things, it might um forget things that you you don't realize you're gonna forget, and that's really good to realize in the mock exam or audition rather than the actual one. Okay. All right, so now that we've established why, let's establish how. Ways to do it. Here we go. So find a space to do it um as if you were playing in the actual exam or audition. If you can book the exact room, that's great. If you can book the kind of room, if it's in a theater, if it's in a classroom, if it's in, you know, whatever it is, that's also great. If you're unable to do that, that's fine. You can do the mock in some, you know, in a different environment, and that's okay. Just try to make it as similar as possible. If it's a quiet environment, try and do a quiet environment. If it's an environment where you know that there's something gonna be loud happening next to it, maybe do that as well. Or maybe you don't know, and that's fine too. Um, really just kind of try and simulate it as much as you can in that in that way, okay? Um, and then also not just with the space, but also with the experience. Um, if you know that you're gonna be running through pieces, run through pieces just the same. If you know that you are going to be um doing little bits, like if maybe you've prepared a piece and they're gonna ask you for a section of the piece, then bring a friend along and have the friend ask for a specific section that you don't know what they're gonna ask for. Like have that spontaneity. If you don't know what you're gonna be asked, have someone ask you something you're not expecting. Have that in there, because that's also aligning with the actual exam or audition. Okay, walk in the room at well, if if there is no one in the room, let's just say you can't get anyone in the room, or you don't need anyone, if you know, if there's not gonna be any specific questions or any random stuff, um, or if you just can't get anyone to do it with you, then if you do it alone, which I did, I did my mock exam alone, um, go through the motions. Say hello to non-existent people there. I did that. I walked in, I said hello. It I kind of felt a little silly, but I walked in and I said hello. And do you know what that meant? That meant that I'm actually more confident with walking into the exam room and saying hello, even though I said hello to literally no one. Your brain doesn't know that. Your brain thinks you're saying hello to people. And if you say hello with a big smile, all the better. Seriously. Um, and go through all the motions, like go through all the presentation. Like, um, if you know they're gonna ask what you want to do first, um pretend in your head that they've asked you that and say, I would like to do this first. Like, say it out loud, do all the stuff. You might look crazy, it doesn't matter. It does not matter, it's perfectly fine. Um, and that's that's perfectly fine. So you can have someone standing there or you can do it alone. You can literally talk to no one, but the point is simulating it. And then also the last step is to observe what surprised you, what came up, what did you forget, what did you remember, what went well, what didn't go well. Now you know what to work on. For my mock exam, for this exam, I realized that I needed to do more run throughs of things, and so I've been doing more run throughs of things. And if I didn't have that exam, that mock exam, I wouldn't have known that. You know what I mean? So that's really, really, really helpful as well. Okay, so that is kind of how to do it. It's really up to you. Just like simulate it as much as possible. You can do a mock exam as well with your teacher, you can have your teacher there, and then your teacher will give you feedback as well, and that's perfectly fine as well. I mean, that's great, that's really helpful as well. So if you want to do it like that, then that's perfectly fine too. All right. I feel like this episode is a little shorter, a little shorter and sweeter, but honestly, it's a really important topic. And I hope that you can take something from this and um do some mock exams or mock auditions because they can be really eye-opening, okay? Alright, that is about it for this episode. Thank you so much for hanging out with me. Um, I am really, really grateful. Before I let you go, I do want to tell you about um a tool that I have been using that has been really helping me in my preparation for my exam, and that is a notable practice journal. With notable practice journals, not only can I plan my practice so I know exactly what I'm going to do, but I can also reflect so that I can remind myself how past sessions went so that I can progress in the future ones. And this is also really helpful for mock exams as well, because if you kind of plan when you're gonna do your mock exam in your practice journal and you write thoughts from it afterwards, then you can look at that and that can inform your future practice. It's really helpful for having really more effective sessions. As soon as I realized this that this was working out for me, I knew that I needed to tell you and give you a code. So use code Eleanor15 for 15% off your journal. That is E-L-E-A-N-O-R 15 for 15% off your journal. You know that I only recommend things that I absolutely love. This code is an affiliate code, which means I do receive a commission with no extra cost to you. And the code um and the the link for the journal will be in the show notes in the description for you. All right. Okay, that is it for this episode. Thank you so much for hanging out with me. If you found this episode helpful, please do like, subscribe, comment, follow, and share with anyone you think will find this helpful, especially someone preparing for an exam or an audition. And I will see you in the next episode. All right, take care. Bye bye.