Winning the Audition 2: Practicing Techniques for Peak Auditions
232: Jory Herman on community engagement, balance, and resonant churches
Today’s episode features Jory Herman, who is a member of the San Diego Symphony bass section and has just released his second solo album titled Life. In addition to playing in the San Diego Symphony, Jory is actively involved in community engagement in the San Diego area. He has recently become Director of Community Engagement with Art of Elan and is an active teacher and clinician.
We talk about his early years in music, studying bass with Paul Ellison at Rice University, and his time playing in the New World Symphony, where he got bitten by the community engagement bug. We also discuss the recording of both his previous album of Bach Cello Suites and his most recent album, as well as what it’s like to continue to develop as a player and a person after landing an orchestra job. Enjoy!
Links:
Winning the Audition: Preparing for Audition Success
221: Brandon McLean on audition strategies
Today’s show features Brandon McLean, who just won the associate principal bass position for the Pittsburgh Symphony. Brandon has most recently served as principal bass of the Colorado Symphony, and prior to that he held positions in the Vancouver Symphony and the Florida Orchestra. Originally from Seattle, Brandon did his undergrad at the University of North Texas, his masters at the Boston Conservatory, and studied at Carnegie Mellon after that with Pittsburgh Symphony principal bassist Jeff Turner. He played in the New World Symphony before landing his first gig with the Florida Orchestra.
We dig into the details of the audition process, like how Brandon starts preparing long-term for the audition and how that preparation changes as the audition approaches, Brandon’s technique routine, which he keeps up throughout the audition process, the benefits of getting to practice in a large space like a concert hall, and routines in the days prior to the audition. We also feature excerpts of Brandon performing the Dave Anderson Duets with Brendan Kane.
Books mentioned:
Interview Highlights
Audition Preparation Strategies
- the process starts right after finding out what the list is
- looks at what are the more problematic excerpts for him and begins by spending time on those
- about 5 weeks out, he starts to get more disciplined
- for a long time did the system of ranking what the more difficult excerpts are and spending the most time on those, but he found that then the audition would come up and they’d ask for the excerpts that he didn’t spend as much time on
- breaks up practice session into 10 minute increments; practices for an hour or an hour-and-a-half in a couple of different segments in the day
- keeps himself disciplined to no more than 10 minutes on a specific excerpt
- breaks up the last as many ways as possible:
- top to bottom
- bottom to top
- skip and do every 3rd excerpt
- 2-3 weeks out, he shortens that 10 minutes per excerpt to 3-4 minutes per except so that he’s hitting everything briefly just about every day
- Brandon generally runs things at 75% tempo most of the time
- he can generally play this under tempo—it’s getting them up to tempo that’s the real issue
- there’s some point between that 75% and 100% tempo that he can usually solve most of the technical problems
- problems associated with fast excerpts were dealt with away from those excerpts – dealing with technical studies that helped
- during audition prep, Brandon still spends at least 30-45 minutes still doing scales and technical exercises
- he cuts that down when getting really close to the audition
Brandon’s Technique Routine
- pick a scale
- slow bow practice (whole notes) using Intonia software
- then does a different scale with half notes, quarter notes, etc – gets himself playing pretty quickly
- do something similar with arpeggios after that
- right hand practice
- string crossings
- spiccato
- exercises to get his right hand moving a little quicker
Playing in a Large Space and Recording
- the benefits of getting to practice in a large space (concert hall) – he didn’t get this until later in life
- getting over the idea that he doesn’t really know what he sounds like objectively (similar to getting over the way your voice sounds when you play back a recording)
- the angle that you play the bass – no one else will ever hear your bass playing from that angle—it’s such a specific thing
- things started to turn on the audition front for Brandon when he started to get really serious about recording himself
- Brandon had a pretty steady path of progress in auditioning – not advancing, then getting to semis, then making finals, then runner-up for a bunch of auditions
- Brandon realized at a certain point that he just wasn’t a very natural audition taker
- had to start treat audition taking as his job
- dealing with the mental discipline of audition taking was something that took him a while to get a grasp of
- Don Greene books helpful in terms of centering, etc.
- Brandon has gotten away from thinking that he just needed to have a really good day to win an audition
- after teaching students and observing them nervous and not nervous, he has concluded that there isn’t nearly as much difference in the two states as the students think
- When he wasn’t doing well in auditions, he had actually lost those auditions months in advance
Routines as the Audition Approaches
- usually flies in the day before – flying in too early usually psyched him out
- it’s amazing what tiny things can seep into your mind during an audition
- when he goes, he generally doesn’t talk to people at the audition
- running is helpful
- doesn’t try to change anything lifestyle-wise coming up to the audition – changes only cause problems
Links from Listener Feedback:
215: Robin Kesselman on audition strategies, injury recovery, and bow arm practicing
Today’s episode features Houston Symphony principal bassist Robin Kesselman. Robin studied with David Allen Moore and Paul Ellison at the Coburn School of Music and the University of Southern California, and with Hal Robinson and Edgar Meyer at the Curtis Institute of Music. He has also performed as Guest Principal Bass with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, travelled internationally with both the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and performed with the National, Atlanta, and Baltimore Symphonies.
During Robin’s time at USC, he sustained a playing injury that took him out of commission for a prolonged period. We dig into how Robin ultimately recovered from this and how it changed his approach to practicing and performing on the bass, and how he practiced while he was out of commission. This was a left arm injury, and Robin continued to practice open string and harmonics with the bow, going into his lessons and working on the Bottesini Concerto on open strings. We also discuss how Robin approaches the audition process: his preparation strategies, his musical goals for an audition, and using visualization techniques.
We also feature excerpts from Krzysztof Penderecki’s Duo Concertante with Eunice Kim on violin. Enjoy!
Interview Highlights
Discoveries During Playing Injury:
- sitting in practice room – “this hurts, but it also still sounds bad” – the mistake of pushing through pain
- this time spent not using his left hand ultimately took his bow game to a new level – he spent large amounts of time just practicing with the right hand – playing solos and excerpts on open strings / harmonics in lessons!
- “the building blocks with which I was making my shapes were not completely honest” – referring to the bow arm
- mental practice / visualization – he got into this during this time period
- learning the difference between an ache and something more serious
Thoughts on Auditioning:
- there’s nothing that isn’t practicable
- timing and pulse
- mathematical pulse/note division vs. feeling right
- the fallacy of perfect audition rounds
- similarities between prepping for an audition and a recital
- auditions have to be an artistic endeavor and about musical expression
- if you walk out and your whole goal is to play notes that are even and in tune, the second that one note isn’t exactly the same as another note you officially have nothing left to offer, because your single goal has crumbled
- if your goal is to make lines and to make shapes and be expressive, it’s ok if one note is a little shorter than the others
- philosophy from David: as soon as you come in and things are in tune and in time, you are officially at zero
The Audition Process in Detail:
- record constantly during this whole process -throughout the whole day
- first 50% of the interval
- really hibernate and work things super slow – considerably under 50% tempo
- move something up 40 clicks over a period of weeks
- A and B lists that kind of parallel each other (one Mozart Symphony on one and one on the other, for example)
- doesn’t play for anyone during this time – nothing’s put together – it’s all really cut up at this point
- next 25%
- buff out the edges, smooth out the music, give it a shine
- playing with recordings, getting the flow right
- last 25%
- take the show on the road, play for anybody and everybody, start setting up mock auditions and lessons with other (non-bass) instrumentalists
- the last week
- go back to “hibernating”
- stop playing for people – running rounds – 4-5 excerpts in a row
- hours wise it’s similar through he whole process, but the hours are being used differently
- all the way until audition time, there was never a day/time when he could not continue to make things better
- have a specific game plan for those 20 minutes of warm-up once you arrive at the hall
- bass players don’t hire bassists – committees of other instrumentalists do
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