Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Has any adult experienced a Piano Guild audition?

This year our teacher suggested we try for this, which will be held in late May. Usually she has about half of her younger students attend these auditions, but in 40 years of teaching she has never had one of her adults do it.

If anyone here has gone through this process I would like to hear about it.

As far as what I am thinking of doing; Memorize 5-6 pieces. These pieces are in C Maj, F Maj, D Maj, and A Minor.

If folks are interested, I will chronicle my experiences over the next three months.

I'd be interested in hearing about it - I'll periodically check the post.

Thanks

Some description here:
http://www.pianoworld.com/forum/ubb...-_Piano_Guild_Auditions.html#Post2332178

and more info if you follow the links from that post.

OK thanks. I'll post something next week, as I believe the application fee (which requires a final decision as to the number of pieces to be performed plus whether they will be memorized or not) has to be sent in.

The exact pieces to be performed in not set in stone. I can change my selections at any time up to audition day. However, the key signature of the final pieces played determine the scale/chord exercises that must also be played (I think...)

Thanks!

Hi. My teacher has suggested that I participate in a Guild audition also. I have no objection to having my skills evaluated, although I'm pretty certain of where I am in my piano journey. After much thought, I have declined due to the work associated with learning (and potentially memorizing) a minimum of five pieces. I would prefer to have my time spent on the continued learning process, but I fully admit that the Guild experience could be a valuable part of the learning process.

All of that said, my teacher, who has been very involved in the Guild auditions, has said that the teachers who perform the evaluations are very supportive of beginning adult students. I have no reason to not believe that. So, if you are so inclined, I would definitely suggest that you follow through.

And, I would welcome the chance to learn from your experience.

Good luck!!

Bruce

Hi Bruce!

I was also inclined to not participate in the audition due to time constraints and other factors, however I changed my mind due to the following reasons:

First, I already had three pieces memorized from my older Faber books, due to the fact I love playing them at a moment's notice, and they sound much harder to play than they really are. I picked up two more pieces a couple of weeks ago, so I have my five memorized pieces in the bank.

Second, I have been on kind of a breakneck pace through my lessons books for 18 months now, and as much as I don't want to slow down my momentum, perhaps a slight diversion at this point might help in the larger scheme of things. Also, preparing for the Guild in late May will only take up about 20% of my overall lesson time.

Third, this is an experience that my wife and I really want to go through, at least this one time. Within two months it will be over with, and either we will chalk it up to an interesting experience and never do it again, or it will become an annual thing.

In two weeks we will begin working on the required scale work. Since my pieces are in four different keys, this should be interesting!

Sent in our $29 fee yesterday for Guild expenses.

My teacher also went over what is expected for scales, chords, and other things for the 4 different keys that are spread across my five pieces.

Some additional study is required because one of my pieces is in a minor key (A minor).

That's it for now...

Update #2.

Played all 5 guild pieces tonight at my lesson. Pretty good feedback from my teacher, however the tempo of the last and most difficult piece is not quite right. Will have to work on that.

Also did the required scale work (right hand first, then left hand) and cadences for the 4 keys my pieces represent (C Major, D Major, F Major, A Minor).

Also got advice on how to proceed in case of mistakes, and picked my first and last piece (which is totally my choice).

One other thing; despite what I've read on several other threads, I am NOT allowed to warm up on the judge's piano. As my teacher said to me, "Welcome to the wonderful world of being a pianist - It's not like you are playing a flute which you can bring with you".

Next update in 3-4 weeks.

Sounds like you're well on your way to do a good job at it. And, like you said, it will probably be an interesting experience. Looking forward to hear the report.

FWIW --

As well as playing piano, once upon a time I played flute.

In my 30's, my flute teacher suggested that I should do one of the Canadian Royal Conservatory of Music "grade level" competitions. It took some months of practice before I had pieces "polished" well enough to feel competent. Grade 8 was too hard, Grade 6 felt about right.

To both our surprises, I won the silver medal in the Grade 6 group.

So my advice would be:

. . . Do it!

It can't hurt you, and the experience of getting some pieces "just right" is worthwhile.

. Charles

Update #3.

Ten days to go. I have my final 5 pieces ordered and ready to go. Although my teacher thinks all five will "pass" at this point, she is looking for a bit more detail in phrasing and dynamics, especially in the left/right hand balance for two of them.

The final piece, which runs over two minutes will require the most concentration.

After playing one of the guild pieces yesterday in front of 20+ people (including 6 family members) playing this in front of a single judge should seem easy. We'll see...

Back in 10 days.

Final update (Part 1):

Completed the Guild audition an hour ago. Here are the highlights:

First, the judge could not have been nicer to me, even complementing me between pieces, and even allowing me to warm up a bit before starting. It turns out she has a PhD in music, as well as numerous teaching and performance credentials worldwide. Thank goodness I didn't know that ahead of time.

Second, although the atmosphere could not have been more low-key and friendly towards me, I was still was way too nervous at the start and made several stupid mistakes. As time went on, I played better and with more ease. She was very complimentary, however I won't see my "report card" until early next week. I'm thinking I passed all five pieces, even with the mistakes.

Our teacher was very pleased with how we did, and I could tell she was hoping we would enjoy the experience overall. Well we did!

So, based on the entire experience I think we plan to do this again next year. I'll make my final decision after reviewing the judge's notes and sleeping on it a bit.

You are very brave!

It sounds like you had a good time, all-in-all. Glad to hear it!

Brian, glad you and your wife's experiences were positive. Most of my students have a similar reaction - apprehension then relief and elation. I must confess a bit of surprise your teacher holds the reports/certificates for a week. I have the student remain in the audition room until the judge is finished; they bring their music and report out and then we sit down and review the report together. After the student has seen their results, I do hold the certificate as I need to make a file copy of the entire certificate with report for records. Guild requires these for advances awards and scholarships. I suspect that's the reason your teacher is holding the reports, but you might ask if, in the future, you two could review the report immediately after the audition, so that you and other students are not in a state of suspense for a week. More importantly, we tend to forget small details with the passage of time, which perhaps is the most important reason to review these immediately.

Hi John;

I gave the wrong impression about the presentation and review of the report cards. The judge had them done before my wife and I left, however our teacher had more students left to be tested, and she wants to spend an adequate amount of time going over the results. Because my wife has a lesson tomorrow morning, she will review the results with her then. My next lesson is not until Monday, so that's when we will review everything.

I would totally agree with your description of the three emotions we went through. I would add "nervous energy" between apprehension and relief, which occurred during my 6 minutes and 30 seconds of actual playing (yes I timed it)! I forgot to add that we did all of the scales and cadences at the very end, back to back to back. But yes, elation is the last emotion, and I still feel it 6 hours later.

Way to go Brian and Mrs. DX!

John, Many happy returns of the day!

Thanks!

Congratulations Brian! That's such a nice story! Very inspiring.