Taking auditions is one of the most challenging yet pivotal aspects of a musicians’s life. Careers and made or broken every day on these small snaphots of a performer’s life. In fact, this is such a critital skill for every musician that I decided to do a clinic at the 2010 Chicago Bass Festival on this very topic.

I recently sat on an audition panel (something I’ve done frequently in the past), and I thought it might be instructive to put out the comments I wrote down for the candidates. These are all anonymous and randomized, and I think that they give a good impression of the type of comments that auditioners write down during this process. You’ll notice that the comments are, for the most part, short and to the point, and there’s a lot of repetition. You can quite easily tell who did well, who struggled, and who was somewhere in the middle. I offer this information up in the hope that readers will see how the auditioner’s thought process often works (many folks write comments like mine).

Audition comments for a recent panel on which I was sitting:

Candidate #1:

-good tone
-solid
-Glinka: some tone problems
-good intonation

Candidate #2:

-rougher sound
-good
-need more dynamics in Adams
-Russlan: not clear on 8ths

Candidate #3:

-needs to be louder for Adams
-missed notes
-not long enough in 9/4
-some rushing in Russlan

Candidate #4:

-problems
-?

Candidate #5:

-Stravinsky: slow – counting!
-Adams: good – not short enough or loud enough
-Glinka: some rushing

Candidate #6:

-Stravinsky: good
– Adams: well-learned
– some intonation and articulation inconsistencies

Candidate #7:

– nervous
– Stravinsky: too slow
– good character
– Adams: some problem shifts but good overall
– Russlan: rushing, bow out of control
– very musical

Candidate #8:

– Stravinsky: good
– Adams: missed notes, counting inaccurate at end
– Russlan: good! Nice job
– tone is not where it needs to be, but solid
–
Candidate #9:

– Stravinsky: good, could be bigger sound
– Adams: good intonation and articulation, some upbows inconsistent
– Glinka: good

Candidate #10:

– Stravinsky: good
– Adams: good
– Glinka: good

Candidate #11:

– Stravinsky: slow but solid
– Adams: not the right character, sounds like sightreading
– Glinka: sloppy, not the right bow stroke

Candidate #12:

– Stravinsky: wrong rhythm
– Adams: nice articulation, but I can’t hear the pitch
– Glinka: bow problems, can’t hear notes

Candidate #13:

– crooked bow
– Stravinsky: rhythm good but small sound
– Adams: too soft
– Glinka: bow problems

Candidate #14:

– Stravinsky: slow but good
– Adams: too long and soft but good intonation
– sounds like you have no rosin on your bow

Candidate #15:

– Stravinsky: good
– Adams: sounds like you don’t know the notes, wrong notes, wrong sound, needs to be closer to bridge
– bow out of control

Candidate #16:

– Stravinsky: good
– Adams: some missed notes, good otherwise
– Glinka: good

Candidate #17

– not making contact with string and bow
– missed notes
– Adams: wrong tempo and character, slow and soft, wrong notes
– Glinka: many different tempos, wrong style, bow control not there

Candidate #18:

– Stravinsky: good
– Adams: some missed notes, good otherwise
– Glinka: bow control lacking

Candidate #19:

– Stravinsky: slow but good character
– good audition, very musical

Candidate #20:

– Stravinsky: good
– Adams: good
– Glinka: good