Keeping Your Rhythm During a Cello Audition
If you're like most aspiring cellists, you assume that audition candidates fail because of:
Tone
Vibrato
Playing the wrong notes
Musicianship
I'm here to tell you that the actual answer is much more simple. In fact, it's so simple that most musicians don't really believe it (until they listen to hundreds of real, live auditions).
The real issue is RHYTHM.
Most candidates make basic rhythmic mistakes during auditions. It's the #1 thing that keeps candidates from advancing. This includes:
Wrong rhythms
Rushing
Dragging
Miscounting rests
A combination of all of the above (which is more common than you think)
Most musicians neglect the the rhythmic part of their preparation. (Everyone thinks they have great time.) Also, they don't realize that rhythm-related details are likely to go wrong under pressure. When they're nervous, so many people rush or drag or suddenly skip beats, even if they're normally rock-solid in the practice room.
In my experience, most musicians think they have their rhythmic issues under control, and then most of them walk onstage and make a mistake that gets them eliminated. The sad thing is, they were so nervous, they didn't even notice what they did wrong. These musicians go home, thinking the committee just didn't like their interpretation. And then they make the same types of mistakes at the next audition.
To help the musicians in my course, I'm turning to one of the world's great experts on how to practice rhythm and time--principal percussionist of the LA Phil, Matt Howard.
I've met a lot of string players who love practicing with a metronome, but none of them hold a candle to Matt. Seriously--Matt takes metronome work to a whole new level. I can't wait to watch him work with my group of talented, motivated cellists.
I can still make room in my course for the right person, so if you think this might be valuable for you, we need to talk soon. Find a time to chat with me by clicking the link below:
If you haven't checked out my program info page, you should read it, just to give yourself an idea of the kind of work that goes into professional auditions. You can check it out here.