Reply To: All State Band Auditions

I was not able to participate in the meeting at All-State because of a family emergency, or I would absolutely have been at the meeting. I’ll put my 2 cents in for what it’s worth.

I think that learning all 12 scales keeps many good players from going through with the audition. However, I think that learning all 12 is a huge educational benefit. However, with the way that we have the auditions currently, I believe the band audition is more rigorous and much more stressful for the students than the choir or orchestra auditions. The orchestra only has 2 scale excerpts.
I think that because of the uncertainty and pressure of the scales, many students choose what they feel is an easier audition in choir.
I agree that it would be more fair to have everyone on the same instrument playing the same scales.
I think that if we chose the scales a week beforehand, many students wouldn’t practice any scales until they came out, and I don’t think that’s educationally sound.
I’m in favor of having them play 6-8 of them for the audition-like from G concert to Db concert. This takes all of the guesswork and chance out of the process but still makes them learn at least the scales that are often encountered in band literature.

Richard Zigweid
Torrington HS