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davewerden

Minnesota All-State Audition - Example and Tips - Video

Rating: 3 votes, 4.33 average.
I've been asked to do a new project this year. Brian C. Wilson of iplayeuphonium.com is working to obtain recorded examples of the all-state audition pieces for all 50 U.S. states. I am doing the example for Minnesota.

In this state a composer writes a special etude each year, which is one way to make sure there is an even playing field (i.e. the chosen piece is not one that anyone happened to have played in a lesson last year or something). Composer Timothy Mahr includes quite a lot in a one-page etude. You can download it yourself and look it over here:

http://www.mmea.org/students/allstat...ns/band/etudes

It needs multiple tonguing, a wide dynamic range, comfort with multi-meter, and comfort with things like quarter-note triplets in 4/4 bars (including dotted rhythms within the triplets). There are also some slow sections to show a little expression and control.

The video below starts with me playing the etude, and then has a discussion of two of the main challenges I think students will need to work out. Because of feeling pressure to get this done soon so students will have ample time to see it and prepare, I did not have time to prepare a script to work from. For that reason the explanation may be longer than it needed to be, but then again I'm not sure I could have covered the particular tips in much less time.

You might have fun working on this yourself just for the experience. The sheet music linked above is free, so...

Comments

  1. James Patrick's Avatar
    Dave
    Thanks for the help with this piece and your teaching expertise.
    James