Memorizing Excerpts for Auditions
One of the questions I hear is whether or not musicians should memorize their audition excerpts.
A lot of that depends on you and your confidence in your memory! But memorizing music is something that changes with your career.
As a student, I had absolutely no problem memorizing anything. It just stuck, without me ever really thinking about it.
But as I grew older and got into an orchestra, my job was heavily dependent on READING music. A lot of music. And it changed from week to week. And so I got out of the habit of easily memorizing whatever I was working on.
When we are working on an audition list, we start with the written music—checking the notes, the tempos, and the dynamic markings. As we get to know it better and learn how the part fits into the rest of the orchestra, our sense of what we’re playing becomes more layered and complex:
Who else is playing that line?
Who am I blending with?
Am I the main line, and when do I switch to being a supporting line?
Sometimes, looking away from the music allows more flexibility in my concept of the passage. I can hear things better when my eyes and brain aren't constrained by looking at the actual music.
But in order to play something from memory, the process of learning the passage is different than if I were going to just read the music. In order to feel completely solid, I need to work on the excerpt in a very different way to ensure there is no hesitation.
It's a lot more time consuming, but I feel that this kind of work allows me to get to know the piece more intimately and have a confidence that I don't have if I'm relying on the music.
Note that you are never required to memorize an audition list (except for possibly your solos). Of course, most players are used to having their solos memorized. And wouldn't it be great to know your excerpts as well as your solos?
In the end, it’s up to you. You want to feel confident and rock solid when playing an audition. If looking at the music helps, you should do it.
Happy practicing!