Author: Jacy
Date: 2002-08-12 23:32
Mindy,
Personally, I really don't mind chair auditions. They give people an incentive to practice, force us to be accountable for not practicing and whatnot, and they tend to give people the feeling that they've been fairly placed. My band directors have always voiced a worry about auditions messing up our morale and overstressing us; instead, they prefer that we directly challenge someone else's seat, which just opens a whole new Pandora's Box of social problems. They seat us, with some exception, by grade, which really isn't working; people will move up a section or two, but demoting is never an option even when it's sensible. We're tested on our band parts, but those can't be used as a benchmark, seeing as there's a difficulty diff between 1st and 3rd parts. We often know where we stand amongst our section a bit better than our band director does (because they are blinded by seniority), and auditioning usually makes sure that everyone is on the same page.
As for the wanting to play 1st, I find that it's not so much that the parts are more fun, but you're often with a...higher concentration of strong players who may motivate you more. I found that when I've played 3rd (and sometimes 2nd), I've often felt like I was "carrying" the section because we've never had much strength there.
One question, though: How is your band director using the audition results to seat you? (top 6 play 1st and so on, or are they "sprinkling" the top chairs?)
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