How to prepare for chair auditions

Most chair auditions ask for the same few things: a prepared excerpt or solo, one or two scales, and sometimes a short sight-reading sample. The good news is that all of those reward steady, smart practice — not last-minute panic. Let's build a plan that gets you ready and keeps you calm.

1. Know exactly what's being asked

Before you practice a single note, get the audition requirements in writing. Ask your director (or read the handout) for the specifics:

• Which excerpt or solo, and from which measures.
• Which scales, how many octaves, and whether they're memorized.
• The tempo — is it marked, or do you choose?
• Is there sight-reading? If so, you can't prepare the exact piece, but you can prepare the skill.

Vague preparation comes from vague goals. The clearer you are about the target, the less you'll waste practice time on the wrong things.

2. Learn the music accurately first

Speed without accuracy just means rehearsing mistakes. Start every passage slow enough to play it perfectly, then nudge the tempo up only when it's clean.

1. Name the notes and rhythms away from your horn first, so reading isn't the bottleneck while you play.
2. Play with a metronome at a tempo where you make zero errors.
3. Speed up 5 beats per minute at a time, dropping back the moment it gets sloppy.

If a single measure trips you up, isolate it. Loop just those four or five notes until they're automatic, then stitch it back into the line.

3. Lock in your scales

Scales are usually the easiest points to win because they're predictable — you know exactly what's coming. Practice them ascending and descending, evenly, with a metronome. If they need to be memorized, say the note names out loud as you play until your fingers know the pattern without thinking.

A quick, low-stress way to sharpen note recognition between practice sessions is to drill the staff with a card game — no instrument required.

4. Rehearse the rhythm separately

A huge share of audition mistakes are rhythm errors, not wrong notes. Clap and count the tricky measures away from your instrument, subdividing out loud ("1-and-2-and"). Once the rhythm is solid in your body, adding the notes is easy.

5. Practice performing, not just playing

The biggest difference between practice-room you and audition-room you is pressure. Close that gap on purpose:

• Record yourself playing the full excerpt in one take. Listen back honestly.
• Play for someone — a parent, a friend, a stuffed animal. Performing for any audience builds the muscle.
• Do a "cold start": walk in, take one breath, and play, with no warm-up runs. That's exactly what the real audition feels like.

6. A two-week countdown

1. Days 1–4: Learn notes and rhythms slowly and accurately. Scales daily.
2. Days 5–9: Build tempo with the metronome. Isolate and loop hard spots.
3. Days 10–12: Run the whole excerpt for someone and record it. Fix what the recording reveals.
4. Day before: One relaxed run-through, then rest. Don't cram — sleep matters more than one extra repetition.

Calm the nerves on the day

Nerves are mostly a signal that you care — they're not a verdict on how you'll play. The cure is familiarity. By audition day you should have played the excerpt so many times it feels boring. Before you play, take three slow breaths, set your tempo in your head, and go. If you make a small slip, keep going; judges care far more about steadiness than perfection.

Frequently asked questions

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