Hi everyone,
I really need help, or just confirmation i suppose. Well i have an audition to a music school next Tuesday. It is and advisory audition which if i pass i can go and do the actual audition the following week. They require you to play two contrasting peices, they may also ask you to sightread and they may give you some aural tests. When they say contrasting peices i wasnt sure what they meant. At first i was sure it meant two peices from a different period. So i showed my piano teacher afewsongs: grade 6 Allegro A3 (old syllabus) and Grade 6 Feelin' Good C1(old syllabus). She thought i played the modern peice very well but that i didnt play the Allegro very well. So i showed her the grade 7 peice Allegretto in C minor A2 ( the new syllabus) and grade 7 Najil Hakeem's Dumia C1 (the new syllabus) and finally i played to her Brian Bonsor's Willie Wagglestick's Walkabout C2 (the new syllabus). Afer playing her all the pieces she thought i should go for the grade6 Feelin' Good and the Grade7 Dumia. However these two pieces are not contrasting in period but they are definetely contrasting in style - Feelin' Good is a jazz peice and Dumia is a lebonese peice that uses alot of the Gypsy scale found alot in Middle Eastern Music. Well anyway she thought that Dumia would bring out my potential due to the contrasts in pedal and staccato passages and that it has alot of texture. And she said that the Feelin' Good is played very well by me. Im still worried that they will not count as contrasting though. It is very annoying that the audition form didnt give any detail about the standard of peice or types of peices they're after. Can anyone help?

My daughter successfully auditioned for music school earlier this year. She was advised to play one piece which had technical challenges and one which was expressive. She designed her own programme and in the event played 3 pieces on the piano, a Clementi sonatina, a Chopin mazurka and a Bartok stick dance. She has also played both of the Brian Bonsor pieces you mentioned, they're great pieces. It's much better to play something you can do well and which shows off your strengths, than maybe aiming high and just missing. Good luck!

Thanks, that helped... so would you say that the auditioners would be after how well you play a peice rather than difficulty of the peice, or perhaps a bit of both? The school wernt very detailed in what they required in the audition. All they said was two contrasting peices. Well we will see.

I think they are really looking for musical promise, some-one who has a natural talent which they believe they can develop at the school. Many are advanced in grade terms, but not all. Play something you really like and which you can do well rather than worry about how difficult the piece is. They are bound to ask why you want to go to the school, they look for a high degree of commitment. Is piano your first study and are you playing another instrument?

Just because two pieces were written at the same time does not necessarily mean they do not contrast. Gypsy inspired music contrast very well with "Feelin Good". I would not worry about it.

Well another important thing i forgot to mention is that i need a second instrument (well it certainly helps for the audition anyway and it is cumpulsory for when you are actually studying at the school). I began learning drums in February and have finally decided that that would be a good second instrument for me to play as opposed to flute or violin. I don't have a proper drumkit to practice on at home though. I get through the beats very quickly according to my teacher, but the beats i learn don't stick in my head like glue because im unable to practice. So at the moment i can't really consider that to be a proper second instrument . I will certainly mention it at the audition though. I was just wondering what you thought of this scenario...Did your daughter have a second instrument and if so what level was it at? I appreciate your help very much.

My daughter also plays trumpet , grade 6-7, she is eleven. She played 2 trumpet pieces at her audition one classical and one jazz. Usually you get asked to play 2 contrasting pieces on one instrument and one piece on a second instrument. It might be worth you (or your parents, how old are you?) ringing the school and discussing whether they would like you to play something on another instrument. As far as I know all musicians at specialist schools are required to have keyboard skills in addition to their main instrument, though obviously for some piano is their first study.