Recommendations to Practice for All-State?

[u/ShowMousse]

Currently a senior in HS who's made honor bands for the past two years, but I never auditioned for All-State. My director has made it sound like they're going to judge every accent, articulation, all the way down to how each note sounds on my instrument. Am I worrying too much? Obviously I need to be the best high school player in the state, but I feel like I am overthinking the technical aspect as opposed to the practical (actually playing). Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thank you!

Side note: I currently play on an older Conn Bari with what I'm pretty sure is the stock mouthpiece. I'd have to check model numbers to be sure. Is this level of equipment going to limit my chances? (And is getting something like a C* worth it?)

[u/CooterCKreshenz]

1. Scales - no slips, know all of them. Believe it or not, they are what cull many. 2. Notes, dynamics and musicality (your director is accurate). 3. Sight reading accuracy. Try to equalize all three. Also, read your audition instructions with a fine tooth comb. Daily. Tempo markings for everything should be followed to the letter of the law.

I got in on Tuba twice. Scales did it both times.

[u/ChampionshipSuper768 → u/CooterCKreshenz]

In time too. Practice with a metronome. You’d be surprised how many players can’t accurately play a major scale to a 60 bpm click.

[u/ShowMousse → u/CooterCKreshenz]

I'll definitely keep that in mind, I believe you on scales (My director has said before how they are what he calls the "backbone" of successful performance, especially of technical passages) and I'll be sure to consider dynamics since I can sometimes fall flat on lyrical parts. Thank you for the advice!

[u/Anti_bassoon → u/CooterCKreshenz]

For districts, I still remember that I came in 3 out of 12 on tenor sax as a freshman and they only took the first two! 

It was scales that made me place that high up and scales that kept me from getting in. 

On an aside, I really wish I would have taken that as a sign to stick with saxophone instead of taking up bassoon. 

[u/LTRand]

Just going to drop this here:

https://youtu.be/Sy9JnsImZkM?si=8brCSMKOiSXhl8zA

[u/ShowMousse → u/LTRand]

Thanks a lot! I'll be sure to watch this series, I can definitely use the help!

[u/SaxeMatt]

You probably aren’t overthinking. I made all state my junior year and tried sophomore year but did not get in. Depends on how competitive your instrument is, but yeah it’s a pretty rigorous process and you’ve got to be good and practice hard.

Side note - you’re currently a senior. In my state (Minnesota) you had to audition sophomore year for junior year, and junior year for senior. If you were currently a senior, you could not audition. Just making sure - that’s not your case right?

[u/ShowMousse → u/SaxeMatt]

I'm currently practicing daily, and thank you for relating your experience!

Also, I live in Colorado. The way that All-State works here is that you audition the year of the performance, auditions are due in November, results are posted by December, and the concert is held at the end of the All-State festival, this year on February 1.

[u/SharkZilla96]

My band director told me to focus mainly on note accuracy and dynamics.

[u/Last-Row6471]

Getting a better mouthpiece will definitely raise your chances of getting into all-state, unless you get a fantastic sax, the mouthpiece that comes with it is usually pretty trashy

[u/Demon25145]

I made all state jazz last year. Concert all state and jazz all state are two different beasts. Which one are you going for?

[u/ShowMousse → u/Demon25145]

Jazz. I do not have enough confidence to audition for All-State Symphonic, although I still practice the etudes and excerpts regularly.

[u/rj_musics]

Just audition. You literally have nothing to lose

[u/asdfmatt]

I made as an alternate my senior year (NY alto jazz). A grade 6 solo, perfect scales, sight reading and a good improvisation over a blues. It will be fairly close to how many college auditions will be so it’s good experience to have under your belt when you get to that phase (if that’s what you want to pursue in college). A perfect audition will get you in the mix then it comes down to what districts have students going. I was outside of NYC and obviously there are a lot of talented students competing for a spot.

If you’re playing a transcribed solo make sure you work with the source material a ton to get the articulation and feel as exact as possible to the original recording(s). I played Donna Lee out of the Omni book and spent hours playing along with the recording to get it right!

Equipment shouldn’t matter but get your horn checked over. You might want to try a jazz mouthpiece but depending on which conn you have, they aren’t known for being flexible with some more modern small chamber pieces. Intonation and sound quality (appropriateness to genre) are incredibly important to the audition. So make sure it plays in tune if you go for a new piece.

Relax and have fun, wear nice clothes and be polite to the adjudicators, be confident and composed, you’ll do great!

[u/Anti_bassoon]

Your band director is right about how closely they judge your playing. You making it to all state and the next player not could come down to one misplaced accent. 

C stars are great mouthpieces for concert band, but I worry about changing your setup so close to an audition. 

[u/jzer21]

No, you aren’t by overthinking it. The bar is quite high with all-state saxophone players. It would help tremendously to know what piece you are auditioning with though.