I had the honor and privilege of adjudicating our district’s NYSSMA festival last weekend. It’s been a few years since I adjudicated, and I wanted to share some tips for students participating in the future:
1.) Pay attention to the little stuff – Dress nicely, show up on time, bring the piano score, follow instructions, and ask if you should take your repeats. Every student who followed these instructions had a correspondingly strong performance. They were prepared, and it showed.
2.) Treat your NYSSMA Permit with respect – If you hand me a crumpled, tattered and dog-eared piece of paper, I don’t expect much from your audition. You are given your permit when you arrive at the school, take good care of it in the short time before I see it.
3.) Be prepared for distractions – Fire truck sirens, steamy hot rooms, announcements from the principal, drummers in the hallway; all of these things happened while I was there. You can practice for this by working on your concentration at home, and having key words that help you focus. Bring extra water to stay hydrated, and put tape on your embouchure so you don’t sweat and slip.
4.) Flag the correct page in your piano score for the judge – I wasted a lot of audition time reading the Table of Contents looking for the correct pages in my score. See #1.
5.) Know your Festival Level options – You’ve spent a lot of long hours preparing your piece and have it perfect. But sometimes the unthinkable happens. After you perform, if you truly, truly feel that your performance was subpar you can speak with the judge about switching to a Festival Level (comments only) and forgoing a numerical score. Seniors have no choice and must perform this way because they are not eligible for All-State or All-County. But this can also be helpful for first-time NYSSMA participants who need advice as they continue their studies.
6.) Don’t freak out that the judge writes while you are playing – The auditions are 10 minutes long, and I must take notes while you perform in order to assess what I am hearing and stay on time. I had several students finish their pieces while I was in the middle of a sentence and didn’t want to lose my train of thought. I know it’s weird to finish your piece in silence, but it’s not because I was writing bad things!
7.) NYSSMA judges are not paid much – I’m not complaining or passing judgement on the teaching system, but I think it’s important for students to know that the judges aren’t there for the pay. The judges I met all care deeply about upholding the standards to which NYSSMA adheres, and making sure that everyone was graded fairly and consistently. Think of NYSSMA as the Regents Exam of Music and you’ll start to understand the mammoth task at hand.
8.) Don’t raise the stand to cover your face – As I said above, I only have 10 minutes to evaluate you as a flutist. Since so many issues are related to embouchure, it’s crucial that I be able to see you. Forget your nerves and remember we’re here to help you become a better musician!
9.) Judges run late – I tried my best, but will admit that I was running late at one point. I had a parent who was upset about this, but often it’s completely out of my control. I had several students who were late, and they arrived at the same time and put my schedule out of whack. I also had some of my private students scheduled for my room and had to swap them with other judges for fairness, which is time consuming.
10.) Judges can be nervous, too – Our festival last weekend was also a training site for new adjudicators. Your heart may be pounding and your nerves threatening to get the better of you, and the judge on the other side of the desk may be feeling exactly the same way! It’s a daunting task to hear someone play for the first time and accurately pinpoint your strengths and weaknesses. The best judges do this masterfully. Take your NYSSMA permit, hang it up where you practice, and use it as a to-do list for your musical goals this year. Follow your judges’ advice and you won’t be disappointed.