Trial Lessons Coming Up? Here's How To Prepare For Them

Picture this: you're stepping into the studio, your heart's racing, and then... magic. You've found a music teacher who can turn your musical aspirations into reality.

Now let's make that a reality. In this episode, we are spilling all the tea on preparing for your next trial lesson. From doing your research to planning to the lesson, we unpack the critical strategies for preparing for that lesson.

Don't miss the blog post version of this episode! Click here to read.

Want your personal audition playlist -- right in your inbox? Heck yeah! Click here to get it.

Check out episode 9: The Ins and Outs of My Trial Lesson Experience. Click here to listen!

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As always, happy practicing!

Transcript

Your host, Eleanor: 0:00

Quickly before we start. Do you have an audition coming up or you want to make sure that you are ready for it? But maybe you don't want to sort through a bunch of podcast episodes to find the ones about auditioning. Well, guess what? There is already an audition playlist just for you. These bite-sized episodes cover everything from preparing all the way to the secret to thriving in your audition. You don't want to miss it, and they are compact and ready to download for when you are on the go. So click the link in the show notes and get your audition playlist right in your inbox.

Your host, Eleanor: 0:37

Now back to the show. You are applying for a music program, whether it's a university degree program or maybe something similar or even a little different. You're going to have to find a new teacher, and maybe you have a list of teachers that you're interested in studying with. But let's be honest, how are you going to know which one would be the best? For sure, let's say it together. If you know what it is, let's say it together. Three, two, one you do trial lessons, but you already knew that. That's why you clicked on this episode. The real question is how are you going to prepare for those trial lessons so that they are the best that they can be, and that's what we're going to dive into today.

Your host, Eleanor: 1:26

Hello and welcome to the Confident Musicianing Podcast. I'm your host, eleanor, and after countless practice sessions, a ton of broken reads and seven different music school acceptances in three different countries, I have learned a thing or two about savoring your practicing, becoming your best practice companion and actively working towards your musical goals, and I want to share this with you because I want you to become your best musical self. Are you with me on this? Let's get started. Hey there and welcome. I gotta be honest with you. Trial lessons are so much fun. They really are. Not only is it an opportunity to see how well you work with someone, it's also a chance to get fresh eyes and ears and therefore opinions and thoughts on the pieces that you're working on, not to mention the networking possibilities that come with that too.

Your host, Eleanor: 2:29

I took trial lessons with over 12 different teachers based in four countries, and, oh my gosh, it was a blast. I was able to see what kind of teachers I worked well with, and I also got new perspectives on my pieces. There were times when I was trying to work on a piece and I just kept trying and trying and trying and it wasn't working and it wasn't, you know, clicking. And then one teacher that I had a trial lesson with would say think about it like this, and it would just click all of a sudden. Oh my gosh, those are the best moments. I also got amazing new contacts through the lessons. Like more than once, more than twice, I'm pretty sure more than three times, I would have a trial lesson and the teacher would say "oh, you know, I know a student, or I have a student, or I have a former student who did this thing that you're trying to do as well, or had this problem that you're having. You know, let me get in touch with them, I can connect you guys and through that I now have amazing contacts throughout the world. It's amazing. So trial lessons are the best. Now, by the way, if you want to hear more about my trial lesson experience, including the lessons I learned and the experiences I had, that is all in episode 9, the ins and outs of my trial lesson experience. It was so much fun to make and it's full of some good stuff, so go take a look. It is in the show notes. So now that we've established a trial lessons are really cool.

Your host, Eleanor: 4:10

How do we prepare for them? Maybe we have some trial lessons already booked. We just don't know what to do between booking and actually doing the lesson. So how are we gonna prepare? Let's dive right in.

Your host, Eleanor: 4:24

The first thing is researching the teacher. This might seem obvious, but if you don't do this and you don't know about the teacher, it can be quite like create some embarrassing moments. So, researching the teacher where did they go to school, maybe? What symphonies are they in? Just making sure that you know everything about that. It's as simple as just reading a biography or, like you know, like a few paragraph biography on their website or maybe on the website of the symphony that they're in, whatever it is. Just get like a basic understanding of them and who they are and kind of their credentials.

Your host, Eleanor: 5:06

Number two plan the lessons. Now, with normal lessons we don't really have to plan them because they're weekly lessons and our teacher knows what we're working on. If we're doing a and obviously the next week is a nice etude, we don't really have to plan for that. But for trial lessons the teacher might not have a plan. Most trial lessons, actually all the trial lessons I did I went in and they were like okay, what are we doing? So you have to have a plan, you need to prepare what you're going to work on.

Your host, Eleanor: 5:37

My kind of method is to have one solid piece and one piece that you're still working on, and you start with the solid piece. This solid piece is to show your ability to make an impression. My solid piece when I was auditioning for university was the St St's Obosinata. If any of the teachers who I had trial lessons with are listening, first of all, hello. Secondly, you know that it was the St St's Obosinata. I played that for every trial lesson and that was to show my ability to make an impression. I knew that that piece like I had that piece, it was solid and that was my making an impression piece. Now, the second piece for me that was something that I was still working on was the Mozar, oboki C. That one, I mean, it was one of my audition pieces. It was basically ready to go, but I did have a few iffy spots and if we had time and the teacher was like, okay, do you have another piece? We would work on the Mozart, and that was the piece that I was still working on.

Your host, Eleanor: 6:47

Now this is the opportunity to kind of see how the teacher might work with you on a piece that maybe is still in the works, because that's gonna be most lessons. You're not gonna show up to every lesson with a polished piece completely ready for auditions, so that's really really helpful to see. If you want to really really go ahead and be prepared, you can email the teacher what you are hoping to be working on. I think I mean I didn't do that for most of my trial lessons. I think I maybe did that for one or two, but it is a great way to not only be extra prepared but also show the teacher that hey, I've thought this through, I'm being prepared, so go for it.

Your host, Eleanor: 7:34

Number three we got plan questions. This is a huge one because this isn't really part of the normal lessons, like weekly lessons with your teacher, but it is a big part of trial lessons because in trial lessons you're trying to get to know the teacher and the teacher is trying to get to know you, so they're gonna ask you questions, but you also need to ask them questions as well. So here are some questions that I asked my teachers. First of all, I said say we work together. What would be a few things that you would start me on. This really helps me get a better grasp of their teaching style and kind of their vision for us working together. If the teacher said, maybe, okay, we would probably work on articulation, then that's something. If the teacher says, most of my students we just start with etudes and we just go through these three pieces for the first year, that's also something, depending on how you like to learn. Those are really important things to know. Another thing is and this is necessarily not really about the teacher themselves, but in the study program what opportunities are there for blank? Are there for maybe first years, freshmen orchestras, whatever it is? This helps you get a better grasp on the program as a whole, but also what the teacher has to say about it, and that can really help you kind of get to know the teacher a little better as well.

Your host, Eleanor: 9:05

Okay, the next thing is, if it's online, set up your space beforehand. Now, I did a bunch of online trial lessons, because a lot of them were in different countries overseas and this might seem like an obvious one, but let's be honest impressions matter, so make sure everything is set up, the lighting is good, the sound is good, et cetera. Now, if there is a technical issue, don't stress, don't stress. It's great to kind of show your professionalism. When there is a technical issue, you can just take a deep breath, be calm and just be like oh, there seems to be a technical issue, let me sort it out, and just be really chill and professional and like we got this. It's great. Now, the last one is not necessarily about preparing for the trial lesson, but this is about after the trial lesson, and this is a big one.

Your host, Eleanor: 10:04

Keep a notebook or write notes, whether it's in a notebook or on paper or whatever it is, just write notes for your trial lessons. Now, there are two things that are good to write down. The first thing is the remarks they had about the piece and your playing, because that's just great to remember. A few weeks ago, I wanted to remember a lesson that I had about a year ago, so I just looked at my notes and all of a sudden, I remembered a bunch of stuff and it felt like I just finished the lesson. That can be amazing. It's also helpful when you're trying to decide which teacher you want to work with, because you can look back and be like, oh yeah, this teacher really focused on this aspect, whereas this teacher focused on this aspect. That's interesting and it's really helpful.

Your host, Eleanor: 10:50

The next thing that's good to write down is your thoughts on them and the program. Now, this notebook is for you, and you only. So just be honest. Be honest because that's going to help you for when you have to pick a teacher. If you have a trial lesson with someone and then maybe you forget a few things that maybe didn't go well, or you forget a few things that did go well, then it will be harder to choose the right teacher for you. So just write down your thoughts about them, about their teaching style, about the program, and use it as a reference for when making decisions.

Your host, Eleanor: 11:26

Now, if you have trial lessons coming up, I wish you the best. Oh my gosh, they are so much fun and I invite you to really enjoy them. Just enjoy them. It's an amazing opportunity to meet new people. All right, that's about it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. As always, the stuff to do with this episode will be linked in the show notes from the blog post that goes with this episode to the link about the audition playlist. Make sure to go check that out. To the link for episode 9, the ins and outs of my trial lesson experience. Make a habit of doing yourself a favor and looking at these show notes, because there's some good stuff in there. If you want to show your love and support for the Confident Musicianing podcast, make sure you give it a follow and always I wish you the best, happy practicing and I hope you have a great day. Bye.