You are still remembering the day you went to that piano recital and got hooked on the idea that you liked the piano. You thought that you wouldn’t mind expressing yourself with this instrument’s beautiful sounds and that you would love to have a go with this big, black piece of wood.

You happily started piano lessons and before you knew it you were playing piano studies and sonatas meticulously. Piano for you was a very expressive instrument that had endless capabilities. Even your family and your friends loved your playing, your musicality and passion and urged you to keep doing piano for longer.

Then, the day came when you had to do one of the most dreaded things known to mankind. The thing that if you did it, it would have “catapulted” you to become a real pianist. You realised that you had to actually… practise.

You realised that if you wanted to play your beloved virtuosic pieces, you had to suffer, and had to actually do something that you never thought it was needed when you first started your piano adventure; You needed to do this horrible “practising” thing… That meant you had to stay in solitude in a room for hours trying unsuccessfully to play scales, cadenzas and all the things that you loved listening to but weren’t willing to do. You suddenly realised that piano was not as easy as going shopping, dining in exclusive-membership clubs or even having a bob cut in a beauty parlour; it was a bit harder.

Piano wasn’t a happy activity after all; especially if you wanted to play a piece of music not only from start to finish, but also without stopping. You realised that piano and music in general is “boring” when you want to do it sort of seriously. You were saying to yourself: “I thought piano was like going to the gym or having salsa classes. It should be a leisure activity after all, not suffering. And what’s all this “practising” thing about? I doubt piano is as difficult as practising law, or completing a degree in medicine.”

In addition, you had to face the constant moaning for practising from your teacher, since for some reason he insisted on you practising for at least fifteen minutes a week! “And when am I supposed to watch TV?” “How am I going to be able to spend four and a half hours in the local coffee shop if I have to practise?”, you kept asking yourself.

You just had enough. Suddenly, you stopped liking the piano. You just wanted to do something else. But at the back of your mind you were still thinking that there must be a way to become a good pianist, but without all the suffering. In fact, you were convinced that you could still become a good pianist, but without practising seriously.

So can you become a good pianist but without practising? Can you become a pianist that other people consider good but without all the fuss?

Well, yes you can. And here’s how:

1. Make sure you understand that “good pianist” and “bad pianist” in music doesn’t exist. (read here why). All pianists possess the capacity to create beauty with their music. And, at the same time, every pianist has his/her limitations. So, you are not necessarily worst that your favourite pianist, you are just different. Perhaps, for instance, your playing that you consider “clunky” will inspire a composer to write some wonderful music that will later inspire people. Or that your amazing ability to play octaves cleanly will equally inspire your student to become a composer and in return write some fascinating music with lots of octaves that will torment future pianists. So, to recap, what is good is subjective. Sometimes even beginner students can play wonderfully.

2. Remember, that practising a lot or practising very little cannot in itself categorise your musical ability. A lot of famous pianists have said publicly that they don’t like their own performances or that they are not too happy with their musicality; and those were people that have practised for thousands of hours. There is no set amount of hours, despite what some people say, that will make you a good pianist. For example, believing that one million of practising hours will make you a good pianist, is not right. What makes a good musician changes from person to person and that’s why music is beautiful.

3. Good pianists are the ones that play good within themselves; and not necessarily one that plays virtuoso pieces. So, you are a fantastic pianist by only playing pieces beautifully within your own capacities. For instance, if your level of playing is “beginner” but can play your pieces beautifully, then yes, you are a good pianist. Don’t listen to the “musical judges” who say that you need to be able to play this-and-that in order to be considered great. Musical playing is always paramount.

And now, for some fun ways to be considered great:

4. Play only certain repertoire in public and never change it. So, first you need to find pieces that you feel you can play comfortably, and then keep practising them until you have perfected them. At parties never play anything that will give away your real level of pianistic ability, and always have a cadenza ready for after dessert.

5. If you hate practising the piano, set what you personally think is good playing. So, if you think that in order to be considered good you need to play the Cadenza from Rachmaninov’s second concerto or the first page from Chopin’s study op.10 No 4, then all you have to do is study them really hard. Just make sure that you don’t play anything else (even chopsticks…) in the presence of other pianists.

Remember, we choose what is good, acceptable, great, nice, beautiful, fair and so on so forth in life. So, don’t keep comparing yourself with other pianists and just consider yourself great anyway. There’s NO ONE that can prove that you are not a great musician or a musician at the end of the day. Because behind every single coin there’s another side.

How to pass the piano audition

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Since I am a piano teacher, every now and then I get asked from parents and students how to pass a piano audition. Most of students, as expected, are anxious and feel intimidated by the thought of having to face the examiners and their serious faces. They often felt that their playing was insufficient to pass an audition, but also that they had no experience in how to act in an audition-setting.

So, I decided to write this article in order to tell you how to succeed in getting accepted in a music college. If you follow the following rules chances are that you are going to make it.

Before I start, it’s needless to say that you need to be able to play as good as you can; this is the first step and this article, for obvious reasons, cannot tell you how to make your individual pieces ready for an audition.  For this, you have your piano teacher and your personal drive.

So, here’s the things you need to do on the day of your audition:

Prior to the audition:

1. Make sure that you have slept adequately the night before.

2. Eat a good and healthy breakfast and drink plenty of water to keep you going during the day and to avoid fatigue.

3. Warm up; start the day by FIRST playing scales slowly. Don’t “dive into” the pieces straight away. The same applies when you’re given time to warm up prior to your audition.

4. Make sure you are not making last minute changes in your playing, like altering articulations, fingerings, dynamics, etc.; that ship has sailed. On the day of the audition, you mustn’t try to change things.

5. If by any chance you still have any passages that you feel uncomfortable with, practise them slowly but not if full tempo.

6. Finish warming-up (cool-down) with scales again.

In the Audition:

1. Play the piano. Yes, make sure that you play the piano and not any other instrument by mistake, such as the banjo, or the double bass. 🙂

2. Play repertoire that you know the best. Auditions are not the place to experiment or to try untested repertoire that hasn’t matured under your fingers. Don’t play repertoire that you’ve learned, say, three months prior to the audition. Clever pianists know that, and they only play repertoire that has been musically and technically exhausted. Unfortunately, that’s the truth. I say “unfortunately” because after they pass an audition and get into a conservatoire, they can’t learn new music fast enough, since they lack knowledge of different music styles and because their technique is undeveloped; the reason is because they were only practising a certain repertoire for too long and used it to every audition they went. But it got them into the music college, didn’t it? So all’s good I suppose. In addition, have a list of your audition pieces handy to give to the examiners; you look more professional this way.

3. Look smart. It goes without saying, that you should look tidy and not scruffy. Believe it or not, between you and the other pianist who is similarly musically-equipped, examiners are only going to choose you if you have a slight edge in something, even if this thing is your attire. For example, try not to wear fancy clothes and eccentric colours, and if possible hide your tattoos and leave your excessive jewellery at home; even though I’m not against all those four in everyday life. Remember that this is not the “Paris fashion week”; it’s a piano audition. On the other hand, however, even if you wore a silver tiara and a gown made by Donatella Versace and walked down the room like a queen, if you haven’t played acceptably it won’t make any difference, but still, to the eyes of mammals like examiners appropriate dress-code does count I’m afraid. You may disagree with my points here, and you may argue that “looks don’t count, the quality of my music counts, and I can wear whatever I want and I will still pass the audition”. That’s fine by me. However, bear in mind that examiners are not always the greatest when it comes to human psychology and I’m afraid that trivial things like dress codes matter to them subconsciously.

4. Act elegantly. Again, an audition is not the place to show-off your wits or to be a know-it-all; especially in front of examiners who can sniff out inappropriate behaviour from 3 miles away. So, try not to offend or correct or tell-off or raise your voice to examiners. You’ll have plenty of time for that after you have graduated if you still remember the points that you disagreed upon in the audition. Addressing examiners is not like talking to your friends, or your piano teacher, or your parents. They need a special approach and I regret to say that most of us won’t improve this approach until we have played in a respectable number of auditions. Still, act naturally and don’t be “stiff”. Yes, you can be humorous and relaxed but the examiners don’t want to know the latest jokes from “family guy”. Only respond according to their questions to you. For instance, be humorous when there is a sense of humoristic aura in the room or if the examiners expect you to be. Yes, you can correct them if, for instance, they pronounced your city of birth wrongly, but never try to correct them musically; there’s is not need for that. Your best shot is to show them that you respect their opinion, even if you are a thousand percent sure that their musical opinion is wrong and yours is right (are you really so sure?); just to remind you that YOU are the one who wants to pass an audition to become a better musician, not the other way round, so play it cool and keep calm.

5. Be positive; find everything about the audition great. There is no reason for why you should be negative about anything in your audition; it will only make things harder. If for instance, the examiners ask you if you found the piano appropriate, just say that you were very happy with it; avoid going into detail about it being inappropriate for your style or that it messed up your Chopin ballade. First, they couldn’t care less and secondly they would know if you are a good pianist even if you played on an iPad; Do you get my gist? Always try to smile even if you don’t think yourself as a smiley person. So, questions such as, did you like the room temperature, or did you like the piano, or did you like the acoustics of the hall, or did you like the spaghetti bolognese should always be answered with: “Yes, very much indeed!”

6. Be humble. Humbleness never hurt anybody. Being humble is good. And, believe it, it doesn’t show weakness in character; tout au contraire. That doesn’t mean of course that you have to diminish yourself. For instance, if you were asked if you were happy with the way you played Rachmaninov’s second piano sonata, don’t reply: “Oh, it was horrific, I could have done much better, but given the circumstances, I need to apologise if I didn’t please you enough”. Just be positive and always like your own playing, but don’t be arrogantly confident. That means you also don’t say: “I thought my performance was one of the most prolific to have emerged from the first half of the twenty-first century”.

7: Don’t be intimidated. If you go into an audition by thinking that your musical philosophies reflected in your playing are not good enough, you may as well stay at home. You must bully your audience with your views and force them to believe in your potential. As I have said before (read here) there are no bad or good musicians. There are only good musicians. Everyone has something nice to show. So, always believe in yourself and everything is going to find its way.

8: Be honest. Show your real self in the interview and try not to pretend you are someone you are not; leave that for later when you are pretending you are working with your laptop at Starbucks. So, for example, don’t pretend to be humble by saying, “Oh, I’m terribly sorry I played Chopin’s first study in under thirty seconds”. Examiners have “special” talents sometimes and can recognise pretence or lying, even if they choose not to show it.

 Remember that playing itself is not enough to pass an audition. Examiners don’t only look for musical potential, but also for you to possess the whole “package”. You need to understand that conservatoires invest in personalities too, not only in piano machines. It doesn’t matter if you play Feux Follets in double the normal tempo but you are not ready to become part of the community of a serious music establishment.

That’s all for now.

Good luck

© Nikolaos Kokkinis – 5th December 2012. .