I had my student concert (why do we call these "auditions?) last Wednesday. It was very satisfactory.

I played the Loure and the Minuet from Telemann's "Concerto a Tre", in a duet version we made with my teacher out of the original Trio. She was the second flute, playing a combination of the horn and cello parts.

I will not deny that I was scared. I had fingering problems in the fast arpeggios too closely before the concert. It is easy to miss a note there and normally I have been unable to recover from such an error for at least four measures. And there are no easy places to breath.
But I could control my nerves, spent some 15 minutes warming up those parts with problems and the result at the concert was no butterflies, no noticeable out of tuning and no important tempo slowering near the end. We chose to play the Minuet rather slow (quarter = 110) to decrease the risks of errors.

In general the tone was also good, within my present limitations.

Only mistake I made (and this was because of nerves) was to rush at the attack of the Minuet, after the Loure. I took the other flute by surprise and she had to catch up with me. It was a pity, because we had practised this transition a few times and it had always worked, but it is a different thing when one is facing the public and any detail can make you lose concentration. We had decided I would turn on the metronome for some 6 beats, to be sure I did not attack the Minuet too slow (boring) or too fast (unplayable), as the previous Loure is much slower. But the little demon did not sound at first try, I had to squeeze it to get it back in operation and so lost my coordination with the other flute.

So I am very happy and satisfied as I had practised this piece many tens of hours, if not a hundred. Even developed a big callus on my left index finger for the first time.

I will play it again, this time it will be the actual Trio of flute, horn and cello in August. By that time I hope I will have the first movement "Allegro" prepared, right now, a couple of measures with fast scales are still beyond my present capabilities.

Congrats! Performing well is absolutely euphoric. IMHO, not much else tops that feeling.

Don't worry about the missed notes or the little mistakes. They happen. If anybody noticed and judged you harshly for them in a non-competitive environment, they're bitter and angry people whose opinion you should not be concerned with anyways.

Congrats. I am glad you got up there and played.

I have to audition to get back into college and I am terrified. I have never played flute for a panel of judges. I am nervous playing in front of some of the other ensemble players in my wind ensemble. I have gotten better over the past few weeks. I guess I will see what happens at the concert. I am back to the percussion section once again for 5 songs which bites. I really need to play the flute more.

I wish my band had more percussionists.

How exiting! Congratulations Jose-Louis!

I am always amazed when things go really well, because there is so much that could go wrong, but doesn't. All that practise payed of.
I assume you are looking forward to play with the horn and cello in August. Do you know the musicians already?

Thank you for sharing my joy!. All your comments are interesting.

It is true that there is sooo much that can go wrong, that it looks amazing it could go right at all. But only if we rationalize this too much. These kind of presumed miracles happen in all orders of life. Just consider the ability of walking, running and jumping without breaking our necks!

Our bodies are very wise and know how to solve difficult problems without resourcing to our rational mind. That is why we can play fast passages like 3rd octave D-F-E without knotting our fingers. The only way to learn these things is by intensive practise. At least that is my case.

That is why the last-minute warming up of the (for me) difficult passages like the one mentiond above, did the trick.

I have been rehearsing (for the choir) several days with orchestra and I could hear the pros or very advanced instrumentalist students doing exactly that, a few minutes before the concert.

My teacher is surprised that I have difficulties in that passage because it is considered to be part of a normal scale, so I should know it very well already. And she is right, as usual and I lack in the practice of scales, I know.

I do know a few professional musicians in different orchestras and in some cases we share a friendship to the point of allowing me to play with them, in a sort of "domestic concert".

I consider this to be such a high privilege that I have left aside everything else in my flute learning and have dedicated the last three months to the Telemann Concerto a Tre. The recent student concert was, in a way, a rehearsal of what I will try to accomplish in August.

My teacher was flexible enough to allow me this exception and help me very actively with it; I am immensely grateful to her for her comprehension.

You seem to have so much fun, Jose! I wish I had the time to do even more music related things.

Vampav8trix, don't be too nervous. I assume that the real work will begin after you have started the college education on flute. by the way, why not use the percussion playing to get rid of nervousness and tension. I think you are getting a good sense of rythm by playing percussion, so just enjoy it as a change to the usual flute. At least you are very needed and appreciated in the ensemble since there is a percussion shortage, right?

vamptrix(?) don't worry about being left the percussion part, i missed a rehearsal (orthodontist the day before and couldn't get a sound out that day) for junior orchestra at school, and i am the main flute there, it was the day the conductor person was giving out the parts for the new song and i had explained the situation to him that day and said i wouldn't be there, and he had said he would keep the part or me but instead he gave the other flute my part and left me a really small part which wasn't really necessary(especially being such a small group) he then told me i could do percussion instead, which i did and it helped me with my sense of rhythm and counting in rests ect. and the i am glad i had the experiance i now know though that i will never be doing percussion again (i am rubbish at it).