Ok, I have like 8 days until region tryouts, *dies of nervousness* and I'm frantically practicing trying to get the last touches on the music. the only problem I have is with the chromatic scale. It's the full range scale, and on the way down I can't really take a breath anywhere because it's supposed to be slurred. HOW am I supposed to play it without taking a huge gulp of air in the middle? I'm speeding it up as much as I can, but I still come up short. Taking little "sips" of air every now and then sounds bad, but my teacher says its pretty much the only option I have. Should I do that, or just speed it up like crazy? And while on the subject of speed, I have a recording of a professor at a university playing the music, and she plays it like freaking crazy fast. Do I have to play it that fast? She calls it performance tempo, but there's no way on earth I'll get it that fast before the 2nd. It's allegro, and my teacher said that should be around the range of 88-94. That's pretty much my top speed anyway, for that music. I think on the recording it's about 133. Dang, i'm SO NERVOUS!

Well first of all, play the music at whatever tempo you feel fits it and you're comfortable with. Many recordings do take pieces far faster than they are actually meant to be played, so do some research, and figure out what an appropriate tempo might be by listening to several recordings, and then play as close to that tempo as you can. If it's a little under, that's fine. A clean, but slightly slower performance will yield much better results than a mad dash that's full of mistakes. As for the chromatic scale, you should be able to expand your lung capacity to play it all in one breath. It's a little trick I learned a few years ago, and can catch the auditor's attention. It may not be feasible to expend your lung capacity for this particular audition, in which case I would take a break at the top of the scale for a breath, even if I didn't NEED it there, and then go on. If the turnaround is particularly important to you as a way of showing off technique in the 3rd register (I assume you're not actually going full range), then make the breaths symmetrical. Breathe after A2 going up, and in the same spot going down, or wherever you feel it suits you best.

If you can't get your chromatic scale out all in one breath, you WILL have to take some breaths somewhere. I would suggest taking one for each octave, at the C- adding order to it and making it sound more "on purpose" than "I ran out of air and had to breathe somewhere".

Play the performance piece at the tempo your teacher suggests, if you can. You will not do yourself any favors playing it at warp speed if the music is warped by mistakes! If you can't do it well at Allegro, slow it down a touch so you have fewer mistakes and are able to put some musicality and expression into the piece. Most people would rather hear a piece played well, but a bit slow, than fast with mistakes.

Thanks. The music I'm playing doesn't really have a name, but I'll ask my teacher next time. I'm just hoping I won't get some kind of deduction for playing it too slow or something, they never really did give a speed. I was just going by the recording. But anyway. I'll work on the scale, I didn't even think of taking a breath on each octave (blonde moment). The chromatic goes up to C4, and that highest note just kills me, lol. Thanks again for the tips.

I'm not sure I would breathe after every octave if it is supposed to be slurred. I could see slipping in 1 or 2 breaths out of necessity, but that just breaks the format of the scale up too much for me. Could you perhaps go 2 octaves on a breath (from C1 to C3, C3 to C3, and C3 to C1)? That way it would still seem intentional, but with fewer breaks.

Well, you might get a deduction for playing it too slow. But consider that you would get a BIGGER deduction for playing it at speed, with lots of mistakes.

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(I am referring to playing the musical piece, not the chromatic scale here)

I don't think speed and facility are really at issue here. At a comfortable tempo, if you can't play something on one breath, of course you must breathe. However, if that passage (or in this case scale) is supposed to be slurred, including as few breaks as possible is probably the best way to go. Deductions for improper articulation are also very likely, so I would try not to alter it (or alter it as little as possible) if at all possible.