My All-State Seating in High School
A post from the archive, dated 4/15/05, aimed at those working on or reflecting on recent auditions for All-State ensembles. At some personal risk, this is the inside info on how good I really was in high school.
Arizona All-State is being held on the campus of ASU over the weekend and several of my students yesterday were somewhat surprised in a sectional when I told them my all-state seating in high school. I was I believe fifth chair in the all-state band in Kansas as a senior only. As I have said to a number of people over the years I was not a hot prospect coming out of high school and started college as a music business major. I had some good qualities as a player but a screwy embouchure, I did not know that much rep (never worked on Strauss 1 in high school for example) and was thinking small. I believe this all worked to my advantage in ways; I had no bad habits to correct in Strauss 1 (because I never worked on it) and I had to change my embouchure in college and just worked hard! Sometimes teaching the horn is difficult for teachers who are very natural players, they just can’t figure out why you can’t play. In my case, I have probably had the problem you have (or a similar one at least) and I have worked it out over time.
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