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268 The Audition Is Over. Now What? 6 Steps to Turn Every Audition into Your Next Advantage

October 12, 20260 comments♥ 0
00:00You're listening to the Mind Over Finger Podcast.This is episode 268.Welcome to the Mind Over Finger podcast, where we dive into the world of mindful music making, peak performance, and crafting a purpose-driven life and career.I'm your host, violinist, certified performance, and life coach for musicians, and your guide on locking your full potential, Dr. Renipo Gutier.Hi, everyone.I hope you're doing great as you're tuning in.I'm so happy that you're here and I'm so happy to be here with you.I have a really fun episode for you today.
00:41I want to talk about auditions.And specifically, I want to talk about what happens after an audition.As you might imagine, this is something I talk about a lot inside of the music mastery experienceand with my one-on-one clients.And I wanted to bring it to you today becausewhat I'm going to talk about is a way of approaching auditions that can be incredibly helpfulwherever you are in your journey. Inside MMI, we celebrate audition wins all the time.Someone advances we celebrate. Someone gets on the sub list. We celebrate. Someone wins a position. We celebrate.
01:24But we don't just celebrate the audition wins. We celebrate everything about the audition.process, period. And this is important because taking an audition, any audition, it's a huge deal.There are weeks, often months of preparation. There's all the work that goes into getting yourplaying to another level. There's everything you learn about yourself through the process.And then there's the audition itself, where you actually walk onto that stage and you put all of that work to the test.And then after all of that, usually the only questions we get after an audition are, did you advance or did you win?And of course, that matters.I'm not going to pretend that it doesn't.
02:23Is it great to win?Yes.Of course. But winning the audition or not winning the audition, that's only one parameter.It's only one way of evaluating the result. Because there are so many elements that go into anaudition result. And so many of them are completely outside of our control. What's the committeelooking for that day? What kind of playing do they respond to? What are the needs of the orchestra?What is the sound of the orchestra?How many people showed up?
03:00Are they running late?Is the committee tired?There can be politics involved.Financial constraints.There are so many things happening in that room that we simply don't know about and don't control.And yet, we take this very complex process with all these different variables.And we reduce the whole thing to I.advanced, therefore I played well. I didn't advance. Therefore, I didn't play well. Or even worse,
03:36I didn't advance, therefore I'm not good enough. And that's a lot of meaning to attach to oneresult when that result is only giving us one piece of information. But there's another way toapproach this, a way that is healthier and far more helpful and constructive for the future.Because there are huge wins and lessons in every audition. And everyone can walk away a winnerfrom an audition preparation process. But it's a matter of choice. We have to choose to look forthose wins. We have to choose to extract the lessons and everything this experience has given us.You can walk away from the experience having only looked at what didn't work, the bad side of theaudition, or you can ask, how is this whole thing a win? What are all the ways I'm winning because I
04:52took the audition. What are all the ways that preparing for this will help me win my nextposition? Helps me be a better player. Helps me learn, helps me grow. What are the absolute,juicy, precious winds that are hiding in every corner of this preparation and thisexperience? And by the way, everything we're going to talk about today applies, if youwin the audition to. Because when you get the result you wanted, it's very easy to go,yes, amazing, I won and move on. But there's so much information in that experience,information that you can take to your tenure process and the next audition for that even biggerjob. Because if something worked really well, you want to know what it was so you can do more
05:50of it. And that's what I want to give you today, a process for what to do after every audition youtake. Whether you win, whether you advance, whether you don't advance, whether you walk off stagethinking that was fantastic, or whether you walk off stage thinking what on earth just happened.The way that you handle the hours and the days after an audition can determine how much ofthat experience you actually get to take with.you and use in a positive way. Because if you know how to extract all the wins, all the lessons,and all the information that's hiding inside the preparation and the experience, every auditionbecomes part of the preparation for the next audition, the next concert, the next step in your
06:41career, and the next iteration of yourself. So here's your guide to making every audition countand turning every audition into preparation for your next win.Let's get into it.So step one, capture the experience.First, it's helpful to do a short debrief of the audition experience while your memory is still fresh.And I mean short.Write down a few notes or do a voice memo on your phone right after you've left.That's my favorite way of doing it. But don't do anything with it yet. Don't analyze it. Don't decide what it means. Don't start figuring out what you need to fix. That's not the time. Right now you're just capturing what happened. The facts. Again, my favorite ways to record it. So turn on the voice memo on your phone and say it out loud. I woke up, I fell this way. Then I got there. This happened backstage.
07:52And here's how I felt.Then I walked on stage and felt this way.While I was playing, this happened on that note, but I recovered beautifully.And I felt this way.Then this happened and I felt that other way.And this is how I felt walking away from the whole experience.All of it.You're telling the story without analyzing it just yet.
08:17You're capturing the information while it's fresh.because later when you're ready, you can come back to it.And it's important that we separate those two things.First, what happened?Later, what do I want to learn from what happened?Because having an experience doesn't automatically meanwe're going to extract the right lessons from the experience.So the reflection after a word matters.
08:47And there is research on learning and performance.that supports this.Taking the time to deliberately reflect on an experiencecan help us learn from itand improve what we do next.But that's for later.For now, just capture it.And keep it to the facts,
09:08what you did and how it felt.And then leave it alone.Step two, give yourself space to decompress.Now, I want to,want you to give yourself some space.An audition is a lot on the nervous system.You might feel like you handled it really well.And still, it asks something of you, something big.
09:38You've probably been preparing for weeks, maybe months,in addition to all of your regular activities.You've been billing toward this one day, this one moment.and then suddenly it's over.There can be a real drop after that.You've had all this anticipation, all of this focus.Your nervous system has been mobilized for this thing.And then there's nothing left to prepare for.
10:07It's done.And you might be surprised by how you feel afterward,regardless of the result.If you win, you might feel absolutely elated.You might cry. You might feel relieved. You might feel exhausted. And you might feel completely numb. You might have won the job you've been dreaming about and think, why don't I feel the way I thought I was going to feel right now? And if things don't go your way, there can be a whole other mix of emotions. Disappointment, frustration, anger, sadness, maybe even relief that it's over. Whatever is there.pause give it a minute your system has just been through a lot there probably was a lot ofadrenaline pumping through your veins so you need to rest and reset how does one work hard and thenrest and recover appropriately for me that starts with nurturing the asset which is
11:18you. And the asset right now might require some pampering. So I would take those first hours,maybe that first day or two, to simply relax. Don't think about it too much. Rest, recover,nurture, pember. Also, very important. Allow for all of the feelings.We're entitled to disappointment and frustration.We don't need to pretend we're not disappointed if we're disappointed.We don't need to turn a result we didn't want into something we're thrilled about.We don't have to feel okay about it.You feel what you feel and that's okay.
12:15Pay attention to the feelings.Give yourself the space to feel it.And there's an important distinction here.There's feeling the disappointment,and then they're spending the next three days replaying the audition over and over and over again.And those are not the same thing.There's research around what happens after stressful, evaluative experiences like auditions.And one of the things we know is that repeatedly going back over what went wrong
12:50can actually make our perception of the experience more negative.So we're not trying to suppress what happened.We're also not trying to marinate in it.For now, decompress.Step three, nurture and validate yourself.So while you're giving yourself that space,you're validating all your feelings,take care of yourself.
13:19Go to your favorite restaurant.eat your favorite meal. What's your favorite movie? If you're a golfer, go play around a golf,go for a bike ride, go to the gym. Do the things that you enjoy doing and that really feel like atreat to you. Because regardless of what happened in that audition, you just did something hard.You prepared, you showed up, you walked onto the stage, you did the stage, you did thething and that deserves to be acknowledged. You're not validating the result. You're validating the workand the person that you've become through the work. This is very important. Look for all theevidence that you should acknowledge yourself for what you just did. How is this evidence of how
14:17motivated I am. How is this evidence of how dedicated I am? How is this evidence of what anintentional person I am? How is this evidence of how capable I am? Of how courageous I am.Really see those things. And cultivate some pride. You deserve it. Because all of this prideis going to move forward with you.And by the way, nurturing yourself and being proud of yourself and your work doesn't mean thatyou're lowering your standards or that you're going to stop wanting to get better.When we respond to a failure or disappointment with compassion instead of beating ourselves up,we can actually become more motivated to improve.
15:15That's essential.Sometimes we think we need the judgment.We need the self-criticism.And that has been modeled by many of our teachers, our guides, by society.We need to be really hard on ourselves because otherwise, how are we going to get better?That's what I call a thought error.You don't have to punish yourself in order to learn.In fact, that's super counterproductive.
15:47And if you don't believe me, there is research behind that.And I'll put some links in the show notes for you.But negativity does not help you create a positive result.It slows you down.You can be incredibly discerning about your playing.You can have very high standards.You can want to get better and you can also be proud of yourself.Those things can exist at the same time.
16:18So give yourself that acknowledgement.Let yourself be proud of what you did, regardless of the result.Go get that massage.Buy that book you've been wanting for a long time.Treat yourself to a long walk or your favorite yoga class.Take that really long nap.and give yourself permission to be proud for what you've accomplished.So once you've captured the experience, you've given yourself some space,
16:50you've allowed for whatever feelings are there, and you took care of yourself,then we can go back to that debrief.And that's when we start extracting all of the information.And that's where we're going next.So step four is analyze and extract the lesson.Now, when you're ready, go back to that debrief you made right after the audition and startlooking at what happened.First, the positive.
17:26And there's a reason I want you to start there.If you've won, maybe it's easier to start there.But if things didn't go your way, you're going to probably jump toproblem finding. Our brains have a negativity bias. We naturally tend to give more way to the negativeexperiences than the positive ones. After an audition, especially if we didn't get the result we wanted,that can very quickly taint the way we look at the entire experience. One missed note becomes,I played terribly. One excerpt that didn't go the way we wanted becomes,that audition was a disaster.
18:12And suddenly, everything that did workgets completely overshadowed by the few things that didn't.And that is very discouraging.And it will start impacting future work negatively.So starting with the positiveis not about pretending everything went well.It's about making sure we're actually looking at the whole audition.We want all the information, and that includes everything that worked.
18:45What worked?What worked on Audition Day?What worked in my process?What worked in my practice?What worked in my mindset?And spend real time there.Don't make what worked the two-minute section before you spent 45 minutes talking about everything that went wrong.Be meticulous.
19:06what actually worked.Maybe you slept really well the night before.Maybe you felt nervous backstage, but you were able to center yourself.Maybe there was a moment in the audition where something didn't go according to plan and yourecovered beautifully.Maybe the preparation itself brought your playing to a level it wasn't at six weeks ago.Maybe you became much more consistent.Maybe you learned something about how you want to prepare.
19:35So what works?then we can look at what was less successful, what could be tweaked.Why do I want to try next time?And this is where you want to pay very close attention to what you actually know versus what you're assuming.And that's crucial.Because musicians are very good at coming out of an audition and saying things like,I didn't advance because I correct that note.Well, are you sure?
20:12Maybe.But unless somebody on the committee told you that,you don't actually know.Or they didn't like Mike Mozart.Do you know that?Or did you not advanceand now your brain is trying to find an explanation?Those are different things.
20:32So when you're doing this analysis, separate what you know from what you think.What do I know happened?What did I observe?What feedback did I actually receive?And what am I interpreting?Because the danger otherwise is that you make a big change based on something that may not have been the problem in the first place.you missed a note and you decide my technique isn't reliable.Well, maybe.
21:10Or maybe your technique is extremely reliable and you missed one note.Those are not the same thing.So we're gathering information,but we're not turning every single thing that happen into evidence of a problem.This is where feedback is very valuable.If they offer feedback, get it.Reach out to the personal manager and ask.And then remember, feedback is information.
21:46It's not a command.It's someone else's personal opinion.And it's certainly not a definition of who you are as a musician.If somebody says, we wanted more of this.Okay, that's useful.Maybe that's something you want to experiment with.But another committee might want something different.Another conductor might want something different.
22:13And you might get feedback that surprises you or that doesn't completely match your own experience.So again, we're gathering information.What is useful here?What patterns am I seeing?Is this something I've heard once from one person?Or is this something I'm hearing repeatedly?Does it match what I'm noticing?What do I want to experiment with?
22:40And you don't have to rebuild your playing around every comment you receive.Sometimes you're not going to know why you didn't advance.You may play an audition you're incredibly proud of and not advance.You may not get feedback.You may have no idea what they wanted or why they made the decision.they made. And this is where we have to be really disciplined about not creating information that we don'thave. The committee's decision is information. They chose somebody else or the advance somebody else.That's real. But therefore, I'm not good enough. That's not information. Therefore, I don't have what it
23:27takes. That's not information. Therefore, I'll never win one of these. That's not information.That's the meaning you're attaching to the information.And we want to separate those things.Because sometimes an audition result tells you very clearly what you need to work on.And sometimes it doesn't.If you consistently can't access something under pressure, that's information.If you're repeatedly getting the same feedback, that's information.If you listen back and there's something very clear that you want to address, that's information.
24:07If your preparation showed you a technical weakness, that's information. Use it. But one committee making one decision on one day, that is not a global assessment of your potential or your future. So don't ask the result to tell you something it cannot possibly know. Once you've identified something that actually is worth looking at,Here's another question to ask.Was this a preparation problem or was it an access problem?Because those require very different solutions.Let's see there was an excerpt that simply wasn't consistent in the practice room.You knew it wasn't there.Sometimes it worked.Sometimes it didn't.
25:04And then under pressure it didn't.Okay.Guess what that is?that is useful information.Maybe there's something technical that needs to be addressed.Maybe the preparation needs to change.But what if you played this excerpt beautifully 20 times?What if it's incredibly consistent in the practice room?
25:24Then you walk on stage and suddenly you can't access what you know how to do.That's a different problem.And if you don't distinguish between those two things,you can spend the next month doing more and more technical practicewhen the thing you actually need to practice is accessing your playing under pressure.So ask, did I not have this skill yet?Or did I have this skill and struggle to access it in that environment?Because then the next step becomes much clearer.
26:03Maybe you realize that you didn't eat enough.Okay, that's information.If what happened was caused or even partly affected by hunger,now you know what to do.Maybe you realize you need more mock performances.By the way, I have a whole episode on mock performances,episode 163.And in it, I share lots of information on how you can manage your mock performances.
26:29So maybe you need more in-person mocks.This is actually one of the reasons we do so much performance work inside MME.It's not just play for people so you get used to being nervous.We're trying to figure out what happens to you under pressure.What changes?What do you lose access to?And then, how do we train that?So you can access more and more of your playing when it actually matters.
27:00And if this is something that happens to you, go back and listen to you.go back and listen to episodes 257 and 258 where I cover performance and audition prepbecause I go much deeper into that gap between what you can do in the practice roomand what you can actually access under pressure.Maybe there's something about the instrument or setup that needs to change.Maybe there's an interpretive adjustment you want to experiment with, different musicality.This is the information you could not have had before you took the audition.And now you have it.
27:40Isn't that great?This is something I talk about with my clients all the time.So ask yourself a lot of questions.And all of this is going to be such juicy information for the next audition.And let's talk about that right now.In step five, decide what will I do different?differently next time. Now that you have all of this information, you get to decide what you'reactually going to do with it. And one thing I would be very careful about after an audition is
28:17changing everything. Because you could come out with 27 things that you think you need to fix.And now suddenly you're changing your setup and your fingerings and your interpretation and your warm upand your centering and your mock schedule and what you eat for breakfast.No.What gave you good results?Keep that.What do you have actual evidence needs to change?You look at that.
28:51And then of the things that you want to change,what are the one or two things that are likely to make the biggest difference?Focus on those.Because remember, a lot of what you did worked.You don't want to throw away a successful preparation processbecause you didn't get the outcome you wanted.What you want is refinement.We're collecting data.
29:25We're not burning the whole thing down and starting over.So look at all of this information, make some decisions,and then make it concrete.If you decided you need more in-person mocks, when are they happening? Who are you going to play for?If you need to work on accessing your playing under pressure, how are you going to build that into your preparation?If you need new practicing techniques, what are they going to be?If sleep or food or your warm up was part of the problem, what are you going to do differently next time?don't just have the insight, make decisions, and put it in the plan.
30:17And this is a lot of the work that we do inside MME and in my one-on-one coaching.It's not just, okay, what happened?It's what did I learn from it?And now, what am I actually going to do with that information?What changes in the plan?Because insight is fantastic.but we want to turn that insight into action.And this is exactly what I did when I audition for the job I eventually got at Lyric.
30:55I talk about this whole process in episode 263 if you're curious to know more.But for Lyric, I auditioned twice.And the way that I handled the first audition and analyzed it contributed enormously to my success in the next one.I tweaked things on my instrument.I used a different setup, different strings.I got the instrument adjusted.I also learned something about what they were looking for from the feedback.My sense was that my playing at times was maybe a bit too juicy for their taste,
31:33too full of gusto, which is great.That's what I went for.But now I knew more about what they wanted.So the next time I played with more finesse.And the comment from the music director was,this person knows what they're doing.So that first process was key in making that happen the second time.It's great if it works the first time, right?
32:03But if it doesn't, then what's the alternative?You learn and you move on.Speaking of moving on, let's go.to step six. So step six is decide what do I get to keep from this experience regardless of theresult. Personally, I don't believe in fate. I don't believe that things are happening in a certainway for specific reasons. But I do believe that everything we do builds up to help us get more and morelucky and ready as time goes on and equipped. The work that you do,did this time is part of the preparation for the next audition and the next concert,
32:52the next iteration of your career and of yourself. And this is the last thing I want you torecognize after an audition. Look at everything you get to keep regardless of the result.Because even when you don't get the result you wanted, you keep the preparation. You keep thebetter playing. You keep the experience. You keep what you learned about what happens to youstage. You get to keep what you learn about your nervous system. You keep the information aboutwhat helped and what didn't. You keep the experience of recovering when something didn't go accordingto plan. You keep the proof that you can walk into that room and do this. None of that disappearsbecause your name wasn't on the list. So ask yourself, what did I gain?
33:47that I get to keep regardless of their results.And those things are huge wins.How has this experience benefited me?Not just as a player, but as a person.Such huge wins.How is this evidence of the person am becoming?What are all the ways I'm winning because I took this audition?and if you look for them, you will find them.
34:24That doesn't mean we make things up.It doesn't mean, I didn't win, therefore this was secretly better than winning.No.The fact is that you didn't win the audition.And the fact also is that all of this can be a win in so many ways.The way that you showed up, the level of playing your ad because of this process,all of the insight you gain.That's all yours.
34:53You earned it.You won it through hard work.And you get to take it with you.And if you won the audition, amazing.Celebrate the heck out of that win.And remember that there's so much more to take away from a successful audition than the result itself.Because when things go really well, it's easy to celebrate and enjoy the moment.but also it's easy to move on without taking the time to understand what made that success possible.
35:27But you want to know what worked.What did I do in my preparation that helped me get this result?What did I learn about how I play my best?What did I learn about how I prepare my best?What do I want to remember and repeat?Because again, now I'm repeating myself.But everything you learn through that successful preparation is inferring.you get to take into your tenure process, your next audition, your next concert, or whatever
35:58challenge comes next. So whether you want the audition or then get the result you wanted,you have won huge. There's so much value in looking beyond the outcome. And that's really whatthis whole process is about. Making sure that you don't walk away with just the result,but with everything that the preparation and the experience have given you. So to recap,after your next audition, capture the experience while it's fresh. Then give yourself some space,recover, allow for all of the feelings,nurture the asset, which is you.And when you're ready, go back and look at what happened.
37:01Start with what worked.Then look at what was less successful, what you actually know, and what you might want to do differently.And finally, recognize everything you get to take with you.Decide what you're going to keep what you want to change and put it in the plan.And you decide that all of this is a huge win.And it will help you moving forward because every audition win is rooted in all of the past experiences.Winning or not winning the audition is one parameter.one. And if you only look at that one parameter, you leave so much value on the table.
38:04So go after the result you want. Prepare to win. But regardless of the outcome, extract the bestout of the preparation in the experience. Found those juicy, precious wins hiding in every corner of it.and let all of that work move forward with you into the next audition, the next concert,the next iteration of yourself.All right, this is what I have for you today.I hope this will be a helpful process for you in your next audition experience.And if you're listening to this and you're thinking,I know I need to do this differently,
38:47but I would love some support figuring out what that looks like for meI'm not sure where to start.This is exactly the kind of work that we do inside the music master experience.We work on the preparation.We work on performing under pressure.We look at what's working, what's getting in the way,and what you need so that you can walk into your next audition feeling as preparedand confident as possible.
39:15So if you'd like some support with that,you're going to find all the information about working with mein the show notes. And if you want to revisit the episode or reflect on it, the full transcriptand summary are just a click away also in the show notes. That's it for now. I send you so muchlove. A bitou. And there you have it. Thank you for listening. I hope this episode gave you somethingvaluable to carry with you and bring into your work. If you're ready to bring your best playing toperformances, competitions, auditions, tenure track trials, and all the other high-stakes moments youhave to face in your musical career, I invite you to join the Music Mastery Experience.
40:08MMI is my high-level performance training program for musicians where you're going to learn howto prepare effectively, to trust yourself fully, and to perform with more confidence, consistency,and freedom under pressure.To learn more and book your free discovery call,visit mindoverfinger.com slash mime.Until next time, keep going.Your music matters.A bianto.