Developmental Differences and Why Your Kid Is Doing Fine

Parenting a young musician is as much of a commitment as being one. As the school year wraps up, many parents are evaluating if their child can, should, or wants to continue with strings. These questions may be further convoluted by doubt in a child’s abilities or motivation. Why won’t my kid practice? Why do other kids sound better? Should we throw in the towel? To shed light on such matters, it helps to look at where music education fits in to general childhood development. I’ll spoil the end before I get there; your kid is doing fine. We’ll get to those individual questions in future editions of this column.

Kathy's Audition Tips

Many events and organizations require auditions for would-be attenders. Our local orchestras, All-State and All-New Englands require auditions as do many summer camps…and of course music colleges and advanced programs for our high school seniors. Some teachers ask for auditions to admit students into their studios.

Auditions can be scary! But there are a lot of things you can do to prepare yourself for the best experience. You can learn a lot about yourself and your playing by performing an audition. It can and should be a good experience.

Remember: not all auditions are “screeners”. There is no failing these auditions: your seat in an orchestra, for example, might be allocated according to the audition (not whether you get a seat) and it is an opportunity for the Music Director to get a sense of your capacities as he makes musical decisions about repertoire and seating. You want to get an appropriate seat: being placed beyond your capacities, or below, can be a bummer.