This tool helps you prepare for auditions by keeping track of what you’re learning and practicing in the same way as if it were on the panel. Based off real-time performance data, it allows you to assign your practice time accordingly. Use the widget with your mouse/touch or quicker using keyboard shortcuts. Cold start results is tracked alongside preparedness percentages. It gives you an honest view of how well-prepared you are.
Your candidate dossier is on the left-hand side of the screen where you specify your four required pieces/excerpts. You can include either recordings or just written music. For each one you have a name field, a type selector and a readiness slider. Selecting the type allows you to classify material as a solo piece, an orchestral excerpt, a scale, sight-reading, or a recording round. The readiness slider indicates how confident you are with this requirement. Try doing a full take then adjust the slider accordingly. It will update immediately and change the percentage.
How to Use the Audition Tracker
In the upper right is the blind panel simulator. It will test how well you can start playing music without any preparation in a time-pressured situation. To do this just hit seal a mock audition order. This will randomly rearrange your four requirement. Once they are all sealed, click call next requirement to start a round. An immediate thirty second clock begins. Time for you to get on top of the music and set the tempo. The settings below allows you to change length of the clock to fifteen or even forty five seconds.
You have to record whether you started cleanly during the mock audition. If you had to stop and restart, or if you stumbled through the beginning, select option for a shaky cold start. Otherwise, click log a clean cold start. This impacts how ready you are. Shaky = less ready; clean = more ready. Your history is logged. So if there’s an area where you’re weak, that’s what will be targeted for future practice. Or you can make yourself take a call on the weakest file any time. This will pick out the one with lowest pressure score and put it straight onto the stand.
The room protocol checklist is below the panel simulator. It documents things about your non-musical habits that can lead you off track during auditions. Mark off the items: greeting the audition committee, inspecting your instrument, planning your warm-up. None of these factors will count towards your readiness score. But they help in keeping a complete view of your preparation. Clearing the dossier resets every check, history, and score to zero.
Your Practice Docket, on the bottom, works like this: It takes all of the information about your cold starts and readiness, and transforms it into a timed practice plan. Set the number of minutes in total that are available for practice; select length of find-the-start clock; select your panel setting; then click allocate today weakest-first minutes and voila! You now have a practice schedule. Because the system favors pieces where you had shaky starts or lack readiness, those receives more time. Also, each piece is guaranteed a minimum of three minutes. After practicing accordingly, click file one completed rotation. Your readiness scores will be increased modestly to match how long you practiced.
The whole thing can be controlled using your computer keyboard. The M key seals your next mock order. The N key pulls in the next requirement in line. If you’re currently working on a requirement, the 1 key logs it as a clean start and the 2 key logs it as a shaky start. Change settings or move the readiness sliders (even when you’re not on an input field) by using the arrow keys. Buttons such as file or allocate can be triggered using the enter key. This way you don’t have to take your hands off keyboard while running through a simulation.
Think of the readiness sliders as an accurate reflection of your current ability. If they are not, don’t try and pump them up because you played one phrase ok. Leave it and work through the whole piece, or pull out a section once you are ready to change the score. Don’t use the blind panel calls just to check your technical ability, but also to see if you can breathe and stay focused. The thirty second clock is a reminder that there will be silence at the beginning of any real audition. You have to find your way into the tempo in time. Let it go out if you haven’t. Break yourself out of the comfort zone by using the practice docket. The algorithm will push you to work on what you’re not good at, which is frequently where you’ll find the greatest improvement. Don’t file your rotations until after you’ve put in your minutes of practice. That way your readiness score will be based on actual practice instead of theory-based planning. Consistency matters and it pays off over time. You’ll see big improvements from small tweaks every day.
At the bottom, there’s also a helpful panel that lets you quickly reference keyboard mappings and controls. The how to play button toggles it on/off. If you’d rather have a distraction free view of your dashboard, try clicking the fullscreen button. It’ll remove surrounding page elements and give tracker more space… Which is especially handy if you’re running the widget on a tablet or smaller screen.
First, fill out the file with a list of your true audition needs. Then give each one an initial readiness score based off your intuition. After your first round of blind calls, refine those scores. Remember: the tracker is meant to be iterative. You’ll prepare differently; the widget adjusts accordingly to account for your progress. It’s there to keep you on track. It makes things as objective as possible. It ensures you are ready to go when the call actualy comes from the real panel.