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I'm going to take the plunge and audition for piano lessons at UIUC. The requirements are:

  1. All major and harmonic minor scales in four octaves.
  2. At least one composition by J.S. Bach (e.g., Two- or Three-part Inventions, Preludes and Fugues, etc.).
  3. At least one movement from a sonata by Haydn, Mozart or Beethoven.
  4. At least one composition from a composer of the Romantic period or 20th century.
  5. Harmonization of a familiar melody to be selected by the audition committee.
  6. Sight reading.
  • Scales are to be played from memory. Candidates for the major in piano performance or piano pedagogy are required to play all audition repertoire from memory. All other piano candidates are required to play one composition by memory.
I thought maybe if I publicly declared that I was going to audition for lessons, I'd be more dedicated to preparing. I'm designing my audition programme right now. This is what I have so far.
  1. I haven't practiced my scales yet but I've done these scales before, and at least there's no speed requirement, and I don't even have to do the melodic minor!
  2. I do have a Prelude by Bach, but the accompanying Fugue is in bad shape. They're from the "Well-Tempered Clavier Book 2", Prelude and Fugue No. 20 in A minor.
  3. There was the sonata that I really love by Beethoven, Sonata No. 27 Op. 90 E minor, movement 1. There are several difficult parts though, because you're required to play ranges larger than octaves very quickly. It will require much dedication. There's another option though, I just ran across this other Beethoven Sonata that I blogged about in a previous post. It doesn't seem so difficult, and is quite pretty. Maybe not as impressive though?
  4. The Romantic period is my favourite. I have the Raindrop Prelude by Chopin (Prelude No. 15 in D-flat) that won't take me hard to bring back up. I also have Gymnopedia No 1 by Erik Satie, one of my all time favourite pieces to play.
  5. I'm possibly a little worried about this harmonization...but won't worry about it right now.
  6. Sight reading...also worried about this. I'll have to work on it too.
So you can see I have my work cut out for me, especially since I'll be working on a paper this summer and will be getting back into shape for modern dance class in the fall. Any suggestions?
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2 Responses
  1. Anonymous Says:
    April 25, 2008 at 7:43 PM

    I'd just work hard at it, but not too hard. A couple hours a day or something? It helps me to practice with other people watching, so that I don't get nervous about playing in general. Hope it helps you too.


  2. Unknown Says:
    May 6, 2008 at 4:22 PM

    That's a good idea. I was recently listening to the hard beethoven sonata mentioned, and decided that I really wanted to do this piece. I found a friend who says she'll go with me sometimes while I practice, so I hope this works!


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