<p>Hey thzxcyl! Thanks so much for your input :) I see what you mean about using the word "perfect", I guess the word more suited to what I meant was "polished", as in it would take me 5 months to learn the notes well enough that I don't have to think about them, polish my technique, and add my interpretation. I definitely agree that pieces with that amount of emotion can never really be played "perfectly", so I guess in that case it would be fair to say I could only get it adequate at best in a few months. On the ballades, I remember the first teacher I had played a Chopin ballade at one of our recitals, and I believe she had been playing all her life and had received her AMus Diploma (level above 8th grade), given the fact that I think she still had some difficulty with it, I definitely think I should spend another year polishing my technique. I might still send off the tape, but I really don't expect anything to come from it, except for motivation to improve over the next year :P Thanks for your well-wishes. Congrats on Peabody, I'll look into all these schools people have mentioned for sure :D</p>
<p>You may gain some insight into Julliard and piano players by checking out the recent From the Top program which you can listen to online.</p>
<p>They spoke with a piano player now a grad student at Julliard in piano who at 18 was on From the top. At the time he learned and performed at concert a major piece in a week just to see if he could do it. Not 3-5 months. Said his fingers were so sore from practice he could not play Forte at the concert.</p>
<p>I thought maybe his fingers were sore because of the old story about Julliard piano students leaving razor blades between keys to "cut down" on the competition.</p>
<p>Of course he is exceptional and now writing and subing for John Williams. </p>
<p>But it gives some flavor to the level of piano students at Julliard.</p>
<p>Thanks for that story, very interesting :) Ill check out the website when we get more download next month :D And razor blades? Ow thats taking competition a bit too far lol</p>
<p>Just to clarify this is the link to the show</p>
<p>And the name of the pianist is Greg Anderson, an amazing player, composer and Julliard success story.</p>
<p>PS also a great Trumpet performance on the same show</p>
<p>Thanks :) Wow do you know this guy? I'd love to know some musicians, but none here lol.</p>
<p>Vie de musique...of course there are musicians on this board.
I'm a composer and pianist.</p>
<p>Oh I meant 'here' as in here in my town. Wow im impressed, do you compose for piano? Is there anywhere I can hear your stuff?</p>
<p>Vie<em>de</em>musique -</p>
<p>I would just like to point out that the majority of college admissions are not as "political" as some would believe, at least in my experience (I auditioned at, among others, Curtis and Juilliard this year). In the vast, vast majority of cases, the best players will win auditions - period. I know a number of players from Juilliard precollege who were not accepted to Juilliard college, and a great many more who were not in the precollege and did get into Juilliard college. All that membership in the precollege means is that one doesn't have to go through the prescreening phase.</p>
<p>One thing that I cannot recommend enough is to try to get a lesson with one or more of the faculty members you are interested in studying with beforehand. Often they will be so swamped when everyone's in town auditioning that they won't have time to work with anyone individually - and even if they did, it's not necessarily fair to the rest to only work with a handful. So if you could try to arrange for a lesson some time beforehand, it would give the teacher(s) a much better idea of your agreeableness, ability to incorporate suggestions quickly and accurately, etc., which in my experience has been just as important (if not moreso) than your current technical ability. If this is financially impossible, at least try to send one of them a recording of your playing and ask for feedback - regardless of whether or not they think you're ready for Juilliard. Hope some of this has been helpful,</p>
<p>Billy</p>
<p>Hey Vie<em>de</em>musique,
I'm in the process of setting up a website of my stuff; I'll let you know when its up. Thanks for the interest! As for writing for the piano, I haven't sone much of it. I always find it difficult for myself to write for the instrument I play. I'd much rather write for other instruments, orchestra etc. But one day, I'll def. write something for the piano.</p>
<p>I do know some people at Juiliard (college) now as well as some people who did pre-college there. If you want to know anything, I could always find out for you. I finishing up my first year as a double degree in music and engineering at Northwestern but I'm transferring next year. </p>
<p>Best,
E</p>
<p>Thanks for your suggestions billy, I'll try my best to get a lesson before hand or send in the tape :) Great idea for the website, E, I'd love to hear when it's up, Thanks! And thanks for your help, and good luck with your studies!</p>
<p>bsnbilly: I think it's certainly true that the best players will win the audition, but the "period" after that is too definite. I have no doubt that the true geniuses - e.g. one or two every decade only, or one every century? - will be recognized, but all schools - perhaps except Curtis when they are lucky enough for a particular year, since they accept so few people overall - have to accept people who are less than genius but are nevertheless great musicians. It is those spots that would be tricky, because they are more great musicians than they are spots in the great conservatories. That is when all those other factors beside musical abilities come in, like connection with a particular teacher, display of a particular quality that impress the faculty at a particular day and a particular time, etc. etc. So, the best players will win, but not all of them. I'm sure there are less competitive instruments/voice majors, but for piano this is definitely true. It would be rather naive to think college admission is only merit-based; it is never true any time or any places, not even at state-school where they can play the game of "we know you are going somewhere else better, so we might as well not accept you". I'll be happy to hear any exceptions.</p>
<p>Certainly there's no debating the unpredictable nature of auditions - the particular qualities striking them on a particular day that you speak of. Often the connection with a particular teacher is beneficial, but by no means binding - I know of one musician in particular who studied with a professor at Curtis for several years on a regular basis, applied, and was rejected - multiple times. But either way, perhaps I was overzealous with my proclamation; I merely wanted to dispell that someone who is nowhere near the top of the applicant pool would be accepted due to the dreaded "politics." Point taken</p>
<p>If you are a focused performance major--i.e., headed for an orchestra job or a career concertizing--go to a school FOR YOUR TEACHER only. Everything else pales. If, however, you want to do music ed or something else, then you want a university situation that has a lot to offer: Indiana, Eastman, Michigan, Peabody, etc.</p>
<p>You said you're in 8th grade, right? Work hard, explore your world and in a few years you might have a shot.</p>
<p>It's too early too tell right now. I've never heard you play before.</p>
<p>As people have already said, it's really hard to find out how good you are through just listing your repertoire, and chances at high selective colleges (including music ones) are a bit.. random.
By the time you are through with high school, the level of the pieces don't change that much, it's HOW you play the pieces. Someone had mentioned that Julliard auditions might not even listen to the whole piece. It's how musically expressive you are, as well as your technique. Personally, I've been playing piano for ten years now(i'm a freshman), and I know that soon (perhaps, this year), the level of difficulty of my pieces will come to a standstill. There are harder pieces out there, just not suited to my style of playing? When it comes down to the auditions and competitions, it's more how you play it that matters. Otherwise, I say, work on your technique a bit more, because speed should not be what's holding you back at this point. Maybe talk with your teacher about working some more Czerny, Cramer, or Hanon work (at faster tempo) into your practice regimen? Ps. Chopin's Etude op 25 n 2 would also probably help the facility in your right hand...</p>
<p>Thanks for your help everyone. I've taken all your advice on board :)</p>