<p>Simple yes/no question. Unless there's a gray area of exceptions :P</p>
<p>Point blank, my audition for one of my schools is a little less than 2 months away. We're driving there, all 5 hours of it. D: I don't think my parents would like to drive me there anytime before my audition. So is it acceptable if I try to get a lesson the day before (of course I'll email them about it sooner rather than later) or am I better off just doing the audition as is?</p>
<p>Yes but it will ultimately up to the teacher and school policy</p>
<p>I think it would be hard to impliment any changes or suggestions they would have into your audition selections. I understand the parents not liking a roadtrip. Luckily, my honor choir to a school I’m auditioning at serves as double duty, because it’s a three+ hour trip and I was able to squeeze a voice lesson in the same day. My audition for that school is the next month, so that leaves me with ample time to make any changes if need be.</p>
<p>If it really is impossible for you to get there any other time, then go ahead and ask the teacher if they have time to give you a sample lesson while you will be there. Do not be surprised if they tell you that they are too busy, because audition weekends can get quite hectic for the teachers.</p>
<p>Many schools have a program that lets you stay in the dorms for a night with a current student. Would it be possible for you to travel to this particular school on your own via bus or train on a day that a lesson would be more convenient for the teacher or teachers involved?</p>
<p>Ask the teacher. This will vary by school, and applied teacher. Our son had a one lesson the day OF his audition (he had a lesson about 6 months prior and the applied teacher offered to see him the day before the audition). In another case, DS had his audition at the school where three of the applied faculty were present. He had a lesson with one later that day…and with a second the following day. This had all been arranged prior to the audition day. (Thank goodness DS did well at the audition for this particular school!!)</p>
<p>Last year my son did a lot of his sample lessons the night before with the professor as we were travelling a long way in many cases. He found the hour or so chatting and playing gave him a much better perspective on the professor and college and though it was impossible to “fix” any issues highlighted it also gave him a friendly face he knew at the ten min audition the next day.</p>
<p>It’s certainly well worth the effort to ask, especially if you cannot find another time to schedule a trip and a lesson. Even if the teacher (or school policy) will mean that a lesson on the same day won’t work, at least you will be indicating a strong desire to have a lesson, ie a strong interest in the school and the teacher; hopefully the teacher will be able to accommodate.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the advice/responses!</p>
<p>BassDad, I took your advice. I have a friend of a cousin who attends the school and has told me that I could always stay with her anytime. So I did some research on train/bus schedules and figured I could probably go up there a few Fridays before my audition.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the teacher is only there Tuesdays and Thursdays. But she offered for me to take a lesson at her home which is about an hour away from the school (according to google maps, but it’s still about the same length of time from where I am. Weird). I declined the offer because it couldn’t work since I was going to go the the school by myself, and I can’t get to her house by myself. ncym, hopefully that will be the case! Maybe I could find a way to get up there on a Monday, then have a lesson on the Tuesday after. Who knows.</p>
<p>My son (now a college sophomore) had a packed schedule, applications to schools very far from home and other issues which made it impossible to visit several of the schools he applied to. He wrote ahead to request lessons the day before and got them at all but one school where the teacher said she was too busy that day. He enjoyed these lessons and found they made him feel a lot more comfortable in the actual auditions. I suppose it could have the opposite effect if you got a mean teacher, but he tends to steer away from those when at all possible anyway. He was told in each case not to try to incorporate the changes in his audition performance and he didn’t, but it did give him a good sense of the different teaching styles.</p>
<p>It may be more helpful to ask to sit in on lessons and/or a studio class. IMHO, it is unethical to attempt to make changes in a musician’s technique when there will not be an ongoing relationship. There may be misunderstandings and problems caused, rather than help given. Every teacher has a different approach, a pecking order of things to address. It can be confusing to the musician and it may be problematic to the ongoing pedagogical relationship with the current teacher. Certainly it is risky to hear suggestions for changes the day before an audition…it may make the musician less secure.</p>
<p>Agreeing with Lorelei. In every lesson my D took during a school visit, she was given suggestions about technique,etc. It’s often a tool a teacher uses to see if a prospective student can take direction and to see how quickly the student can put it into practice. To do this in the day before an audition seems like a lose-lose proposition for you and the teacher since neither of you can really feel free to behave in a natural manner.
That being said, if the teacher does NOT sit on your audition panel, and you can deal with last-minute criticism -well intended though it may be- without letting it get to you or making you doubt your abilities and technique (which would not be advisable at that point), then you may have to go that route if you need to.
It’s not unusual to have a teacher who is on your panel and who may be interested in having you in her/his studio, to wait until after the actual audition to ask you to come in later that evening for a session. It depends on the structure of a school’s audition day- some go well into the evening- but others are scheduled and over by 5PM. Check your school’s posted audition day schedule and see if there is time- if so, you could ask if the teacher could spare some time in the early evening.
Good luck!</p>