does competing in a lot of competitions help when i apply for music schools?
and of course i mean competing and getting prize but does the competition have to be big to count as something thats important for the application?
No, it doesn’t.
@Lilyseo - The way competitions can be useful is if they help you prepare for your auditions - getting your material prepared, dealing with nerves, performing for people who are judging you. I’m sure they’re nice to have on one’s resume, but it’s the audition which is going to matter. So if they help you for your audition, then you might consider entering some competitions. If you don’t think it will make any difference in your level of performance and there are reasons you do not wish to compete - it will not be detrimental to your application. (Of course, there are sometimes money prizes attached to competitions, which can have its own merits. :))
I have to agree with others, the value of competitions is simply getting into the habit of preparing reportoire, then performing it in front of a jury/panel, the way you will on the auditions. One of the problem with competitions is there are so many of them, and many of them quite frankly don’t represent much, that having entered or won them doesn’t necessarily mean much.
In terms of entry to a music school, it won’t mean that much for most people, your audition is what gets you in, this isn’t like undergraduate academic admissions where you have this long list of stuff on your application that adds up,in music school, pretty much the audition. The only thing I can think of with competitions might be if someone was playing at the level to place high in something like the Queen Elizabeth, but that wouldn’t be about admissions, that might influence a merit package to try and get the person to go to the school, but that is really rarified air.
that makes sense. Well I guess i’ll still compete in some competitions to get used to playing infront of people. haha thanks!