NCO 2019

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Traditionally for many years MN has had an audition thread; so here it is as the auditions start in a few days 😀

Good luck for today Crazy!

Good luck to anyone sitting auditions this round!

True to form I stumbled across this thread today AFTER my DD auditioned. I think I have made a serious error - my DD is easily G4 standard (sitting G4 shortly and has achieved distinction x2 and Merit x1 in ABRSM to date). I enrolled her for NCO audition as another child she met at music camp suggested she do it and she thought it would be fun and I thought it would be a good experience.

I think I had misunderstood the age ranges when I looked on the website. DD is yr 5, age 9, turning 10 in Jan 2019. I had thought she'd be in the u10 audition but now realise that she would be u11 (I think!) where trumpets are usually g6-8 level. So I am feeling really stupid that she went through something where she is woefully below the expected standard. She really has her hopes up and I don't know how to let her down gently.

For what it's worth, she played a g4 piece and a long (2min plus) g3 piece quite well - nerves showed through, sight reading was good, and was able to transpose the sight reading (I could hear from corridor). She is, I'm told by head of music at school, very musical.

Guess I'm just after some reassurance that I haven't scarred her for life and the NCO people didn't think I was a deluded time-waster! Do you get any feedback or just a "no thank you"?

Any guidance most gratefully received.

You do get helpful feedback. Year 5s go into under 10s unless totally exceptional!

Crazy - what great feedback; hopefully dd was dancing out the door!

PQ sounds like dc did just fine, no one will think you deluded. Being able to transpose atvtgat age sounds really good??

I thought that too about the transposition. Did they ask her to do that as well as sightreading ? There was a mix up last year and ds got asked to do it unexpectedly. This year he auditioned for main orchestra and didn’t get asked to transpose !!
I think she sounds like she’s doing really well glad the audition was a positive experience. I think it’s more about how well they play than grades ( within reason) ds got into under 12s a couple of years ago and he had only taken grade 5 .

Oh yes crazy forgot to say that’s fantastic !!

thanks for the reassuring feedback, much appreciated. She can transpose easily - has perfect pitch and can pick up or learn about pretty much any instrument and work out what key it is in and the music for it (I'm not making sense as I'm not musical myself!) but the physical ability doesn't yet match - eg today she could transpose in her head but some of the high notes she knew what they should be but hadn't yet physically mastered on the trumpet. But anyway, all a learning experience!

Sounds like a fabulous audition Crazy!

No that does make sense and will come in very handy as a trumpet player

Crazy and PQ, both auditions sound like they went brilliantly - congratulations to your DCs!

PQ- pretty sure that will be U10, as my DS is also 9 and auditioned for U10. DD was U10 NCO in Y5 (summer after Y5 ended).
Good luck to your DD

Just wondering what do children generally wear to the auditions? DD wants to go in jeans and hoody ... fine with me but don’t want her to then feel uncomfortable if everybody else is smart?

Ds is always one of the scruffy teens !!

Thank you for the replies! Think we’ll go with comfortable and scruffy then! I will wash her jeans though 😂

We usually go after school- I think mine have been in uniform every time.

I've only just found this place but glad I did because Trumpet has put my mind at rest over the sight reading, thank you!

DD had her audition today. She was very very nervous (much more so than last year when she hadn’t had any experience of NCO) and so some things were a bit shaky. But it sounds like she gave it a reasonable shot. It is a long wait to find out though!
Good luck to those who haven’t had theirs yet.

Strange that some other trumpet players were asked about transposition and DD wasn’t asked (she is applying for U11s). I hope that isn’t a bad sign for her!

No it’s not a bad sign at all . They were only supposed to be asking the under 13s and main orchestra . But it seems like all of the prospective main orchestra weren’t asked either and it said on the info that it was optional ? even for the older ones . So don’t worry .

Thanks.

DS had audition on Tuesday for U11 trumpet. He was also very nervous this time but seemed to settle down once in the audition room. He said after the sightreading he was asked if he could transpose and he told them he could but it wasn't his strong point, they then asked if he'd like to give it as go and he said yes and gave it his best shot. Now for the long wait!

That was my concern TrumpetVoluntary - ds was auditioning for main orch but wasn't asked to transpose. It seems that he wasn't alone. Still seems a bit odd.