This Saturday I auditioned for All Region Orchestra and it was….terrifying. And extremely boring.

Basically, you sit in room with about 40 other hopefuls that play the same instrument as you (and in my case, the bass) for 4 hours. Then “the monitor” calls your number and you play one of the three pieces you’ve been practicing for the judges, who are sitting behind a screen. In Round 1, you’d play Cut 1, Round 2, you’d play Cut 2, and so on. Since it took so long to get the basses organized, we only had two rounds and played both Cut 2 and Cut 3 in the second round.

I was extremely nervous for the first piece and my bow hand was shaking the entire time. I definitely could’ve done a better job. But after that, the hard part was over because the last two pieces were really easy for me. I did my best and felt the world lift off my shoulders as I walked back to my chair. Whew!

Then it was just a matter of waiting for the rest of my fellow bass players to finish. There were some really good people and some people who needed improvement. But I think anyone who tried out accomplished something amazing.

I only tried out because if I got in, I would automatically be in sinfonia (the top orchestra) at school in 8th grade so I was only nervous about totally embarrassing myself during my audition. Long story short, I didn’t make it in but I’m not the least bit upset about it. There were a lot of other bass players there that really deserved it.

Auditioning for All Region was an amazing experience and I’m definitely trying out next year