Daydreaming (Are you a victim?)

So over the weekend I had to judge All-State flute auditions. I got compensation and food for my trouble and it was overall a positive experience. However...there were a ton of flutes to listen to: about six hours worth!!! For those that do not know how this process works; here is a quick over view: Each player plays two etudes for a panel of judges, usually a fast and slow etude. These etudes are selected months in advance and everyone has to play the same piece to make it fair. Hearing the same two etudes played over and over again for six hours gets really tough. Plus, you're trying to focus and remember how this person stacks up to the previous auditions. Towards hour five two things happened that were funny:

1) The worst audition I've ever heard: I seriously think this person was sight-reading!!! At one point during the "fast" etude (I put that in quotation marks because it was slower than the slow etude) this person was so INCREDIBILY off that I couldn't even figure out where in the music the player was!!! I just kept scanning and couldn't find it!! There were an amazing amount of wrong notes, stops and re-starts and then (and this is the real kicker) the player even ended on the wrong note!! And held it out!!!! It was supposed to be an "F" and the player was on an "E-flat".

Ouch.

2) Almost at the very end of the 6-hour process I was listening to one audition and didn't realize I was completely zoning out. I mean completely. I was staring out the window when all of the sudden I heard the last note of the piece, looked down and realized "I have no idea how well or bad that person did!" I had been thinking about something else the entire time.

One more memory from a different judging experience:

I had to judge all of the middle school saxophones once for an All-Region tryout. I was paired with another band director who was really cool. We would talk just a bit during times when no one was auditioning. Well, one kid walks in and plays a fast etude for us on the baritone saxophone. A problem many young players can develop is cutting off the air stream with their throat, which creates a grunting sound. This player had that problem- BIG TIME. The etude was filled with short fast notes: so what we heard was:

Note GRUNT Note GRUNT Note GRUNT Note GRUNT Note GRUNT Note GRUNT Note.

You get the idea. Well he finished and left, and we tallied up our scores for him. The other band director whispered "Bonus points for grunting." I burst out laughing (I mean really loud laughing) right when the next tryout walked in the door. I'm sure it didn't help to hear one of the judges laughing right before you audition. Oh well... still funny