How to Prepare Orchestral Excerpts You Have Never Seen Before With Only Two Weeks Notice

You just received an audition list, and half the excerpts are pieces you have never played. The audition is in fourteen days. Panic sets in—but it does not have to. Over the years, I have watched dozens of colleagues face this exact scenario, and the players who succeed are not necessarily the ones with the most talent. They are the ones with the best triage system.

Triage Your Excerpt List on Day One

Before you touch your instrument, sit down with the full list and a recording of each excerpt. Sort them into three categories: excerpts you already know well, excerpts you have heard but never practiced, and excerpts that are completely new to you. This is your roadmap for the next two weeks. The completely new excerpts get the most practice time, the familiar ones get maintenance sessions, and the ones in between get focused refinement work.

For example, if your violin audition list includes the opening of Don Juan by Strauss (which you know), the Beethoven Symphony No. 5 second violin part in the second movement (which you have seen but not drilled), and the Barber Violin Concerto orchestra excerpt (completely new), you now know exactly where your hours need to go. Spend sixty percent of your time on new material, thirty percent on the middle tier, and ten percent maintaining what you already know.

Score Study Before Muscle Memory

When you encounter an unfamiliar excerpt, resist the urge to immediately start drilling it on your instrument. Instead, spend thirty minutes with the full score and a professional recording. Understand the harmonic context: where does your part fit in the orchestral texture? What is the conductor likely listening for? In the Brahms Symphony No. 4 first movement viola excerpt, for instance, knowing that your eighth-note figure is the rhythmic engine underneath the first violins’ soaring melody completely changes how you approach dynamics and articulation.

Mark phrasing, dynamics, and any tricky rhythmic intersections with other parts. When you finally pick up your instrument, you will learn the passage twice as fast because your brain already has a map of where the music is going.

The Three-Speed Practice Method

For each new excerpt, practice at three distinct tempos every single day. Start at fifty percent of performance tempo, focusing on intonation and finger placement. Then move to seventy-five percent, adding musical phrasing and dynamics. Finally, play at full tempo even if it is not clean yet—your brain needs to experience the actual speed to build the right neural pathways. The mistake most players make is spending all their time at slow tempos and then being shocked when performance tempo feels completely different.

Take the famous cello excerpt from Strauss’s Don Quixote, Variation 3. At half tempo, you can perfect every shift and string crossing. At three-quarter tempo, you start connecting the musical line. At full tempo, you discover which transitions still need isolation work. This cycle, repeated daily, produces remarkable progress in just fourteen days.

Record Yourself Starting on Day Three

Do not wait until you feel ready to record. Start recording yourself playing through each excerpt by day three, even if they are rough. Listening back reveals problems that your ears miss in real time—rushed passages, intonation drift on descending scales, dynamic contrasts that are not as dramatic as they feel. I have seen players shave days off their preparation time simply by recording early and often. Set up your phone on a music stand behind you and record every run-through. Review the recordings during breaks, making notes about specific measures that need attention.

Simulate Audition Conditions in Week Two

In the second week, shift from pure woodshedding to performance simulation. Play your excerpts in order, from the list, without stopping—just as you would behind the screen. Wear your audition clothes. Stand if you will be standing. Play for friends, family, or even your cat. The goal is to bridge the gap between your practice room and the audition hall. The adrenaline you feel playing for even one listener is valuable preparation for the real thing.

The players who walk into short-notice auditions with confidence are the ones who treated every day of those two weeks with intention. You cannot control the timeline, but you can absolutely control how strategically you use every hour you have.

Ethan Kim is the founder of Orchestra Kingdom, helping string players win auditions and move up in their sections. Follow him on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube for daily tips.