What to Do if You Bomb an Audition
Itâs happened to everyone. Itâs happened to me, multiple times. You show up to an audition feeling completely prepared (or maybe not), you take a deep breath, start to perform, and everything goes to hell in a hand-basket. It sucks. It makes you feel like a bad performer. It makes you wanna crawl into a cave and pull the entrance in after you. The good thing is, those feelings do pass, and itâs a learning experience. Youâre going to come better prepared/better dressed/better hydrated.
For now, though, itâs time to focus on get to a point where you donât hate yourself.
Donât take it out on other people. This is self-explanatory. Just because youâre stressed doesnât give you free reign to yell at or badmouth others.Â
Take deep, even breaths. I have a tendency to hyperventilate after bombing something, and itâs good in general for calming down.
Remember youâre only human. Mistakes happen. This isnât the end of the world - there are other auditions, other events, and other opportunities. Missing this one doesnât make you a bad person.
Analyse the performance OBJECTIVELY. Every mistake is amplified when youâre the one making it. Think through your performance and identify its high and low points. Think of how you would have judged someone else if you saw them do the same exact thing. Youâd probably be a lot kinder to someone else then youâre being to yourself!
If objectivity doesnât work, then accentuate the positive. Try to pick out at least three things you did well for every thing you did poorly. Youâre a well trained musician - a lot of what you did probably went great! Even if all you feel you did right was not bailing off stage, thatâs a sign of composure. Good job!
Look up stories of other peopleâs awful auditions. Thereâs something soothing in commiserating with other people about a bad audition, and hearing what other people have done can bring your own issue into perspective. You may have knocked over the music stand or forgotten your lyrics. Someone else knocked over that music stand, AND a judge, or swore like a sailor when they couldnât remember what to sing next.Â
Sleep on it. Everything is so so so much better in the morning. Take a good nightâs sleep and use it for clarity tomorrow - things will seem better then.
I promise you, someone has done something worse in front of a judge than whatever you did. Itâs going to be okay, I promise.