My high school has 4 bands in total and the top two bands require auditions while the bottom two do not. We recently received our audition pieces and I was surprised to see that our etude was a piece I learned over the summer. The piece is from one of the “Rubank Advanced” books and over the summer I learned the whole book solely for the purpose of practice and not to try and give myself an advantage against my peers. The piece is only about 20 measures long and we are given 2 months to learn it along with some scales. I told my friends about how excited I was that I knew the piece and I might be able to get into the top band and they all replied that I should be given a new piece because it isn’t fair to everyone else. I felt bad and even talked to my directors about it and they said that I don’t have an advantage because I didn’t know that the piece was going to be given I just happened to practice it. Even after telling this to my friends they still agree that it isn’t fair to the other people auditioning and that I’m a selfish asshole for thinking that it is. Am I the asshole?
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My high school has 4 bands in total and the top two bands require auditions while the bottom two do not. We recently received our audition pieces and I was surprised to see that our etude was a piece I learned over the summer. The piece is from one of the “Rubank Advanced” books and over the summer I learned the whole book solely for the purpose of practice and not to try and give myself an advantage against my peers. The piece is only about 20 measures long and we are given 2 months to learn it along with some scales. I told my friends about how excited I was that I knew the piece and I might be able to get into the top band and they all replied that I should be given a new piece because it isn’t fair to everyone else. I felt bad and even talked to my directors about it and they said that I don’t have an advantage because I didn’t know that the piece was going to be given I just happened to practice it. Even after telling this to my friends they still agree that it isn’t fair to the other people auditioning and that I’m a selfish asshole for thinking that it is. Am I the asshole?
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OP has offered the following explanation for why they think they might be the asshole:
> I practiced a piece used for an audition before it was given to me or my peers. This might make me this asshole because I have an unfair advantage to other participants. I believe that I might be the asshole in this situation because I got the piece early and know it better than other people and I still plan to audition.
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Contest mode is 1.5 hours long on this post.
NTA. An audition is a test. You’re not an AH being better prepared for the audition.
NTA
This is a happy accident. But you better learn that piece! Good luck.
NTA. It is not like someone gave you an advanced notice that this piece would be used for the audition. Even with that, you alerted the directors to make things right and they have no issue with it. I would reconsider my friendship with anyone who calls me an AH for something that you had no control over. I say, you do your thing and ignore the noise. Good Luck
NTA. Unless you had foreknowledge of this piece being an audition piece, this is nothing but happy coincidence. Is it fair? As fair as anything else. Any other student in school could have learned and practices this piece over the summer. Anyone else could have learned another piece that was selected as an audition piece in another timeline. Is it LUCKY? Yes, and don’t deny that to anyone. Frankly, you should stop talking about it, because whatever we say here, everyone else is jealous of your luck and will be sore about it. But we’re always jealous when other people get lucky. That’s just life.
Now, OP, to be very clear… if you had any inkling that this piece, or a piece from this book, would or could be used as an audition piece and that influenced your decision to learn this book over the summer, then you move from lucky to borderline A-hole. I can’t give you the firm A-hole label, since everyone else had the same opportunities to figure out some things to practice over the summer and didn’t make the right choice, but you also have to acknowledge that you were actively trying to get ahead.
NTA, life is full of situations where people have an advantage over others because of previous experience. It is part of life, it could have happened to any of you. I doubt your colleagues would feel the same way if they had the advantage.
NTA – you had no advance knowledge, and you just happened to practice a piece they selected.
Now, of course, they KNOW that you had more time than did others, so you’d better be GOOD. 8)
Good luck.
NTA and your friends are bad friends
NTA, you are however a motivated musician that took steps on your own to get better at your craft. It’s not your fault they did not.
Being lucky doesn’t equal being an asshole. But I suspect that your peers didn’t spend their summer practicing, so you’d probably beat them with a new audition piece too.
NTA. You didn’t know this would be the selected piece before anyone else and you shouldn’t be penalized for having made the effort to practice a number of pieces that had not been assigned. I’m guessing the piece isn’t only in a single hard-to-acquire book, so it’s not unheard of for someone to have learned it before for whatever reason.
Also, had you learned the piece as part of an unrelated band camp or program, would your friends have been upset then too? You made a good faith effort to notify those in charge that you had experience with this piece, so you’ve done more than enough to level the playing field. I’m sure if those in charge were concerned with their ability to judge your skill level, they’d have changed it.
They have two entire months to learn and practice. If they have any difficulty with the audition, it means that they aren’t good enough.
No. Just do your thing. They are jealous. You did nothing wrong
Working on the piece over the summer because you wanted to improve as a musician? Not an asshole.
Telling the band directors that you were familiar with the piece and wanted to be sure you didn’t have an unfair advantage? Not an asshole.
Blabbing about it to your friends and saying you might be able to get into the top band? Asshole.
NTA. Whatcha supposed to do, never practice music independently in case it might be an audition piece years in future? FORCE the directors to make you audition another piece? You’re solid bro, your friends have some unwarranted envy going on.
NTA, you’re lucky. You’re clearly more motivated than your friends too given that you’ve done so much practising. So good for you.
NTA
> not to try and give myself an advantage against my peers
So what if you were?
This is school.
The whole point of school is to study and get ahead.
NTA. Nothing was stopping your friends from practicing over the summer. They are just bitter because you actually invested your time wisely.
NTA. The objective is to get good, not to measure how quickly you got there. Good luck!
NTA but your friends kind of are. Best of luck!
NTA. Those people are jealous.
NTA You’ve put in the time and effort to be well practiced in your craft. If your peers shared your enthusiam perhaps they would be feeling just as “lucky” as you instead of feeling jealous that your dedicated preparation, has made you better prepared for the task. There’s nothing unfair about it, you have an advantage over them because you worked for it. You deserve to make into the top band, so go out and nail the audition!
BTW. These friends sound more like your competitors (real friends celebrate good things happening and root for your success, not criticize you for it) – so weigh their opinions of you and respond accordingly.
NTA, sounds like they should have been practicing the same way you did. They’ll get over it or not but who cares, real friends would be asking if you could help them and hyping you up for your audition. Good luck on your audition and maybe find new friends because the ones you have are jealous of you.
NTA – you have an advantage FAIRLY because you did extra practice over the summer, with no idea that specific song would give you a leg up later. You were just generally trying to prepare and improve, and it’s paid off now. Good job and I hope you make that top band!
NTA. The fact that you were practicing that hard of the summer means you earned that advantage. Even if it was a brand new piece to you, you’d probably still be ahead just from going that hard all summer.
NTA.
Your friends might just be feeling jealous.
You didn’t know, didn’t have advanced warning, and it was simply coincidence that you happen to know the song.
NTA. If everyone has 2 months to practice, it’s an even playing field.
NTA. You lucked out because you put in extra work all by yourself. Plus, you informed the directors & they’re fine with it. Don’t let you pals drag you down & spoil your excitement. Hope you make it into the top band.
NTA Do the kids who took swim lessons have to swim twice as far as the kids who didn’t take lessons in order to make the swim team? If the auditions were based on pure, innate talent rather than best performance, then the everyone would perform using the same instrument and they would have to sight read an original etude.