I’ve been playing the drums for 38 years and one thing remains the same as the day I started playing. Auditions are always nerve racking! A good friend called me last week while I was in New York City about an audition for a television commercial. As soon as I heard the word ‘audition’ my nerves started to tingle. He let me know that he was promoting me very heavily to the  producer and the director as the commercial is music oriented and it would be better for them to have excellent musicians rather than actors trying to play well enough, even though they have the correct look. One would think that all of this behind the scenes information would put me at ease but it actually exacerbated  my anxiety!  Auditions are simple hard to deal with.

I have done a lot of auditions over the years. Some are formal where you need to play for a panel of people, or informal where I was recommended for a situation and they were simply checking me out. I find the latter easier to deal with but that type of audition doesn’t guarantee a positive outcome. In both cases I have come to the conclusion that I simply need to be myself when in those situations. I won’t suddenly become a better player at that moment, and I won’t get anymore attractive or anymore ‘perfect’ for decision makers. I realized that I need to stay true to my personality. In the past I’ve gone in to auditions acting ‘to cool for school’ or extra bubbly. I would try to read the room and act accordingly. In retrospect that was probably due to being younger and insecure with myself. I also realized that although it would be good to get the gig, it really didn’t matter in the beg picture. If I got the position then it was clearly for me to get, and if I didn’t I shouldn’t loose sleep over it because the job just wasn’t for me.

I haven’t heard back for the TV commercial people so I have gone through the process of moving on and getting myself configured for the next item of business. It took a long time for me to get to the point where I’m not tormented by being rejected. Rejection is a big part of life and quite acute in the arts. This is a difficult truth however I wouldn’t trade the artistic life in for any other.