Band students are skipping a beat and looking ahead to next year with band placement auditions on April 26.

“Auditions are going to be more competitive than before,” assistant director of bands Cecily Yoakam said. “Judges are going to be very specific in their feedback, and it will be a highly selective process to get into Wind Ensemble.”

Students will perform a short technical and short lyrical etude, as well as all 12 major scales and the chromatic scale for their audition.

“The audition process gives us some discipline to learn music by ourselves and improve from the last auditions we have done,” freshman Janis Jaison said. “It also gives us healthy competition, but the process overall increases our confidence.”

Judges for the performances will be lesson teachers from different instruments who will make recommendations to the directors on where students should be placed for next year.

”The audition process helps the band organize itself to make sure everyone is best fitted to their needs,” junior Shivansh Twari said. “Making sure everybody is in an environment where they can learn and do their best is essential.”

Band results may look a little different this year as the directors are looking to increase the size of the bottom two bands in an effort to put students in their best learning environment.

“The goal of decreasing the size of Wind Ensemble is to strengthen the lower two bands and possibly give students a better environment to get better at their instruments,” Yoakam said. “This process will do a better job of fitting students to the ensembles rather than just hitting a pre-set number for students in the band.”

For Jaison, the audition is not all about the results, but rather an opportunity to demonstrate how much she has improved over the last year.

“My goal is to play the music the best that I can because I have really seen improvement over the years, and I want to showcase that in a performance,” Jaison said. “This year is set to be tough, but I can’t wait to see our results.