A Resume of Rejections
Written by Taylor Davis, February 7th, 2021.
Our field is one that strives for perfect execution. We have all walked out of a recording session, concert, lesson, etc. and thought “that could have gone better.” Don’t get me wrong, I love the continual pursuit of improvement and embrace the daily grind of marginal gains on an individual level and with my students. However, this process can be hard to quantify and hard to model. It frankly isn’t very exciting, and when I see a “100 days of practice“ thread on Instagram I usually scroll right on by.
“It’s a process.”
It is 100% natural to want to put forward our best work, and why wouldn’t we? Auditions, job applications, and competitions are about putting our best foot forward, standing out from the competition, and making a lasting impression - of course we want to do well. When we write bios we want people to think “they played where with who!? Wow, they are really accomplished..“ This is all fine and dandy but we have to consciously create a day to day environment that allows space to fail. There is always a risk/reward ratio, and we need to cultivate environments where the risk of embarrassment from failure is so low that students will be comfortable taking risks.
Bios and resumes often leave off the critical checkpoints that get you to the “performed ___ with ___“ line that really impresses people. The “finally mastered Stevens Technique“ or “practiced snare drum even though they didn’t want to“ checkpoints are crucial parts of the process. The “applied for this competition and didn’t make it but got way better“ lines are part of that process. We also see this phenomenon on social media, and if I’m not careful, I can find it to be exhausting. I get FOMO. I didn’t record an album during COVID quarantine, or memorize a chamber piece, or get invited to that virtual seminar to talk… wait I didn’t get invited to any virtual seminars to talk! It feels a little bit like I graduated high school but the new cool kids dominate social media spaces. These spaces don’t always show the process that we all go through - the slow practice, the missed notes, the new technique, the great practice session followed by the terrible run, etc.
A resume of rejections
Part of the process is getting rejected from things, and it usually isn’t that fun when it happens. But it happens to all of us, so in the spirit of showing that process, here is my resume of rejections - a list of real things I have applied to/for and been rejected from:
University of Miami Frost School of Music - I never got the letter so I called and someone told me over the phone I didn’t get accepted, it was awkward for both of us…
Yale University School of Music TWICE
Semper Pro Musica Chamber Music Competition - lost in the final round where the school changed to rules to take 3 groups instead of 1 to Carnegie Hall, so everyone won except us and we did not perform at Carnegie Hall (we are the only group that still plays together)
Percussive Arts Society Education Committee - I helped start an educational platform called Percussion Pal, but you already knew that
Duncanville ISD - got asked to interview for a job, never heard back
Leander ISD - never heard anything from anyone
Aspen Music Festival and School - classical music summer festival
Houston Grand Opera - didn’t make it past resume round of timpani audition
Santa Clara Vanguard Drum and Bugle Corps - cut in the first round of auditions
Accelerate Baltimore - grant/mentorship for small business startups
Bisciotti Foundation Prize for Student Entrepreneurship - denied 3 times for Percussion Pal, they said the team was not qualified enough
Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra - applied for the sub list and got the date wrong, I was in Indianapolis the day of the audition and completely missed it (yikes)
MANY lessons and performances that I think could have gone better - once my undergrad teacher had me play an etude and told me he thought I needed the last 50 minutes of our hour lesson to practice, and he was 100% correct.
I’m sure there are things I am forgetting here as well. I neglected to go back into high school years but I’ll briefly summarize a few that come to mind - I never made Area or the All-State band, was not my high school’s percussion section leader, and I didn’t learn a couple of keyboard solos I was supposed to learn for solo and ensemble. Sorry Alice Gomez, I promise I think Rain Dance is a good marimba solo.
Learn to Embrace the Process
Getting better at something is a slow process, and part of that process is failure and discomfort. I often tell my students that if they always sound good in the practice room they are working on the wrong thing. The person who plays principal percussion in an orchestra usually lost a bunch of auditions along the way, played as a section percussionist for a while, and then finally won the audition. Often we just see the last step in a long journey and have to remember the slow grind it takes to “make it“ as a musician.
In the spirit of these ideas, I have reworked a short bio at the bottom to reflect what an ideal synopsis of my work to this point would look like if I wasn’t aiming to impress anyone with the proverbial institution, orchestra, or name drop.
Taylor has played music in a lot of different situations with many great performers. He has won some auditions and lost some auditions. He studied with teachers whom he deeply respects and now works with talented young people in northwest Dallas. He helped co-found Percussion Pal and makes videos with his longtime friend Ricky Bracamontes. Their early videos were not that great but he feels like they have gotten a lot better at the process. They get to work with a variety of musicians and artists and he finds it to be an interesting and fulfilling creative outlet.