Well, I know it's late... but I wasn't going to audition this year, so whatever...

I'm looking to audition for 2016 Honor Band of America with MusicForAll and i'm trying to select my pieces... as I said, i'm not auditioning this year, which means I have nine months before auditions open up for 2016 and I want to try and get a bunch of repertoire that I don't already know (i'm not gonna tell you guys what I do know because I want to see whether they'd make good audition pieces) and just have fun with it!

I feel as if I am good enough technically for most pieces of music, the hard part is the musicality of it (which is what everyone struggles with, or at least it feels that way...) so don't be afraid to offer up choices because it might be super hard technically.

The audition requirements are...

• Two contrasting excerpts of your own choosing, each approximately two minutes in length.

• Students are encouraged to perform an excerpt that showcases technique and range, as well as an excerpt that showcases expressive and lyrical qualities.

So basically a one for my technique and one for my musicianship. I've talked with my private lesson teacher about this and I just wanted to get more ideas!

Thanks!

you watch icarly for a total of 3 hours to mentaly prepare yourself, specifically the episode ipsycho. then you go into the bath tub and think about jimmy neutron, and finally you send a picture of sully to your best friend.

How do you play long tones with braces?

I got braces on Tuesday last week i was told to practice long tones. I was wondering how i would play long tones. I'm expected to have my range back by October. Hit at least a A or G above the staff. And i play trumpet. I'm lead and first. So I'm really being depended on to have this fix. Also i put pressure on my face to help with that? Don't wanna break my brackets

Are my singing troubles being caused purely by allergies or is there something else going on?

So, I'm having issues with my voice and I'll try to explain as best as I can.
I know I have a wider range than the one my voice is accessing now. I know this because I used to be able to hit higher notes than I am hitting now.
But now, those very same notes that I found plain easy to sing are closed off from me.
I have bad allergies as in I have sneezing attacks, itchy roof of mouth, itchy throat, itchy ears, hard time breathing deeply. What I want to know is if this closing off of my upper range is being caused by allergies or could I have some more serious problems, like vocal nodes or polyps?
I try to sing a little bit higher and nothing but air comes out. If I sing louder, some noise comes out but it kind of sounds wheezy or hoarse. My throat doesn't hurt but I do feel a lot of mucus and at moments, when I drink water, it is like my voice switches on and I'm singing in a higher resonance but just as quickly it switches off and I am singing lower. I don't aim for a higher note or a lower one, it is just a generic straight note but it goes from a higher tone to a lower tone. This only happens every once in a while, mind you, but it happens.
I am going crazy because I KNOW I can sing better than I am singing and I want to know if it is my allergies or something else.
What actions would you guys recommend?
What specific diet or vocal warmup or neti pot, etc? I am desperate because I love singing and my voice just sucks now.

Update : I recently got a Vivatar camera (the one that is basically a cheap Go-Pro) and mounted it on top of my acoustic guitar to record some good guitar videos. When I went to play the videos back on my computer, the audio was crappy since the camera was on the head of my guitar and far away from the source of the sound. Is there a better way to capture the audio, maybe with a separate microphone?