Music audition for college

[McDuff]

So I am a junior in high school and my school being a charter school has had me looking at colleges for some time and I feel that puget sound would be a good fit for me for writing purposes and well there is a chance at a scholarship via an audition.

 

"Guitar

Audition requirements for Bachelor of Arts degree, the Bachelor of Music degree in music education or music business, or for a music scholarship with a major outside of music:

A Guitar audition at Puget Sound should consists of 2 pieces in contrasting styles: one in a slow tempo, and the other in a faster tempo. The pieces should be chosen to display the student's basic technical and expressive skills. The overall playing time should be between 3 and 7 minutes. Memorization is highly recommended. Suggested repertoire includes the following pieces: Sor: Study #2 and Study #5 from 20 Studies (Segovia); Bach: Bourree in e-minor from Lute Suite #1; Tarrega: Lagrima or Adelita; Ponce: Prelude 6; Brouwer: Etude 1 or 6. Other pieces can be checked though the School of Music office or by contacting the guitar instructor Douglas Rice?"

 

I want to start practicing this now in hopes of doing well and figured if there was a place to ask about ideas for practicing it then it would be here. Thanks in advance sorry if this is out of place.

[QuestionMark]

There's many different perspectives on practicing. You might look in a local book store or on-line for some books on practicing music. A few I'd recommend include "The Inner Game of Music" by Garry Green with W. Timothy Galloway; a little book called "Zen Guitar" by Philip Toshio Sudo, and a pretty hard to find book (for inspiration) called, "Andres Segovia, as I Knew Him" by John W. Duarte (or Duante...not sure). Also, of course, practice daily, go through the stages of researching the music to understand it from different angles, and discipline yourself to learn to play the pieces despite internal and external distractions. Everyone will likely provide you with different opinions...draw from the ones that will help you and work for you. And...listen to others' recordings of the pieces as well as other pieces to draw from their approaches, styles, arrangements, patterns etc. to formulate your own.

 

BTW...to hear a sampling of my playing on YouTube check out these two links:

 

 

 

Best of luck...hope this helps.

 

QM aka Jazzman Jeff

[BigKahune]

Pick two pieces you know you can handle well. Break them down into sections so those areas that require more practice can be given special attention and extra practice time. Then practice them all the way through. Pick out a teacher at school, perhaps the music director or orchestra teacher and play the pieces for them, asking for suggestions on your technical and expressive aspects of the playing - it's good to have an extra ear particularly someone who has experience in these types of pieces. Take what you want from the suggestions and practice polishing the pieces up. And if you have time, perform them for some friends to get used to playing the pieces in front of an audience.

 

Good luck.

[QuestionMark]

Bluesbreather-

 

BTW...I'd recommend you contact the instructor mentioned in your post (Doug Rice) and obtain his feedback, guidance, and advice.

 

QM aka Jazzman Jeff

[ecsong187]

I just got back from Nashville auditioning for Belmont School of Music.

I had to bust my butt a lot.

Sadly I didn't get in.

If you have questions I can probably answer a lot of them. Since I just went through this

Thanks

Edwin

[McDuff]

Thanks guys. Ed how many people do you think I can expect to be there and what kind of pieces seemed to be more prominent? Are classical choices much more highly recommended or could some thing modern but technically demanding fit the bill? Also piece choices from any one would be appreciated.

[ecsong187]

Depends on the school, but I would say at my audition their were easily at least 200-300 people.

Keep in mind these were all musicians, strings, brass, vocal, guitar, bass, drums, etc

 

So expect to see quite a bit of ppl.

 

Does your school not have any audition requirements??

 

For Belmont you had 10 Jazz standards to choose from and you had to choose one.

You then had to play it three times with either a backing track or chart for the instructor to comp the chords from.

First just the melody

Second a solo through the chord changes

and lastly comp the chords

 

A classical piece was optional, but highly recommended.

 

Lastly, you were allowed to choose a piece of your choice from any genre metal, country, blues, etc.

You were to perform the piece and provide a backing track unless it was a solo unaccompanied piece.

 

So now that you are overwhelmed, haha

My advice is to choose pieces you are comfortable with. DO NOT choose pieces that are too challenging. If you are stumbling through the whole piece, it is not going to leave a good impression.

Hope that helps, I will keep an eye on this thread and chime in if you have more questions

Thanks

Edwin

[McDuff]

Well it has some criteria but as far as I can tell it is all up there. I have selected Sor: study 2 for my slower piece but want to do something update for my lively piece.

[tw2_usa]

Brain and memory experts show that studying late afternoon/early evening is best. Also, don't overdo. Twenty to thirty minutes tops. Do this consistently and avoid the trappings of over- and under-practicing. Overpracticing causes undo stress and under-practicing causes mistakes. Learn this habit early and enjoy life under pressure.

 

Good luck.

[pohatu771]

From that description, it sounds like the school is a classical-guitar only. I know my school is only classical guitar, while others accept jazz and contemporary.

 

Basically, don't show up with a Segovia piece and then play Blackbird.

[TommyK]

While my knee jerk reaction is, "If they suggested two pieces, then by all means, do those two pieces."

 

However, the Road Less Traveled By in me says, pick some other Sor pieces of similar styles. This would make you stand out in the crowd, if there is one. It also shows some initiative and creativity.

 

The only thing is will the adjudicator place a lot of weight on following instructions, or will he place more weight on initiative.

 

What to do? what to do? It would be helpful if you knew a guitar major or could contact a guitar major at your selected university. Why not use Facebook or Myspace to strike up a converstation with some current guitar students? They might be able to give you some insight into the psyche of the adjudicator(s)

 

Now that's initiative! (and a bit sneaky)

 

Does your chosen college offer workshops or lessons? That could be a way to get inside the head of the faculty.

[McDuff]

Well with choosing a different piece i worry how much that would actually stand out as I think a lot of people would probably think of that.