Berklee audition autumn leaves

[vyse933]

This Dec. I am auditioning for Berklee and am planing on playing autumn leaves as my prepared piece along with a cd accompaniment because it is the most comfortable song for me to walk, solo, and chord over. I was just wondering whether this tune might be overdone and if my audition listeners will find me unoriginal and not very creative by performing this piece.

I'm worried that they might think that as far as real book tunes it's an easier tune and they wont be impressed.

I am trying to get a nice scholarship because Berklee is obviously expensive and I wont be attending without a scholarship. ( No worries, Berklee is not my final plan, it is just one of my options. If I don't get a scholarships I have other schools and auditions i'm accepted for.)
I plan to use autumn leaves to show that I can an am comfortable walking, that I understand chords and how to use them, and to show some simple soloing ablitliy. In the middle of the song somewhere I'd change it up to a bossa or samba feel to show some diversity.

Edit: Among other ideas I have, I was considering doing Scrapple from the Apple, doing the head, two-feel and walking, and then doing a parker solo from the omnibook.
Other posibilities were to do So What sped up as a funk tune and use 16th note finger funk during the solo section and change it up with some odd times.
Or maybe I could just do some skunk funk.

[HaVIC5]

The fact that its overdone doesn't matter - what matters is what you play over it. If its good enough for Miles Davis to blow over, it damn well is good enough for you - that's how I look at it.

[onlyclave]

They might want to hear something that shows off your slapping skillz.


/s

[vyse933]

So work out the classical thump?

[brivello]

I don't mean to discourage you but you would be surprised at the level of playing you will find in music schools, even among freshman. Showing that you are comfortable walking, that you understand chords, how to use them, and have some simple soloing ability will likely not be enough to get you any money at a low profile school, much less berklee.

From what I have heard, Berklee isn't really all its cracked up to be either. A lot of the big name music schools tend to be really competitive, and the people not so nice. It is a lot easier and more fun to learn in an environment where everyone is very supportive of everyone else.

[Mark Wilson]

At Humber (Where I am) I did a one year prep course at the school before getting into my 4 year degree.

My teacher told me that "You want to make the guy auditioning you go "Oh! That's not something I hear every day!" NOT "Oh. This is something I hear every day.."

Try to work out something else, IMO. Autumn Leaves is done to hell.

[onlyclave]

Wow, you guys don't get it. The OP has worked out Autumn Leaves and can play it competently and you're telling him "That's not good enough for an audition." I'll tell you what's not good enough for an audition: Crap you can't play and crap that's IRRELEVANT to the study of music at the collegiate level.

It makes no difference if the people he's auditioning for has heard "Autumn Leaves" a million times. Everybody has heard it a million times. In America, we call that tune a "Standard" and it's part of the jazz vernacular. If the OP can play it musically, not rush or drag his walking, or even better play it without his accompaniment CD and still swing, then that will make the listeners perk their ears up.

You're not going to fool anybody by walking into an audition thinking you're going to blow their socks off with some reggae version of "Portrait of Tracy" followed by your slapped workout of "My Humps". You also don't need to demonstrate that you are versed in 65 different styles. That's what you take ensemble classes for, to learn how to play other styles.

Auditions are useful for a couple of reasons: It does the auditioner a favor of letting them know if they are ready to join the program or not. Face it, if your reading sucks you are not going to have time to get better at it while you are trying to stay on top of your classes. Auditions also let the professors know what your skill level is and can place you will people of like ability. It's not fair to you or other players if you/they are totally better players/totally suck and somebody gets dragged down.

To the OP, please ignore my sarcastic comment above. That is a continuation of a thread from yesterday by a guy who thinks he's going to walk in and play some tricky s**t in an audition and people will revere him as a 18 year old bass deity. If you have worked out Autumn Leaves and can play MUSIC for the adjudicators then go in there and blow them away with musicianship. They really don't care about bass operators.

[EADG mx]

Overdone, sure, but it IS a standard, and one you can handle. Besides, the adjudicators are going to expect to hear 100 times that day. And it definitely beats hearing 100 sloppy renditions of Portrait of Tracy.

I say if you want to try another tune go for it, but if it's your skill level and you're comfortable with it then keep it. Don't try anything outside of your skill level because they'll see right through it.

[mutedeity]

Originally Posted by onlyclave

Wow, you guys don't get it. The OP has worked out Autumn Leaves and can play it competently and you're telling him "That's not good enough for an audition." I'll tell you what's not good enough for an audition: Crap you can't play and crap that's IRRELEVANT to the study of music at the collegiate level.

It makes no difference if the people he's auditioning for has heard "Autumn Leaves" a million times. Everybody has heard it a million times. In America, we call that tune a "Standard" and it's part of the jazz vernacular. If the OP can play it musically, not rush or drag his walking, or even better play it without his accompaniment CD and still swing, then that will make the listeners perk their ears up.

You're not going to fool anybody by walking into an audition thinking you're going to blow their socks off with some reggae version of "Portrait of Tracy" followed by your slapped workout of "My Humps". You also don't need to demonstrate that you are versed in 65 different styles. That's what you take ensemble classes for, to learn how to play other styles.

Auditions are useful for a couple of reasons: It does the auditioner a favor of letting them know if they are ready to join the program or not. Face it, if your reading sucks you are not going to have time to get better at it while you are trying to stay on top of your classes. Auditions also let the professors know what your skill level is and can place you will people of like ability. It's not fair to you or other players if you/they are totally better players/totally suck and somebody gets dragged down.

To the OP, please ignore my sarcastic comment above. That is a continuation of a thread from yesterday by a guy who thinks he's going to walk in and play some tricky s**t in an audition and people will revere him as a 18 year old bass deity. If you have worked out Autumn Leaves and can play MUSIC for the adjudicators then go in there and blow them away with musicianship. They really don't care about bass operators.

Pretty good advice really.

[BassChuck]

Originally Posted by onlyclave

Wow, you guys don't get it. The OP has worked out Autumn Leaves and can play it competently and you're telling him "That's not good enough for an audition." I'll tell you what's not good enough for an audition: Crap you can't play and crap that's IRRELEVANT to the study of music at the collegiate level.......

Amen.

You want to show that you are an intelligent, trainable musician. People like that are not in the majority. Asshats who own instruments and play them in public are in greater supply.

You can teach technique. It's far harder to teach taste and good common musical sense.

[Freddels]

Originally Posted by BassChuck

Amen.

You want to show that you are an intelligent, trainable musician. People like that are not in the majority. Asshats who own instruments and play them in public are in greater supply.

You can teach technique. It's far harder to teach taste and good common musical sense.

+1

Just play it the best you can. The number of "bass players" that can't even walk over simple changes is just amazing. Walking and soloing over changes is what you'll be learning at school. To be able to do it competently when you walk in the door will give you a definite leg up. Slapping, thumping, and other parlor tricks will most likely not get you a scholarship. The instructors will probably be happy to hear you play a standard rather than trying to play another hacked version of Portrait of Tracy or some other similar tune.

Perhaps have a blues standard ready also just in case they ask what else you can play.

Good luck.

[EADG mx]

Originally Posted by BassChuck

You can teach technique. It's far harder to teach taste and good common musical sense.

+infinity


Being able to play over a blues would be a very, very good idea. If you can, get a handle on rhythm changes as well. Even if you're not asked to play these at your audition, you're going to work them to death in your lessons anyway so you might as well get a leg up now.

[projectMalamute]

Originally Posted by onlyclave

Wow, you guys don't get it. The OP has worked out Autumn Leaves and can play it competently and you're telling him "That's not good enough for an audition." I'll tell you what's not good enough for an audition: Crap you can't play and crap that's IRRELEVANT to the study of music at the collegiate level.

It makes no difference if the people he's auditioning for has heard "Autumn Leaves" a million times. Everybody has heard it a million times. In America, we call that tune a "Standard" and it's part of the jazz vernacular. If the OP can play it musically, not rush or drag his walking, or even better play it without his accompaniment CD and still swing, then that will make the listeners perk their ears up.

You're not going to fool anybody by walking into an audition thinking you're going to blow their socks off with some reggae version of "Portrait of Tracy" followed by your slapped workout of "My Humps". You also don't need to demonstrate that you are versed in 65 different styles. That's what you take ensemble classes for, to learn how to play other styles.

Auditions are useful for a couple of reasons: It does the auditioner a favor of letting them know if they are ready to join the program or not. Face it, if your reading sucks you are not going to have time to get better at it while you are trying to stay on top of your classes. Auditions also let the professors know what your skill level is and can place you will people of like ability. It's not fair to you or other players if you/they are totally better players/totally suck and somebody gets dragged down.

To the OP, please ignore my sarcastic comment above. That is a continuation of a thread from yesterday by a guy who thinks he's going to walk in and play some tricky s**t in an audition and people will revere him as a 18 year old bass deity. If you have worked out Autumn Leaves and can play MUSIC for the adjudicators then go in there and blow them away with musicianship. They really don't care about bass operators.

yup

[Phil Smith]

I would say scratch the CD accompaniment, as a bass player having good time is important, you should be able to sound musical all by yourself.

[Hoover]

Originally Posted by onlyclave

They might want to hear something that shows off your slapping skillz.

not

[Jason Hollar]

Check out the Cannonball/Miles version on Something Else. If you want to mix it up with a little bossa flavor - learn the Cannonball intro. It's a simple Gm9-type vamp.

Good luck!

[Wilbyman]

Originally Posted by HaVIC5

The fact that its overdone doesn't matter - what matters is what you play over it. If its good enough for Miles Davis to blow over, it damn well is good enough for you - that's how I look at it.

Agree. I would prefer a nice blow over Autumn Leaves to a bad blow over Invitation/Giant Steps, etc.

W

[ethans1980]

I auditioned for Berklee about 10 years ago at this point, and I got a lot of scholarship money for doing the E Jam solo from Jaco's instructional video. The next audition I got money for doing the head of Donna Lee and walking the changes. The audition is pretty comprehensive, so I say just go play something you're comfortable with and can burn on, because you'll also be tested on sight reading and ear training, which count equally too. Hopefully, you'll be auditioning for Rich Appleman, who I believe is still the head of the bass department there and a really great dude. Hope that helps.
It's not the end of the world if you don't get in, I knew a lot of people who went for a year and were disappointed in the quality of the other students and then transferred somewhere else. However, Boston is awesome, and I think the education you get there depends a lot on what you put into it. The people at the top of the class at Berklee are still fantastic, and you still make great connections to go play in New York. If I had it to do over again, I would go to school in New York, like NYU or the New School and make connections in the city, because playing out in New York still will make you a better player, because the standard there is so high. Find some weekend Long Island wedding band to play with, make money, and then hang out in the jazz clubs the rest of the time.

[lumcla]

Autumn Leaves + Aebersold got me into the Academy in Western Australia this year
don't know if that's relevant to you guys, but still... I auditioned the year before with Donna Lee, and I gotta say at was a big/stupid mistake

I think an important part of the audition process is that you show that you have the potential to develop as a musician...
Also it might not be such a good idea to do a bossa feel if you have a swing play-a-long! just a thought

[Bruce Lindfield]

Originally Posted by Mark Wilson

At Humber (Where I am) I did a one year prep course at the school before getting into my 4 year degree.

My teacher told me that "You want to make the guy auditioning you go "Oh! That's not something I hear every day!" NOT "Oh. This is something I hear every day.."

Try to work out something else, IMO. Autumn Leaves is done to hell.

Originally Posted by onlyclave

Wow, you guys don't get it. The OP has worked out Autumn Leaves and can play it competently and you're telling him "That's not good enough for an audition." I'll tell you what's not good enough for an audition: Crap you can't play and crap that's IRRELEVANT to the study of music at the collegiate level.

It makes no difference if the people he's auditioning for has heard "Autumn Leaves" a million times. Everybody has heard it a million times. In America, we call that tune a "Standard" and it's part of the jazz vernacular. If the OP can play it musically, not rush or drag his walking, or even better play it without his accompaniment CD and still swing, then that will make the listeners perk their ears up.

You're not going to fool anybody by walking into an audition thinking you're going to blow their socks off with some reggae version of "Portrait of Tracy" followed by your slapped workout of "My Humps". You also don't need to demonstrate that you are versed in 65 different styles. That's what you take ensemble classes for, to learn how to play other styles.

Auditions are useful for a couple of reasons: It does the auditioner a favor of letting them know if they are ready to join the program or not. Face it, if your reading sucks you are not going to have time to get better at it while you are trying to stay on top of your classes. Auditions also let the professors know what your skill level is and can place you will people of like ability. It's not fair to you or other players if you/they are totally better players/totally suck and somebody gets dragged down.

To the OP, please ignore my sarcastic comment above. That is a continuation of a thread from yesterday by a guy who thinks he's going to walk in and play some tricky s**t in an audition and people will revere him as a 18 year old bass deity. If you have worked out Autumn Leaves and can play MUSIC for the adjudicators then go in there and blow them away with musicianship. They really don't care about bass operators.

I tend to agree with Mark and his teacher - there are literally thousands of Jazz standards and Jazz Originals that have attained classic status - Autumn Leaves is like "my first Jazz tune" and is done to death.

Why not choose something else - for your own musical enjoyment and education if no other reason - if you're playing Jazz you need to know and learn hundreds of tunes - not one - the sooner you start on this process, the better!