berklee audition piece

marine18 · #1 10-04-2011, 10:40 AM

i am still working on finding an audition piece for berklee. i was thinking about playing you're my everything by the temptations or sex on fire by the kings of leon. any suggestions.

Snarf · #2 10-04-2011, 10:45 AM

Play what you play best. I'm not familiar with those two tunes by name, but assuming you play them equally well, and knowing that this is a Berklee audition, absolutely go with the Temptations.

The audition is more than just the piece. How are you with sight reading, chord charts, and slash notation?

marine18 · #3 10-04-2011, 10:51 AM

i'm good with chord charts, still working on my sight reading skills though. do you know what the improvisation part is

Snarf · #4 10-04-2011, 11:03 AM

Yeah they'll give you a set of changes. You'll have to play a chorus or two walking bass, and then take a solo, iirc.

Definitely try and find some charts that have slash/rhythmic notation. You're going to have to nail that.

Mingo Sanders · #5 10-04-2011, 11:12 AM

Play a tv commercial everyone recognizes, and play it in exactly 58 seconds.

johndough247 · #6 10-04-2011, 11:32 AM

I know the temps song, classic jamerson baseline there...as said before, if you're comfortable playing them then do it, however I do feel u should push for something slighted harder than your usual...u know, playable, but not a walk in the park.

Good luck!

marine18 · #7 10-04-2011, 11:46 AM

i thought about playing smooth operator, but i still have trouble with the solo

Roscoe East · #8 10-04-2011, 02:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Snarf

Yeah they'll give you a set of changes. You'll have to play a chorus or two walking bass, and then take a solo, iirc.

Definitely try and find some charts that have slash/rhythmic notation. You're going to have to nail that.

Perhaps things have changed in the ~30 years since I attended Berklee (dear god I hope so!) but fwiw, when I auditioned it wasn't necessary for me to "nail" anything...they just dutifully noted how I did & used that judgement to come up with my placement numbers, so that I would get assigned to ensembles with other students who possessed equivalent abilities.

So yeah, if you don't want to get stuck in an ensemble with other musicians who suck, you'll want to nail everything they throw in front of you!

But I've never heard of anybody botching their Berklee audition so badly that they didn't get accepted to the college. That was the one really big thing that seperated Berklee from the more traditional music conservatories: They had no minimum threshold of musical accomplishment; if your bank account met their minimum requirements, you got accepted.

Snarf · #9 10-04-2011, 02:25 PM

It's a bit more competitive now. Your (and my audition 7 years ago) were just ratings auditions. Now you actually do have to audition to get in. It's more competitive now, acceptance went from like 70% to 35% or something like that.

randysmojo · #10 10-04-2011, 02:53 PM

Sorry for my ignorance of terms, but what is slash notation?

Snarf · #11 10-04-2011, 03:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by randysmojo

Sorry for my ignorance of terms, but what is slash notation?

Here's what it looks like (usually the slash heads are thinner and longer): http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...hord_chart.png

It tells the whole band a chord and what rhythm to play that chord. It's for when there's a very important rhythm that everyone needs to catch, including the drummer. Sometimes it can be written above the staff.

fdeck · #12 10-04-2011, 05:33 PM

Nothing like bad eyesight, a dark stage, and a chart that's been photocopied 100 times, and you realize that the bass line isn't a bunch of D's after a couple of measures.

sammyp · #13 10-04-2011, 06:47 PM

do a thread search on this ...there was a large thread a few months ago on the same question ....Sex on Fire is prolly a bad idea .....they're gonna wanna hear you walk thru blues, a jazz standard etc ...the old school motown thing is prolly a good idea ...

not that there's anything wrong with King's of Leon but that one is a two chord song with mostly 8th notes ....

Cloverfield · #14 10-05-2011, 01:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fdeck

Nothing like bad eyesight, a dark stage, and a chart that's been photocopied 100 times, and you realize that the bass line isn't a bunch of D's after a couple of measures.

haha Classic.

marine18 · #15 10-05-2011, 09:00 AM

would carry on my wayward song by kansas be a good choice

Roscoe East · #16 10-05-2011, 12:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Snarf

Now you actually do have to audition to get in. It's more competitive now, acceptance went from like 70% to 35% or something like that.

Ah, that's good to hear. Slowly kicking & clawing their way towards legitimacy, one decade at a time...

Snarf · #17 10-05-2011, 01:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Roscoe East

Ah, that's good to hear. Slowly kicking & clawing their way towards legitimacy, one decade at a time...

I know right? The whole reason that level 1-4 ensembles exist is to pump money out of people with no talent.

HaVIC5 · #18 10-06-2011, 10:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Snarf

I know right? The whole reason that level 1-4 ensembles exist is to pump money out of people with no talent.

The talent at Berklee has absolutely skyrocketed in the past 5 years. I was in the final class to not require auditions, and saw it change very rapidly while I was there. It's still a money pit, but at least the level of playing is high.

MustacheJoeII · #19 10-06-2011, 11:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fdeck

Nothing like bad eyesight, a dark stage, and a chart that's been photocopied 100 times, and you realize that the bass line isn't a bunch of D's after a couple of measures.

That's just about the funniest thing I've heard all day.

Honestly, I would pick something that features the bass in a melodic way for the prepared pieces, because the stuff they give you is going show groove and chord reading, along with sight reading. If you're more of popular music sort (by which, I mean not jazz or classical, even though both were popular in days of yore...), I would go with something similar to Brian Ritchie's work on the first Violent Femmes record. Nothing gets the ear like the easy grooving bass solo on "Please Don't Go." Try something off of Mike Watt's song cycles: Contemplating the Engine Room, The Second Man's Middle Stand or Hyphenated-Man (in order of mention: awesome, so-so, awesome).

It doesn't all have to be Jaco or Billy Sheehan six minute live solo at the Fox in St. Louis on 03-22-87.

And if nothing else works, just go in and do what you can do best. Some folks don't get good until they're thirty, and even some of those folks eclipse the people that were better then they were when both were younger.

If you are now thinking about Berklee (double ee), you've got a lot of life and a lot of bass ahead of you. don't let it get you down.