I have a Berklee Audition in 2 weeks and I need help...

[Rinton]

Hello, technique. It's my first time posting on these forums, despite occasionally viewing them when I'm stuck on something. You guys seem to be pretty good about answering questions, and for a guy that's only been playing for 3 years, answers are what I need.

Essentially, I love my bass guitar. I've loved it since before I owned one, and I've obsessed over my instrument for 3 years. I've played over 30 shows in the Phoenix Metro Area with 2 bands, and I've jammed with countless musicians trying to get better.

I've decided my lack of experience is unfitting, and Berklee is where I'm going to make up lost time. Upon completing registration, however I recieved an email notice today inviting me to my audition in Boston. In 2 weeks. Now, getting work off and paying for a 3 day trip to Boston is going to be a problem, but the meat of the audition is what has me worried. Berklee's site indicated that I'd have 6 weeks between my invitation and my audition. Instead I get about 2.

This means I've got a lot of preparing to do in 2 weeks.

The Audition will be conducted as follows:

"Prior to your audition, you will have 15 minutes to warm-up on your instrument and review the reading material. The audition will be 15-minutes in length and will consist of the following:

-a prepared piece of your choice
-reading (if you can)
-simple form blues
-an optional improvisation over a standard jazz tune or harmonic vamp
-melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic ear training exercises

At the discretion of each audition team, technical exercises and/or a jam with the audition team might be part of your audition."

Now, for my piece I think I'm using "Come On, Come Over" by Jaco Pastorius. This is a piece I started working on today, and it's giving me some trouble, but I can get it. Maybe not perfect in 2 weeks, but I can get it well enough to hold a groove.

My problem is that I don't know how to prepare for the rest. I need help finding training exercises or online music classes that can help me here.

I can't sight-read. I can hardly read in treble-clef. Bass is nearly out of the question right now. I put in my application that I can't yet read music, but when they ask I don't want to be completely in the dark. Any websites or exercises I can look at?

I'm not sure how the simple-form blues is going to go, or what that even implies. Any help, as well as anything to work on would be a great help.

The Jazz Improv I'm on the fence with. In an isolated situation with some friends, I could maybe improvise a cool solo on my bass, and I could maybe even do it without struggling too much. That said this is going to be early in the morning on the other side of the country with a bunch of better musicians judging me. I'm not really sure how best to prepare for this.

The ear training exercises have me a bit worried too. I can probably sing any note or line they play me... probably.... but with the rhythmic exercises I think I'm going to have to clap out 2/4 and 4/4 and every other time signiature, and the problem is I honestly don't know if I could clap them out on the spot. Are there any websites dealing with online ear training or even just basic rhythms so I can commit them to memory before my audition in 2 weeks?

I'm sorry this has been so long winded, but I'm in a bit of a bind here and I need some help.

Thanks in advance, technique.

[SundanceChile]

http://www.musictheory.net

[BassChuck]

Originally Posted by Rinton

"Prior to your audition, you will have 15 minutes to warm-up on your instrument and review the reading material.

IMHO.....Warming up is really all about getting your mind ready to play. Have a routine that takes you through some scales and finger exercises. What they are isn't as important as doing the same thing everytime... that way you are telling your body and your mind that its time to play bass.

-a prepared piece of your choice

Do not play something you are unprepared to play. Remember they are not only checking your ability to play, but your musical wisdom at what to present in public. If you are not ready to play your prepared piece, they may suppose that you don't know what it means to be prepared.

-reading (if you can)

Do your best, that's all you can do with sight reading.

-simple form blues

This may be more important than it seems. The blues is the back bone and history of most pop music. Complete ignorance of the blues is not a good thing. Know the basic 12 measure blues form... and if you can look at some of the usual chord subsitutions.

-an optional improvisation over a standard jazz tune or harmonic vamp

Note that they say 'optional'. If you play 'Come On, Come Over' be able to solo over those changes. Beyond that they will be looking for the depth of your training and experience, and that can't be faked, don't obsesse over this, just do your best.

-melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic ear training exercises

Again, this is to see about your experience and training... tough to fake it. I doubt this would be sight reading, probably asking about what materials you've been working with.

At the discretion of each audition team, technical exercises and/or a jam with the audition team might be part of your audition."

"At the discretion"... this may or may not happen and you shouldn't take it personally either way. They could jam along with you just cause they feel like playing, or they might pass on that because they're behind schedule auditioning people or they have a class or meeting coming up. If you get to play with them, enjoy.

I would guess you have only 2 weeks instead of 6 because of the late date... most colleges want to get the next Fall's admittance finalized before summer break. Good luck with this. You might consider putting off starting until Winter Quarter, if that is possible, or later if you need to. IMHO it's better to go in really prepared than to botch it and try again later.... but I could be wrong.

[HaVIC5]

Hey man, glad to know you're interested in Berklee, I got there myself. Having done the audition thing myself as well as work as a student employee at the audition sites during the school year I have a pretty good idea of what they're looking for, and the advice that BassChuck gave is good. A few other things.

The prepared piece is I'd said 75% of what you'll be judged on at the audition, everything else is just icing on the cake. Whatever you do, DON'T pick something you don't know just because the judges might like it, and make sure you know it, and know it COLD. 2 weeks isn't that much to prepare something new, so unless you're really confident in playing Come on Come Over, I might choose something else you know pretty well by now.

Don't stress at all about the reading portion. When I work the auditions, the number one thing prospective students have worried about is "how important is the reading"? Virtually no-one there on any instrument was confident in their reading abilities, and if you can't read, thats really not a problem so long as you are solid at the prepared piece.

Most of the audition itself can't be faked, or prepared for in 2 weeks, like Bass Chuck said. Improvisation can't really be faked (ironic, ain't it?), reading can't be faked, ear training can't be faked. If you're shaky on all of those, ignore them and focus on the prepared piece, because thats the one thing you can get solid in a short amount of time - everything else requires a lot longer.

Jamming with the audition team is extremely frequent - they do that basically every audition, partially to keep themselves entertained. It also makes the experience more relaxing, I've found, for prospective students, just the whole atmosphere of the jam.

[Pacman]

This is more of a general instruction question. I'll move it there.

Welcome to Talkbass - something else you should know, double posting (creating the same thread in two or more forums) isn't cool. I'll close your other thread.

[Dave Muscato]

Teoria.com also has some great music theory articles and rhythm & sight-reading training exercises - I use it myself to keep up with my sight-reading.

Practice your prepared piece an hour a day (minimum) and sight-reading two hours a day and you'll be fine in two weeks. If you can practice 4-6 hours/day, that's even better. As a student, you'll be practicing at least that much, so you'd better get used to it. Don't push yourself too hard, though - you have to build up to practicing that much or you can injure yourself. Good luck and check in with us if you need help with anything specific!

[Justpucky]

This page is a random note generator from Gary willis' home page. When I first started I'd write the note A, B, C etc right above the note and then count up my frets. With repetition it gets easier. My primary Clef is Alto, with significat choral experience with the Treble clef. When I started playing bass I was lost. This helped alot.

http://garywillis.com/pages/lessons/read.html

[Jimmyplaysabass]

berklee costs so much dude, and you don't have enough personal time spent into this

put it off for about 2 more years, and get some actual formal training, or learn yourself something about reading, theory, and how to do charts.

scales modes blah blah blah, you really don't need berklee all that much, unless you need that piece of paper explaining that you paid thousands of dollars for something you can learn on your own.

[Dave Muscato]

Depends on what his major is, Jimmy... if it's music business and he wants to be a music attorney, it's okay if he's not an ace on the instrument.

But yeah, if you plan to major in performance, even though the next semester doesn't start for several months, I'd take a semester of intro to music theory class at a cheaper school first, if not several semesters.

[Jimmyplaysabass]

Well, considering hes auditioning to play.........

but aside from that very true, more so attorney than business. but if hes going to be an attorney i shun him, haha

But to be honest, I think you need to save some money and think before you go spend and make a mistake

[jomahu]

berklee is looking for basic skill, potential and tuition. it's easy to get into berklee, it's just really hard to stay in berklee. i can't tell you how many people drop out after freshman year because they just can't afford it.
if you intend to be a performance major, berklee teaches nothing you couldn't learn with private lessons and a hardworking band. musical diversity is nice, but you can get that in any major city.
what it does give, however, is a crapload of contacts and connections, and a title. plus, you get to be surrounded by music 24/7.

edit: when you come out to boston, drop me a PM if you need some bearings. boston is a weird cone of a town...er, i mean city.

[onlyclave]

Originally Posted by jomahu

berklee is looking for basic skill, potential and tuition. it's easy to get into berklee, it's just really hard to stay in berklee. i can't tell you how many people drop out after freshman year because they just can't afford it.
if you intend to be a performance major, berklee teaches nothing you couldn't learn with private lessons and a hardworking band. musical diversity is nice, but you can get that in any major city.
what it does give, however, is a crapload of contacts and connections, and a title. plus, you get to be surrounded by music 24/7.

edit: when you come out to boston, drop me a PM if you need some bearings. boston is a weird cone of a town...er, i mean city.

+1

You're taking a very expensive gamble and the odds are very stacked against you.

Your time and money would be much better spent in a community college and with a good private instructor for 2 years. That would give you the chance to decide if being at Berklee is what you really want to do at a far lower cost. And you can transfer your credits elsewhere if you aren't going to Berklee.


Go ahead and let your arrows fly at me, people. This guy's not ready to be there.

[jomahu]

Originally Posted by onlyclave

+1

Your time and money would be much better spent in a community college and with a good private instructor for 2 years. That would give you the chance to decide if being at Berklee is what you really want to do at a far lower cost. And you can transfer your credits elsewhere if you aren't going to Berklee.

not to mention you could get your core courses done and out of the way. as long as they're transferrable, you won't have to worry about them, regardless of what school you attend afterwards.

[LloydLikesFloyd]

so your saying berklee should be your end all experience to your formal musical training ( im looking to go there EVENTUALLY im definately not goodenough at this point... im self trained and all) i was considering MTSU if anyone is familar they have ap retty new studio

[zac2944]

Originally Posted by jomahu

berklee is looking for basic skill, potential and tuition. it's easy to get into berklee, it's just really hard to stay in berklee.

+1

Don't worry. If you can pay, they'll let you in.

[DocBop]

Originally Posted by Jimmyplaysabass

berklee costs so much dude, and you don't have enough personal time spent into this

put it off for about 2 more years, and get some actual formal training, or learn yourself something about reading, theory, and how to do charts.

scales modes blah blah blah, you really don't need berklee all that much, unless you need that piece of paper explaining that you paid thousands of dollars for something you can learn on your own.

+10 Berklee like all the other private music schools are very expensive these days so ability to pay is main thing they care about. If you can pay you will get in. The auditions are about placement in classes and if you don't have the skills your going to be paying a lot for stuff you could of learned with a few lessons and practice.


I would suggest you consider postponing Berklee for a year and getting your act together. Go to a community college take freshman music cousres, practice your butt off get a feel for living music and having a bass in your hands 24/7. The higher level you go to Berklee the better ensembles you get into, you won't be scrambling to learn/understand basic theory and be able to focus more your on bass. You will have a more enjoyable Berklee experience if you go in well prepared.

[Visirale]

I can't say anything that hasn't been said thus far. If you even have a little bit of chops they'll let you in. As long as you don't completely screw it up, you'll probably be accepted. What does depend on your audition are your scholarships.... if you don't blow them away, congrats you got into Berklee, here's the 45k a year bill.

[Dave Muscato]

Originally Posted by jomahu

not to mention you could get your core courses done and out of the way. as long as they're transferrable, you won't have to worry about them, regardless of what school you attend afterwards.

That's what I'm doing right now. If you do that, make sure you talk to Berklee admissions and find out exactly what classes you can take so they transfer. Berklee has pretty strict policies about what will & won't transfer, and they accept NO music credit xfers (unless their policy has changed since a few months ago). I am currently taking Economics and Anthropology (and no music classes) at another, cheaper, local school for this reason.

[HaVIC5]

If you even have a little bit of chops they'll let you in.

Eh, that used to be the case, actually, about a year ago. Then we (Berklee) had a 70 some percent acceptance rate because technically, the audition process wasn't part of admissions (just scholarship). The freshman dropout rate got kind of out of hand, though, and the school's rep had suffered A LOT because of all of the crappy players that they took on just because they could afford it. Just this past year they wised up and now the acceptance rate has more than halved to about 30%, and from my experience, the incoming freshman class was a lot more accomplished this time around.

scales modes blah blah blah, you really don't need berklee all that much, unless you need that piece of paper explaining that you paid thousands of dollars for something you can learn on your own.

This is only true for performance degrees, and there's a lot more than just performance degrees going on at Berklee. There are four writing degrees (contemporary writing, songwriting, jazz composition, composition) music education, music business, music engineering/production, music synthesis and music therapy, and its VERY difficult to be self-taught in any of them. I'm a jazz composition major, and the stuff that I learn in a single semester would take years to figure out by myself. Even the amount of material thats covered in one semester by the performance guys is kind of incredible - I couldn't imagine designing a practice schedule that structured or intense by myself or even working with one private teacher.

Besides, even if you could design the schedule and material by yourself, if you want to teach at all it REALLY helps to have that piece of paper.

[shwashwa]

Originally Posted by Jimmyplaysabass

berklee costs so much dude, and you don't have enough personal time spent into this

put it off for about 2 more years, and get some actual formal training, or learn yourself something about reading, theory, and how to do charts.

scales modes blah blah blah, you really don't need berklee all that much, unless you need that piece of paper explaining that you paid thousands of dollars for something you can learn on your own.

i really have to agree with this. in fact, you dont need music college at all to be able to play. when you're going to get a gig they're not going to ask to see your diploma, they just want to know if you can play.
i have a music degree, and i have to say, i've learned so much more outside of school than i did when i was in school. school is great for having performance opportunities with people who have the same interests as you. i'd say that's the #1 value in going to school. i still gig regularly with the guys i went to school with ( and that was 15 years ago), but i was forced to work on alot of stuff that either i didnt want to, or that i wasnt ready for yet. i had to just stuff the info down my throat to pass the test and take it out years later in order to really learn it. being in the ny area, i've had some killer teachers over the years, and i have to say, with a good teacher and lots of time locked in your bedroom with your bass, you can learn more, and more importantly, internalize more than you would if you went to school prematurely. i say, shed hard like a crazy person 10 hours a day for a year (and get a local teacher who can help you with your specific weak points), then go to school. you'll probably get more out of it that way. (just my opinion of course)