So some of you might have read a thread I posted a few months ago asking for advice as to whether or not I should try out for my university's jazz band.
Here's the thread in question:
Should I try out for my universitie's Jazz Band? [Semi-long post Please Please Help]
Well the audition for the fall never happened, the band's regular bass player started showing up for rehersals and my audition became a moot point. (which I was a little relieved to hear, I was not ready for that audition at the time).
Cut to a week before the current semester and I get an email from the director of the jazz program here asking me if I'd like to audition for the big band or one of the schools combos. I took him up on the combo audition.
I just finished the audition and I think it went pretty well; I played for the jazz director and the professor who runs the combo's (with the combo director comping on piano). They asked me ahead of time to be ready to walk over a 12 bar blues, after a couple times through the changes they stopped me and told me I was doing great (the director of the jazz program actually said to me "I wish I had known you played!"
)
The director of the combo's then asked me if I knew any standards, I was expecting this and said "Song For My Father?" After an initial flub (started on C on the A instead of F on the D, doh!) the tune went great, we ran it from top to bottom then they stopped me again and told me again that I was doing great.
Then came the part of the audition I was expecting, but dreaded at the same time, sight-reading. The combo director asked me to play something that swung a little bit more, and suggested "There Will Never Be Another You". I tried taking it easy by just playing roots fifths and thirds on 1 and 3, but after the first 4 bars the combo director stopped and said "Trevor, that was great, but can you try walking it?" (Crap! I thought). I hung in for about 5 bars and the had to fall back to the roots and fifths on 1 and 3. We stopped about 12 bars in and they said to me "That was good, I know I kind of put you on the spot asking you to sigh-read".
The three of us talked and joked around throughout the audition, and the mood was just so much more relaxed than I am used to in auditions (I played bassoon for 7 years and had so many auditions were the mood is just tense and rushed).
I don't know for sure yet if I made it in, but before I left the combo director double checked that I could make it to the time slot for rehersals, and told me he'd let me know by the end of the day.
Just a few other things the director of the jazz program said to me throughout the audition (though I cant remember when exactly they said it, I was having too much fun hehehe).:
"Trevor, I'd really like to get you involved in the jazz program here."; "I really want you to audition for the big-band in the fall. Honestly I think you'd do fine in there right now."; "I really want to keep in touch with you."
Im so excited my hands are still shaking a little. That was honestly the first audition (of countless, though all the others were on bassoon) that I really enjoyed and had fun in.
PS: I dont mean for any of this to sound like bragging or boasting, its just that I have severe anxiety problems and have NEVER left an audition feeling good about it like I did this one, and Im so excited about the audition that I had to tell somebody.
PSS:Thanks to all you guys and gals at talkbass, this website has been a huge resource for me in the process of not only teaching myself bass, but teaching myself jazz.
