| My Berklee audition. (very long and detailed)
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It seems A LOT of people who plan to go through the audition process into Berklee School of Music want to hear others experiences. So, here is mine. First of all, I am 19 years old, and auditioned on electric bass.
I got there at about 7:45 in the morning. With my audition at 9:00a.m, they told to be there at least an hour early. The doors were locked when I walked up, but thankfully there was an older lady to let me in. She said none of the Berklee faculty had arrived yet, so we waited in this little lobby by ourselves. Slowly, about 3 other kids showed up, and you could tell everyone was pretty nervous, and a tad jittery. I was nervous as hell but, at the same time I somehow convinced some confidence in myself. The faculty showed up, went upstairs, and about 15 minutes later they had us all move upstairs, across the hall from the actual audition room until they took us to the warm-up room. I was the very first person for the entire day, so I got called first. The guys moving people were really nice and friendly, which made me feel that hey, its relaxed enough to not get worked up and make a huge mistake because of it. I got into the room, which already had the site-reading material ready for me to look at. The dude said he would be back in around 15 minutes, and to prepare myself however necessary. I looked through the music, which was about 8 lines of seperate, and progressively harder music, and all differing styles. The styles were: Swing, waltz(3/4 obviously), blues, latin(12/8), bassa, and 3 different funks. All other time signatures were common time.I played them over and realized some of the rhythms were a tad difficult but I knew I would at least prove I have experience in reading and site reading. The guy came back, and took me in.
There were two judges. One was an extremely friendly older black man, who immediately displayed that this audition would not be one for intense intimidation through friendliness. The second was a very quite white woman, who only said maybe words within my time in there. They asked to play my prepared piece, and I played it. My piece was a Charlie Parker tune called Perhaps. In order and time, I played the head, walked a line, comp'ed all the chords, solo'd for 3 heads, and ended with the melody. I was nervous, so I did not play it perfect. Not the best I have played it, but I have definitively played it worse. After, he said good job and he moved to the piano next to me. He told me to name any key, and we would play a blues in it. I asked him if it was either a 12 or 16 bar, he said twelve, I called the key of C, and I counted it off. I am sure my bass walking time was worse than usual but, hey, I am sure they know things happens while being nervous. He then asked me to play some major scales in which he called out, which was cake. Next, he played a series of short didlies on the piano, in which I had to sing them back. Some major, some minor. Then, asked me to play some major triads arperggios in various keys, and eventually asked to add such things as major or minor sevenths. Next was some theory questions and chord spellings. For example, he asked me to name the notes of a Bb major 7 flat five chord. No intense difficulty here, a couple stupid mistakes but nothing that said "I don't know this." Lastly, he asked what I knew about modes. I said I know them, so he asked me spell out an F Dorian scale, which I did correctly. One strange moment was when he asked me my desired major, in which I responded with the MP&E program. He got oddly stern and explained he massive amount of competitiveness within the major. Although I already knew this, I was a tad dumbfounded by the tone. I explained I had done my homework in realizing this, had not made a distinct decision, and was keeping other options open. This is all true, for I actually quite interested in the Music Business program, although I made no mention of it.
Then, I went to the interview. Basically, the lady just asked me these questions: What were you grades in high school/currently? Why do you think Berklee is a good choice? What will you bring to Berklee? What are you career goals? Why are you interested in leaving your current university? Among some more impulsive and situational questions. I felt I rambled a little bit, which I am sure happens, but I mostly feel that I did not display the level drive and desire I wish I had. I hope she felt my answers exposed that I do have desire, but of course it is hard to honestly tell. She typed many things as I spoke, which made me think to hard about my words occasionally. I made the mistake of explaining that my math grades occasionally faulted in high school. She then asked me how I felt about the fact the major I am pursuing deals with acoustics and physics. I tried to bounce the situation back positively by explaining that my grades in math were never issues of not understanding or inabilities, but more rather bad prioritizing and some much needed maturing, in which has been corrected. I threw a number of things I felt would let them know this is the best place for me. I then gave her my music portfolio page and information. Meh, just feel extremely uneasy about that.
That was it. Extremely relaxing environment and overall not near the expectations my mind manifested. Everyone was friendly and unintimidating as possible, which absolutely helped with the process. A feeling of anxiety is still in my stomach, probably because the confidence in my performance in the process is low due to having no true idea of how I did compared to others. If I were to be denied, I would NEVER know the reason, and more importantly how to better myself. Saying that, I could be denied due to lack of diversity. Per se, the possibility of too many white American kids already accepted, so they need to equal out percentages is a questionable factor. I should know an answer on March 25th, which is a LONG ways away, but inevitable nonetheless :]
I hope to shed some light on those who are have plans or consider to audition for Berklee. Thanks for reading, if you did.
Last edited by JacobyLong : 02-08-2010 at 01:58 PM.
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