Temple University audition for a new student

[theyaresodead]

Hey guys,

I am scheduled to audition on February 21st at Temple University. I have been playing bass for only a year, and I have only been taking formal lessons for four months.Since I started lessons, I have been practicing hard and long days (not as long as I'd like). Is this a ridiculous thing to do?

Prior to Double Bass, I have been studying guitar, electric bass and piano since I was nine years old. I have a good foundation of music, but that does not seem to mean much with an instrument like double bass.

Let me know your opinions on this. Also, let me know what I should focus on as a new bassist doing an audition in a few months.

-John

[bejoyous]

Originally Posted by theyaresodead

Hey guys,


Prior to Double Bass, I have been studying guitar, electric bass and piano since I was nine years old. I have a good foundation of music, but that does not seem to mean much with an instrument like double bass.

Let me know your opinions on this. Also, let me know what I should focus on as a new bassist doing an audition in a few months.

-John

I'm not sure what you mean regarding the good foundation doesn't mean much to an instrument like bass. The instrument you choose (or does it choose us? - but that's a topic for another thread.) is a tool to express music. If you know grammar, sentence structure, and so on in language; it doesn't matter whether you are using a quill, pencil, pen, typewriter or computer. It's the same in music. The ideas are transferable.

Like you, I studied those instruments, plus tuba, when I was young. I didn't touch a double bass until I was 18. I started university on tuba but switched to bass because the I was better on bass after 6 months than tuba after 6 years. (Also, I heard Mark Bonang play tuba and thought I'd never be that good! Then there is the economic side - there is a lot more bass playing opportunities.) By 19 I was playing in the PEI Symphony and doing gigs around Halifax, by 20 in the National Youth Orchestra of Canada and studying in Toronto.

As for what to study. Get a good grounding in the "money notes" (1/2, first positions) with scales (esp. F, G, A, Bb, C, D and maybe Eb Major (one octave); E, G, A, C, D minor (Natural, Melodic and Harmonic) and intervals. Do long tones on open strings to get a full sound. The first page of Handel's Messiah (fugue part) makes a great audition piece BTW. Also, there are lots of great bass lines in the oratorio that you can study. The Elephant from Carnival of the Animals by C. Saint-Saens is a good audition piece. Also, the minuet (third movement) of Mozart's Symphony 40 is a good orchestral piece to play (shows of strong rhythmic sense and phrasing, notes aren't too hard)

Increasing your upper body and arm strength will help you play the bass. Eat healthy.

Listening to symphonies with a score to see what the basses are doing is helpful.

Drop your hobbies for a while. They won't help you pass the audition.

You might want to fill out your profile a bit more.

[Jeremy Darrow]

You should absolutely take the audition. Even if you don't make it, it will be good practice for future auditions, when you will. It will be a chance to meet some of the faculty. If you really want to go to Temple, you should consider studying privately with Temple faculty. They know what the audition panel is looking for and will be best able to help you get there. If you are about to graduate from high school, and you don't make the audition, consider taking the next year to prepare for music school. Maybe get a part-time job and continue to study privately until you are accepted into a school that you want to attend. I often wish that I had taken a year off between high school and college. No matter what, if you want to study bass in college stick with it until you're accepted into a good school.

Bejoyous gave you some good advice, but it's best reinforced by a good teacher whom you see weekly.

Best of luck,
Jeremy

[bejoyous]

I didn't mention teachers because he said he's taking private lessons.

[callowhill]

Hi John,

Total cakewalk. Audition. if you don't get in, take your lumps and grow. If you do get in, take advantage of all the university has to offer. What do I know? I'm just a Temple Alumni with a degree in Jazz Performance. (woo hoo, real valuable in the "marketplace") The faculty there is absolutely top notch, Terell Stafford rocks the trumpet but he'll turn a bass player upside down in no-time. His expert teaching and guidance is complemented by a faculty of giants.

Or you might be doing the "classical" thing. Same deal, minus the Jazz faculty. Just do it, and pay attention to option 3 as it applies to both schools:

3rd option: Call me up, stop on through the shop, and realize it's not that hard. Relax. I might even coincide your visit with an industry leader (jazz or classical, no worries) just because it'd be a fun thing to do.

Stop stressin', it's not that hard...

-Tim

[theyaresodead]

thanks a lot, guys! it's always nice to hear good, encouraging things from fellow players. i'm definitely doing the audition no matter what. To the first poster, great insight! I have been working through the elephant, and also Marcello's sonata in e minor. I'm definitely going to do the Marcello piece, not yet sure on what else. I still need to choose two orchestral excerpts.
Any recommendations?

[Dbass926]

I think that you may want to look into other state schools in PA also. Temple's classical bass program is on a fairly high level and they're looking to push that level up. Now I don't know how you play, but having just graduated from the program, I want to give you a heads up that it may be tighter this year.
I would suggest Die Meistersinger, and the Mahler One solo for excerpts. Pick an etude that has variety and shows the things you feel you do really well on bass.

[Chang]

It's a great idea to do this audition. You will learn from it, and be a better player for preparing for it. Make sure to get comments from the audition panel, whether you are successful or not this time. It will give you further insight.

Here are some pointers:

1) Record yourself - Don't spend too much time doing this, but it can help you see places that need immediate attention, and also give you a boost at how good you sound! Maybe once every other week? Depends how much you are practicing.
2) Practice with a metronome - Not ALL the time, but more for orchestral excerpts (that have a steady tempo) and less for solos (you want some room for artistic license). Try starting at a slower tempo and increasing it slowly until you can play all the way through in your final tempo.
3) Practice slowly with a tuner - I've found this extremely helpful when things don't sound "quite right." Everyone has different ideas about intonation, and tuners aren't always accurate, but doing this a few times on each piece or excerpt will be a big help. Don't practice in time, just one note at a time to get the feel of exactly where the note is one the fingerboard.
4) Conduct a mock audition or two - Gather trusted musician friends, teachers, and family and play all of your pieces as if though it was "Fo' Real!" Ask everyone to be quiet and serious. You should only play through once and this must be recorded. Also, have people write down their thoughts. Their ideas will conflict. Take the overall impression of their comments into account. This is more for how you feel during an audition and how you perform under pressure. You want to be as relaxed as possible. This will give you a chance to practice that.
5) Play through your pieces - Everyone practices little bits to get them perfect. This is essential. But you must also play all the way through the piece or excerpt on a regular basis. Play as if you were performing for an audience of hundreds. Play through your pieces every other day or so once you can get most of the notes, more often a month closer to the audition (more like 5 to 10 times a day depending on how much you practice). Mix it up. Play your audition in one order this day, another the next.
6) Listen to recordings - Listen to as many recordings of your audition pieces as possible. If it's an excerpt, listen to the whole movement (whole piece when possible). Don't just imitate but it's a good place to get ideas and to see the standards of playing. It's okay to hear your pieces being played by different instruments.

You've already been given good advice here, and you're doing the right thing having lessons and practicing more. Add even more practice time if you feel like you aren't practicing as much as you'd like to be.

Well, that's all the time I have for now. I'll get back to you on good excerpts to play when I have time. Good luck and let us know how it goes!

[theyaresodead]

So far I have chosen:
Benedetto Marcello's Sonata in E Minor
Saint-Saens' Elephant

Excerpts:
fourth movement of Beethoven's 9th
not sure on the second one

[daneatsfood]

Those are very good audtition pieces. A lot of professional orchestras use movement IV of Beethoven's 9th for auditions.

[Peter Ferretti]

Assuming you mean the recitative when you say the fourth movement of B9, I've heard a lot of teachers advise against using the recitative as an excerpt for college auditions. Some (IU) even go so far as to specifically not accept it as an excerpt. It's a great solo, and very welcome in our repertoire, but it shows ability in the way a solo would.

For your purposes, you would do better choosing an excerpt that demonstrates different strokes. You would be very safe choosing Beethoven 5 (trio and/or scherzo), and a movement of a Mozart symphony. Those are pretty much the meat and potatoes of auditions, and it goes a long way in showing your ability as a Double Bassist and a musician.

[Alex Jenkins]

I would agree with Peter and advise you not to do the recits for the reasons mentioned above.

I would maybe suggest an excerpt from Brahms 1 - in my opinion, maybe a bit easier to tackle than the scherzo/trio from Beethoven 5 (given you have less than a month to learn it.)

Also - check out the Double from the Bach 2nd Orchestral Suite. It's not as widely used in the college audition rep, but it's a very nice lyrical excerpt you could contrast with the Brahms.

Good luck man.

[MDEbass]

Originally Posted by theyaresodead

I have been practicing hard and long days (not as long as I'd like). Is this a ridiculous thing to do?

Prior to Double Bass, I have been studying guitar, electric bass and piano since I was nine years old. I have a good foundation of music, but that does not seem to mean much with an instrument like double bass.

Practicing a lot is not a rediculous thing to do. Many people do not have the discipline to spend a lot of time on the instrument. You can get very far in playing only one year with a lot of practice. Keep it up. Especially since you've got an audition coming up, I think all that practice is necessary if you want to nail the audition, so for now keep up the practicing, and then a week or so before the audition take it easy, rest, play through the pieces a couple times to refresh and thats it. You don't want to overdo it right before an audition! Good luck at the audition

Also, your good musical foundation WILL help your bass playing. Physically, its a totally different ball game playing the bass, but your knowledge in music will still apply, and that's important.

Take the audition. If you get in, great. If you don't, learn from it. Any audition experience or anytime you have to play in front of people is a very important experience. The more you play in front of people, the more comfortable you will be playing in front of people. You can learn a lot from evaluating your performances - what went well, what didn't, why, etc...So another thing to help relax at the audition is play in front of anyone you can - your teacher, family members, friends, etc.

Hope this helps and Good Luck!

-Mike

[theyaresodead]

i don't know if this changes the whole ball game...
I am auditioning for music education with a concentration on double bass.
Is that a whole different story or what?

[theyaresodead]

oh and my final pieces:

elephant
sonata in e minor by marcello
allegro from beethoven's 5th
die mastersingers (the part that's in simandl book 1)