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Audition help

Depth_Charge

Depth_Charge

Sep 13, 2006
4,143
182
Perth, Western Australia
#1
After too long I finally have an audition next week! 4 songs:

Long Train Running (Doobies)
Blame It On The Boogie (Jackson 5)
Georgiey Porgie (Toto)
Moondance (Van Morrison)

I'm chasing any info on some theory behind these songs - key centres, scales, chords etc that may aid me in learning these tunes.
 
#2
Let Google find fake chord on the song.
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That will give you the lyrics to help with the beat -- one note per lyric word Doo-bie would get two notes as would Bro-thers - singing the lyrics helps with how many notes to use, i.e. is just roots all that is called for or do you need more of the chord tones. Sing the tune as you play, let the lyrics help with the groove.

Then find some YouTube on the Doobie Brothers playing and singing the song - play along with them.

Always helps to listen to the band you are auditioning for and see how they handle those songs.

Good luck.
 
#3
I tried blowing the audition off but they really want me to try out this week now! Im at a loss why - I told them I'm not a chart reader, I don't handle surprise key changes well and Ive been a 4/4 rock guy for the past five years at least! If someone told me that as a bandleader, I'd thank them for their time and honesty and wish them well on their search!

When provided recordings from the band I'm auditioning for I avoid learning off Youtube because of the potential arrangements/tuning/key differences and while I tried applying your "follow the lyrics" suggestions, I had no success at all (of course I did try it with Paradise City by GNR after failing on the songs Im learning).

Once I get some coin I'm going to arrange some lessons as I can't believe I'm struggling to even identify the keys on these songs! Its borderline embarrassing.

That said I think Long Train is in G and Moondance is in A and I've been able to play along with those ones pretty well. Georgie Porgy Im working on today/tomorrow and I just can't get my head around Blame it on the Boogie - Its a quick line (to me) and I'm just not that good of a bass player to be popping and skipping along that chorus ... its a bit sad to realise that really :(
 
#7
I wouldn't audition for a band like that. My response would be "You only have four songs???? Call me back when you have forty four songs".

A better audition would be, "Heres our song list (44 songs), pick 4 to audition and give us your list so we can pick four of yours so you can audition us".
 
#9
James Judson said:
I wouldn't audition for a band like that. My response would be "You only have four songs???? Call me back when you have forty four songs".

A better audition would be, "Heres our song list (44 songs), pick 4 to audition and give us your list so we can pick four of yours so you can audition us".
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I took his post to mean that the band has selected four songs from its larger repertoire for him to learn for the audition. That's a pretty common practice.
 
#10
Febs said:
I took his post to mean that the band has selected four songs from its larger repertoire for him to learn for the audition. That's a pretty common practice.
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+1.

I would not audition for a cover group with only 4 songs down either :)

Ill try that advice on the jackson tune I am really dumbing my lines down to get a handle on them.

Sadly Im amazed how much this change has hi-lighted the many weaknesses in my playing.
 
#16
Just find some chords online, and practise with that :)

IF the chords are slightly off, or the band transposed them to a higher/lower note, just play it from there (song construction and intervals should stay the same, you just play it a bit up or down the neck from what you learned)
 
#19
Biggbass said:
That short list is kinda all over the map isn't it?
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Agent backed corporate cover band - not that uncommon for a group to cover such a wide range of genre's around here. I've played gigs where we were asked to do soft dinner music, then rocked the joint for 2 sets, then thrashed the last one out hard. Then got asked back to do it all again next week just to save the venue the "hassle" of bringing 3 bands in for the night ;)
 

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