I get pretty much every audition I go to. Not because I'm great. Because I go prepared, have a lot of experience auditioning, and because I use common sense.
The most important thing for me going to audition is to know the material inside out. Know it better than the band themselves know it. Be able to play it alone on the bass without any other accompaniment. When I know the material that well the confidence shows. I'm excited to be playing the music with a band as opposed to with mp3s. And I never have that look on my face that says, "Damn... I hope I remember how this bridge goes." Having been on both sides of the audition process countless times, I think the the reason people fail most is because they don't know the material. Also, if given the list you were given I was certain of 5 or 6 of those songs and shaky on the rest, I would tell them I only learned the 5 and would be happy to learn the rest. I wouldn't attempt songs I wasn't totally confident on. Pretty sure that would never happen with me though, because I wouldn't agree to anything I didn't feel I had the time to do. And if I HAD to, I'd be up all night making sure I had them all down. Yeah. I make it THAT important.
Just about everything else I've learned falls into the 2nd most important category. Most have been mentioned already but I'll restate em anyhow.
- Be early! Forget about being on time.
- Speak when spoken to. No hard and fast rules here, but I've learned to keep my mouth shut for the most part. Be friendly, let them do most of the talking. And never name drop.
- Set up quickly, and don't worry about the "perfect" sound. On auditions with amps I'm not familiar with, I generally go for the flat setting with a tweak on the highs and lows. Fiddling with knobs can be really annoying.
- Dress generically. It might be cliche, but I've never been failed by the black pants, black tee shirt, and footwear that I think will best match the band. My black and white Converse usually do the trick. I've got some cool boots too.
- Keep a positive attitude.
- Know when to leave... common sense should tell you.
- Go into the studio with full knowledge that you're auditioning them, as well as them auditioning you. Of course don't tell them that, but listen and be objective about what's going on. You might not want to even be playing with these people.
- Know that they're on your side. They want you to be good! They don't want you to suck. And they understand the situation and the fact that you might be a little nervous. That's fine. They're with you, not against you, and have probably been in your shoes at one time or another.
- Oh yeah... this is just for me. I believe in a universal higher power of sorts. I pray to that power (in my car before the studio, or the studio bathroom if necessary), and ask that it flows through me. I let go of everything else and trust that if I'm meant to be in the band, I will be. If I'm not, I won't and there'll be a much better band, much better fit, in the very near future.
There was something else I thought of while writing this - thought, ohhh... can't forget to mention that!!!... and then forgot it.
If I remember I'll add it. But there are a few other things that again, just come down to common sense. People will fight and argue about things like bringing a fretless to a Rush tribute audition... they can argue all they want how they'll make that bass "work". And I'll get the gig
. Bring the bass you think fits the gig best, bring your other basses after you land the gig. People can have prejudices towards 5 strings, fretlesses, flashy basses, slap bass and a bunch of other things. They don't HAVE to know you have Vic Wooten skills in between songs. If the gig don't call for it, you just make yerself look silly. What's important is that you make the band sound great. That's it. Doesn't matter if you can play Teen Town. If the next guy auditioning locks in with the drummer better than you, they're getting the gig.
Final note. I've learned that if they're auditioning a drummer at the same time they're auditioning me, all bets are off. I've decided actually that I won't do any auditions like that any more. If the drummer sucks, so do you. Period. If it's a gig I really want I'll ask for them to audition me with no drums as opposed to a drummer who's also auditioning. I don't believe any gig I'd really want though would even consider auditioning bass and drums at the same time.
