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Berklee Audition.

#21
Kobaia said:
I brought up the Bob Marley Ensemble because its a genre that requires study in order to sound authentic, much like any other style of music.

Its much better to look at it by genre. I want you is a pop rock song, there are much better bass songs for pop rock out there than the Beatles. Beatles are a great band of song writers but i wouldn't label any of them 'greats' on their instrument. IMO you'd be better off doing a Leland Sklar transcription. Lemon Song is the most basic of blues not so far removed from ZZ Top. You'd be better off check out some Robbin Ford. The Boss by James Brown that bass line is weak. Check out D'Angelo's Chicken Grease thats some funky stuff
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"I Want You" by The Beatles a "pop rock" song?!?! Yeah . . . it's such a "catchy" Beatles tune!

Please . . . if anything it's quite bluesy.


As for the 'great' player debate . . .

I stand corrected by what I wrote earlier. You put pretty much all emphasis on technical virtuosity (specifically Jazz and Fusion) to define 'greatness' and that my friend is only a slice of a very big pie. True. McCartney doesn't slap, pop, tap, double thump etc. but his bass lines are some of the most melodic and well thought out out there (in his genre). Also, try playing and singing some of his songs at the same time. You'll find out that some are downright tricky.

I'm sure you would agree with me (and the whole bass Universe) that Jeff Berlin an indisputable bass god. Well, guess who his original bass idol is? Jack Bruce, which according to your standards would not fit in the 'great' player category. What about Jamerson?

How many players out there have technical prowess? Go to youtube and you'll find quite a lot (alongside a large amount of mediocre ones)

Now, how many players out there have unmistakable and memorable bass lines? Much less.

And those who combine both? Even less.

Catch my drift?


I like, practice and apply technical stuff as most people do, but you won't get hired in 99% of gigs just because you can double thump 32nd, 64th and 128th notes. That's one of the most important things they teach at Berklee.
 
#22
I'm a former Berklee student, and although I went before there were auditions required to get in, I have to say those aren't bad choices so long as they're your strengths... GO WITH YOUR STRENGTHS!!! Berklee in no way looks down at Rock... I was told time after time that Berklee is a "Jazz" school, but the place is chock full o' rock musicians on the faculty, and, IMHO, I think the faculty will very much appreciate a great versions of rock songs after listening to crappy renditions of jazz standard after crappy version version of jazz standard. YMMV.
 
#23
Revolver said:
"I Want You" by The Beatles a "pop rock" song?!?! Yeah . . . it's such a "catchy" Beatles tune!

Please . . . if anything it's quite bluesy.


As for the 'great' player debate . . .

I stand corrected by what I wrote earlier. You put pretty much all emphasis on technical virtuosity to define 'greatness' and that my friend is only part of the equation. True. McCartney doesn't slap, pop, tap, double thump etc. but his bass lines are some of the most melodic and well thought out out there. Also, try playing and singing some of his songs at the same time. You'll find out that some are downright tricky.

I'm sure you would agree with me that Jeff Berlin is a virtuoso. Well, guess who his bass idol is? Jack Bruce, which according to your standards would not fit in the 'great' player category. What about Jamerson?

How many players out there have technical prowess? Go to youtube and you'll find quite a lot (alongside a bunch of disastrous ones)

Now, how many players out there have unmistakable and memorable bass lines? Much less.

And those who combine both? Even less.

Catch my drift?


I like, and practice technical stuff as most people do, but you won't get hired in 99% of gigs just because you can double thump 32nd, 64th and 128th notes. That's one of the most important things I learned at Berklee . . . but apparently not everyone feels this way.
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beatles follow popular music forms, and therefor is considered 'pop'ular music(rock, blues, hip hop, funk ect.)

if he'd of brought up singing as part of his audition I wouldn't've said much. but if you're going into an audition purely based on performance. i would say those are not very performance heavy tunes.

a variety of techniques dont equal greatness, not 1 teacher at Berklee is going to care how fast you play, how well you slap or if you can even tap. You're going to be asked to play in the rhythm section. so i'm suggesting you pick the greats of rhythm section playing, Will Lee, Leland Sklar, Carol Kaye, or Pino Palladino.

And yes Berklee does provide a very diverse musical environment, but being able to conquer 1 jazz tune is many times better than playing any one of those songs that he listed with the same amount of conviction in the delivery.

and if you look back at my post i've only suggested 2 jazz tunes and close to 10 alternatives for rock and popular music forms.

ultimately you can play what ever you want at the audition, and a solid performance will keep you from getting a rejection letter. But to dominate the audition will not only get you in but get you a scholarship to a school that charges close to 50,000 for your first year.
 
#24
RyanJD said:
Do you think it would detract from an evaluation like this if I were to play YYZ by Rush at 75% speed?
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for a song like that i'd bet they'd want you to play along to the track for reference.

but how impressed would you be if someone could play half a song.

that would tell me that you're not disciplined or focused enough to complete a task. and from a business perspective why would you want to invest in that?

if YYZ is what you want to do, then do it 100% speed, and do it solid
 
#25
"beatles follow popular music forms, and therefor is considered 'pop'ular music(rock, blues, hip hop, funk ect.)"

True. But just because the majority of their work follows a pop rock form (they have a bunch of stuff that isn't), doesn't make every song they wrote 'pop'. The same applies to any artist in any genre.

"being able to conquer 1 jazz tune is many times better than playing any one of those songs that he listed with the same amount of conviction in the delivery"

Why is that? Just because it is more harmonically complex? Come on . . .

That is your very personal opinion because (again) you are mainly a Jazz/Fusion guy, but hardly a fact.

As for Will Lee . . . if you come across him sometime ask him what he thinks of McCartney. You'll get a very interesting answer.

This is turning out to be the classic and never-ending Berklee Debate . . . Jazzheads vs. Rockers vs. Latin players etc.
 
#26
Honestly, if you can pay the tuition Berklee will accept you and teach you to read whole notes for $16,730 a semester. Don't sweat your audition, they need to pay their rent. Remember they also have majors like Music Production and Engineering, Music Therapy, and Music Business. The people in those majors are not performance majors and a good bit of them can't play worth a damn, yet they get in and make it through, or they dont, the graduation rate is less than 50% afterall. The retention rate is amazingly 86% now, which is a step up from 25% when I was there.

I would have to agree with the people who said play tunes that show off your strengths and your ability to function well as a bass player in a rhythm section. If you can play a few different styles well, do it. Just don't go in there attempting something fancy and difficult that you can't really own. Picking something above your ability in a poor attempt to impress the pros and then folding all over it is never good. (Although, that's EXACTLY what I did and managed to make it) lol :D
 
#27
Berklee's Montra:

Founded on jazz and popular music rooted in the African cultural diaspora
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This is whats told to teachers, and this is what their teaching goal is. Berklee as a contemporary school of music only sees 2 types of contemporary music, Jazz and Popular music.
Now there are sub genres to each of those, but if you can present a convincing product of both jazz and popular music then you're headed in the right direction.
once you have those things down berklee will allow you to study what ever you want. but as far as an education berklee academic style is generally Jazz oriented.
 
#30
well thats good...

I am sure if they see enough promise and potential in a player they would be accepted. I know young people who have had instruments in their hands for months and show tons of talent.

People like that should be accepted, they may not get scholarships though...

They still have the 1-8 rating system?
 
#31
Don't get me wrong... I think its great that they are having a tougher program to get into... But at the same time, I just don't think its rite to discourage someone who has not been playing long about the program...

If someone has talent, and it is noticed by the school, they should be accepted. Thats how I feel at least...
 
#33
This is off-topic to the audition discussion, but after you graduated, was it the skills you learned or the ability to say you went to berklee that made the biggest difference? That's what some of my friends have asked me, none of my friends see music as more than a hobby.
Plus, finding out as much as possible about schools/paths to take is a good idea to begin with haha.
 
#34
I don't remember if it was this thread of a different one... But being able to say that you went to a music school, in this case Berklee, people who don't know anything about you will pay you a little bit more attention more so than just some guy wanting to play.

My career path during / after school has not bought up Berklee too much, but every now and then it does come up and people are like... Cool!

But thats me...
 
#35
just throwing my 2 cents in ...i don't know much about Berklee but i did graduate from a Canadian University focused on jazz studies ....in '96

universities generally want to see you've been around some scales and arpeggios and some styles ....you need to point your audition in the direction of course study you're applying for ...so if it's commercial music play blues, pop, rock etc ...

if it's jazz studies you need to get into jazz blues and some swing standards ...have some walking down and some simple improv lines for soloing ...

if you walk into a jazz studies audtion playing pop and rock you may be looked at as a candidate who really doesn't have a love for the music that will be studied and universites like Berklee want students who will do the school proud and live up to the degree or diploma!

good luck ...i'd love to do it again in a place like Boston rathe than small town atlantic canada!

ps: get some site reading and chart reading chops going!
 
#37
MiniMoose234 said:
This is off-topic to the audition discussion, but after you graduated, was it the skills you learned or the ability to say you went to berklee that made the biggest difference?
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I did Pro Music. Splitting Jazz Composition and Performance. So far the most personally rewarding skill I've developed is the ability or write charts and arrange songs on paper. It has allowed me to really find songs that I enjoy and create charts for my own band.
Skills wise I would say learning how to create voicing for horns and strings over complex jazz chords aka big band arrangements
 
#39
Kobaia said:
I did Pro Music. Splitting Jazz Composition and Performance. So far the most personally rewarding skill I've developed is the ability or write charts and arrange songs on paper. It has allowed me to really find songs that I enjoy and create charts for my own band.
Skills wise I would say learning how to create voicing for horns and strings over complex jazz chords aka big band arrangements
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I've really been working on my sight reading, but I need to work on treble clef, and finally get around to reading charts.
The weird thing with me is i'm just as comfortable playing beatles stuff, some of the more complex metal (Yeah, a lot of it is really simple i'm not foolin, but some is really really involved) and old motown types of stuff. Plus random indie songs, and jam band stuff, blues stuff with one of my friends as a duo, and I'm finally getting lessons on playing Jazz and how it works.
I really do find learning how stuff works musically almost more than playing. But I also love doing woodwork and rewiring and all that...
I enjoy too much haha.
I have such wide tastes in music that I enjoy learning all sorts of things. That's one of the big reasons I want to go to Berklee. Just the wide variety of players and influences people bring in.

Does anyone know much about the dual major and major/minor plans?
 

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