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Berklee Auditions
- Thread starter Dr. Cheese
- Start date
I auditioned years ago for the Jazz course at the Sydney Conservatorium. I was already a professional earning my living playing bass but I failed the audition because my reading was not good enough. Those who get in are already very accomplished readers and players.
One if the reasons I went to Northeastern University was so I would be next door to Berklee. Over the years, I have played with several and been in two serious bands with Berklee alums. They were all very talented professional musicians and it was always a joy to work with them.
They need to admit enough students to make money and keep the place going. My impression from the above video is they may admit some marginal musicians and use the ranking system to separate who's good, who's okay, and who needs lots of practice. As a school, that's good IMO because everyone who is really good had to start out marginal at some point and seems they give you a chance to grow -- just don't bounce your tuition check.
Bro… Sounds like you raised a great kid! Unfortunately you don’t know what you don’t know but it sounds like as you learned you helped your kid and he’s that much better off for what you did.
If you hadn’t starved and pursued something else who knows what he would have done. Because of your sacrifice he’s where he is now!
I think Berklee has the numbers figured out. They've been washing students out for decades. But they have absolutely no shortage of kids lining up to be first-year students. And their potential to continue to bring in young musicians has only grown with their campus expansion.
I'm a graduate. I play gigs (local only) and teach private students for a living. I could give up the teaching if I really wanted to, but I'd only just be getting by if I did. Although when I think of the other musical projects I could take on if I wasn't teaching and how those could become more rewarding, I go down a planning rabbit hole . . . .
Anyway, many of my friends are also graduates. Some do the same kind of thing I do. Some others are touring for huge international touring artists, both new and legacy. Some became realtors, one became a golf instructor and is raising a huge family, a few are housewives. Some aspire to go full time in music, but need a full time day job to pay back their college loans. One of them (to be fair this guy is an acquaintance only, just did a handful of gigs in the same band) is the drummer for the third or fourth biggest artist in the world.
I think one's path in music is directly tied to personality. I'm a very pragmatic, risk-averse person, with one big exception: not doing music for a living was not an option. So the first and only time I ever went on tour with a band was a pretty bad experience. Van life, even for a week, wasn't for me. I knew that very early on. The musicians that are okay with that lifestyle often start on tour with small bands, meet lots of people on the road, and start to build toward working with bigger and bigger names. But I want a more localized lifestyle. Home most nights, that kind of thing. So I focused on finding "steady" employment in club date bands and local artists that at least some kind of budget, etc.
By the way, just to address the OP, Anthony Vitti is regarded to be one of the absolute best teachers and MENTORS at the school. I didn't study with him when I was there, but many of my friends did, and this was a unanimous sentiment. One thing I made a huge mistake of overlooking was the value of the wisdom of decades of working as a musician that these guys had over me. I was so focused on the theory and the "book learning" aspect of studying there that a lot of the other stuff I should have been learning there was going over my head. Little did I know at the time that fluent soloing over Giant Steps at 320 BPM wasn't how I was going to get work and learn the business of playing music.
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I worked with a Berklee grad guitarist who studied composition and arrangement. I asked him what value his education provided for him...
"It was great! When I received my associates degree I was completely prepared for a music career as a big band leader in 1944!"...
"It was great! When I received my associates degree I was completely prepared for a music career as a big band leader in 1944!"...
Good way to look at it. Back in my day we had a thing going on called Viet Nam. I was offered on numerous occasions to audition for the Army Band. As I was told my main issue was in order to audition I had to enlist first. I was thinking one flat or botched note and I’m on a boat to the “Eastern Front” which in my mind something like that could happen anywhere anytime during my enlistment.
In my son’s case, the contract was not signed until he passed his audition and as long as he maintained his fitness level, his MOS is locked in.
Just a couple of other things. When I said I starved for my art, I never missed a meal (thanks Mom and Dad), but I would have made a lot more money playing more commercially acceptable music instead. What I ended up with was a lot of fond memories, 7 years of not having having a normal job, some really top flight gear, and my wife of 47 years.
And finally. My older son enlisted 3 years before ( different MOS) my younger one, also retired out of the Marines. Truth be told, his influence on my younger son’s choice was significant and can’t be discounted.
Taking nothing away from Esperanza, because she is incredible, but Pat Metheny was teaching guitar there at the age of 19, after teaching at the University of Miami when he was 18.
Bern Nix was one of his Berklee students.
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"I went to Berklee, and I was so bad I actually GRADUATED..."
It is not just music schools. We could be having this conversation about almost any college or program of study, trying to figure how the %#@! does $150k in student loans get paid off from a lifetime of $12 jobs....
One thing I will say is my younger brother was 9 at the time I went
and went I went for the summer course we had to prepare a song for the teachers to put Us in groups
so with my brother being with me he played drums alongside and they offered for us to to put him in the drum workshop but in the masterclass at 9 years old! So Kim Plainfield had a chance to work with him before he passed away
I’d upload a video but ..
and went I went for the summer course we had to prepare a song for the teachers to put Us in groups
so with my brother being with me he played drums alongside and they offered for us to to put him in the drum workshop but in the masterclass at 9 years old! So Kim Plainfield had a chance to work with him before he passed away
I’d upload a video but ..
My only direct experience is I know three guitar players who are Berkley grads. Of the three, only one makes his living playing guitar. The other two work in IT, one is a programmer and the other is a systems manager for a hospital. One of the two has a band that plays regionally and does session work and the other teaches guitar and plays as a hired gun. All three are on a whole nother level of musicianship than us mere mortals, and I say that with utmost respect. I know plenty of guitar players who would give their left nut to be as good as these three. They are all that and more.
I have no idea what anyone says about Berkley outside of these three and they never talk about it, but they can play their asses off, reattach them, and go even harder. If they are typical of a Berkley grad, I'd say if you had the native talent and discipline required to be a music playing pro, you could do a lot worse than Berkley.
I have no idea what anyone says about Berkley outside of these three and they never talk about it, but they can play their asses off, reattach them, and go even harder. If they are typical of a Berkley grad, I'd say if you had the native talent and discipline required to be a music playing pro, you could do a lot worse than Berkley.
Looks like I stand corrected. My friend might have been making it up to impress me, or perhaps my few remaining brain cells got it wrong. Perhaps Mr. Clarke came to Berklee for a day to look around and my friend expanded the story. Sadly my friend passed away last year, so I can't fact check this. I'm sorry to have spread some misinformation. I'll shut up now and go back to my corner...
Berklee grads seem to be more business savvy than an NEC or Julliard grad for example. My friend is plane hobby successful. When he was there, he got me a non-student to play on his compositional ensemble. Great place.
I’m pretty surprised that they have you play your prepared piece to a backing track which they then use to determine what ensemble to place you in. Seems like it would make more sense to have a rhythm section at the audition and see how you interact with them. That’s what it was like at the auditions I did in NYC and at the New School where I got my degree. There was a separate ear training and sight reading test that was done online.
My experience is the opposite of most here. I have encountered and played in bands with several Berkelee alum/dropouts and their musicianship is average. My experience is they accept anyone to take their money, the person is all to excited to give them their money so they can name drop “I went to berklee” on gigs and during networking opportunities. I’m not impressed at all. Unless my kids were doing classical you can learn the music stuff on your own (like I did) free of charge.
