Today I had my bass audition for Berklee College of music. So for the past few weeks I had been scouring the net for advice and stories of what happened in different people's auditions to help me prepare for what may come up in mine. So now just five hours later I decided to give back through this so that others may benefit from my experience whether or not I get in.
The first thing that happened was I was taken into a small room with a page of sheet music. Each example was in a different genre and key and varying key signatures. The first was swing, then latin feel, then R&b, then country. Dont know what the rest were because that was all I got to. Each was about 4 measures and varying tempos. You get fifteen minutes to read them beforehand but, keep in mind that tuning your bass and other things like that are also included in that fifteen minutes which may not seem that bad but every second counts and its gonna be the fastest fifteen minutes of your life. I promise.
So then they took me into a room with two guys. One guy didnt say much the other guy had a guitar. I handed them my cd with my backing track and played it. Then they asked if I could solo. To which I answered yes. So they asked if I could walk a blues. I said yes so then they asked if I wanted to do a jazz blues or basic I IV V. I stuck with the basic because I'm more familiar with it. So I walked for a bit as he comped on guitar then he told me to start soloing. I did so for a while and noticed he was playing an ending phrase so I made sure my solo ended with his phrase. Then we did the site reading. Which I did not do to well on because by that point I had forgot much of what I read so was essentially sightreading from scratch. After that we did some call and response with the guitar player. Then he strummed rhythms and I had to clap them. Then he played a few phrases on his guitar and I had to sing them. Then he asked me to play an E major scale from the bottom E to the highest note on my bass. At first they were confused because they saw me starting my scale from the fifth fret. After all that time they had not realized I was playing a five string. They were impressed that I actually use the fifthe string as well. So I guess they run across many players who don't. But anyway I played the scale and finally they asked me to play a C major triad arpeggio. Then they made me play it from bottom C to highest C. That was it. Then I did the interview. Hopefully this helps someone out and if you guys have questions ask me and I'll answer them as best I can.
The first thing that happened was I was taken into a small room with a page of sheet music. Each example was in a different genre and key and varying key signatures. The first was swing, then latin feel, then R&b, then country. Dont know what the rest were because that was all I got to. Each was about 4 measures and varying tempos. You get fifteen minutes to read them beforehand but, keep in mind that tuning your bass and other things like that are also included in that fifteen minutes which may not seem that bad but every second counts and its gonna be the fastest fifteen minutes of your life. I promise.
So then they took me into a room with two guys. One guy didnt say much the other guy had a guitar. I handed them my cd with my backing track and played it. Then they asked if I could solo. To which I answered yes. So they asked if I could walk a blues. I said yes so then they asked if I wanted to do a jazz blues or basic I IV V. I stuck with the basic because I'm more familiar with it. So I walked for a bit as he comped on guitar then he told me to start soloing. I did so for a while and noticed he was playing an ending phrase so I made sure my solo ended with his phrase. Then we did the site reading. Which I did not do to well on because by that point I had forgot much of what I read so was essentially sightreading from scratch. After that we did some call and response with the guitar player. Then he strummed rhythms and I had to clap them. Then he played a few phrases on his guitar and I had to sing them. Then he asked me to play an E major scale from the bottom E to the highest note on my bass. At first they were confused because they saw me starting my scale from the fifth fret. After all that time they had not realized I was playing a five string. They were impressed that I actually use the fifthe string as well. So I guess they run across many players who don't. But anyway I played the scale and finally they asked me to play a C major triad arpeggio. Then they made me play it from bottom C to highest C. That was it. Then I did the interview. Hopefully this helps someone out and if you guys have questions ask me and I'll answer them as best I can.
