The information contained in this thread is priceless. Thank you, all!
So glad to help, @parentologist! Please reach out if you have any other questions!
Thanks. Yes, I do. Does one have any control over when auditions are scheduled, or do you just have to show up when they tell you to? Would it be feasible to schedule all one’s auditions for classical trumpet in say the end of January and beginning of February? And if not, would it be feasible to schedule all auditions for before the end of the first week of February? Or do you just have to come when they say to show up?
@parentologist When you receive an invitation to audition at a school you are typically given the option to request an audition date from a few or several. When my S was going through this process he submitted his requests right away after receiving the audition requests and he got all his first choice audition dates. We had put potential audition dates from all the schools he was applying to onto a calendar so we knew what would potentially work best between all the schools and his schedule.
This! Check admissions pages for the websites of the schools where your student is applying. Most have the 2019-20 calendar up already, but even if you find last year’s calendar the dates rarely change much.
Hi all! I’m getting a bit concerned with my son’s pre-audition videos due 11/1 - he hasn’t shown any to me saying they arent ready and he’s still working out the piece. I have a lot of video of him with his group (trio), but no solos. Has anyone provided video of a band for video auditions and how did that work out for them?
MusicMomSC—— Is your son applying to classical program or jazz or popular music program? If jazz, for most jazz programs’ prescreening audition, he needs to be a dominant soloist / player in all tunes. Since you mentioned “trio”, is his a drummer, bassist or pianist? There are some members here in CC whose child went through as a drummer, bassist or pianist. Depending on your son’s instrument, some very experienced member can answer your questions.
Parentologist—— My son requested a particular audition day with three schools that had multiple audition days. He got a perfect audition day (weekends: Early December and Early February) from two schools but an impossible day (weekday: Mid February) from one school even though he requested another day but eventually he could reschedule to a perfect day with the school. One school had no options (weekday: Early March). All same instrument / voice (classical or jazz) applicants were given one particular day to audition and all instrument / voice faculty at the school were judges for all BM to MM applicants.
Contemporary violist. I heard one video (playing a tough classical piece) and feeling a bit better. Unfortunately most of his contemporary pieces are with his trio and he is rearranging the music for his instrument.
My gut says to just let your S figure it out over the next few days. It sounds like he’s working on it (on his own time frame). It’s easy for me to say…but in the end, he either gets it done or not. I’m betting he will get it done last minute…driving you nuts.
The only thing that I would warn him about is that uploading the pre-screens can fail. So if he waits until the evening of 11/01 it could be even more stressful. If that happens (and all is done) he can call the school and probably get assistance and it may be forgiven due to technical glitches (or not).
Good luck…wait and worry is about all you can do.
MusicMomSC—— Contemporary violin sounds so cool!!! Your son sounds like doing what he needs to get it done. So, let him handle (I know it’s really hard for parents). But be “stand-by” for him. A deadline is really getting very close. I agree with bridgenail, the last day (10/31-11/1) to upload files is really risky (all prescreening music schools give warning). It may take hours so just avoid the last final hours…
Honestly, our son’s prescreening was like “family business”. Getting a rhythm section and playing tunes was my son’s responsibility. It wasn’t that easy for him because all of his friends were also working on their prescreening to meet a deadline. I needed to schedule days / hours with recording studio with an audio tech, my husband needed to take video and arranged to get “sync” with another audio tech on tunes that my son decided to use for prescreening. My son’s deadline was 12/1 but he had an audition trip so he needed to get it done by 11/28. Without us, my son would have been absence from high school for many days…
I used to watch YouTube auditions/prescreens and a small percentage of the time, the comments will tell you if they made it in. I don’t know if that is very scientific, but it was one of the few things I could think of at the time. S eventually decided to play along with a track and wear the same suit in the same room of the house, so we could re-take videos at any time and they had a similar look.
Thanks all! 2 videos done but he still wants to redo, 2 prepped (from group performance just in case).
Quick update, got the videos uploaded that morning (used one video with the group) and today notified accepted for the real audition!
Great news @MusicMomSC ! Where is this?
Frost! I can’t PM (yet) but we are staying over the weekend if there are any current MADE or MUS students that would be willing to let my son shadow let us know!
MusicMomSC——Very exciting!!!
@MusicMomSC CONGRATULATIONS to your kiddo!!
In the past, @“Mezzo’sMama” would start a prescreen thread to track where and when kids were going to live auditions. I hope this can happen again, as it was so helpful to see when kids were notified from certain schools etc… We met several parents from the board at auditions and it was very nice to put names to screen names.
@MusicMomSC CONGRATULATIONS! That was quick! Very very exciting.
Hopefully @“Mezzo’sMama” will start up the prescreen board for this year soon. Here is last year’s for reference:
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/2108045-2019-pre-screen-thread.html
Can’t wait to share the excitement (without the stress of last year, LOL). Go Class of 2024!