<p>Hi Everyone, I have an Audition at USC for the Pop Music program and at Berklee for the Performance/Contemporary Writing & Production.</p>
<p>My primary instrument is the drumset, but i also play guitar bass piano and sing and am a songwriter. </p>
<p>I'd say i'm about 60/40 split between drums and songwriting (talent wise, if that makes sense)</p>
<p>For the auditions, i will be displaying my drumming talents only.</p>
<p>Do you think it is best to playalong to backing tracks that I have written and recorded or better to play along to well known current pop songs minus the drums?</p>
<p>Also, for Berklee am I better off to try and play something more technical, rather than just holding it down and playing nice fills?</p>
<p>Thanks for your time</p>
<p>Play what your good at, not what you THINK an auditionier wants to hear. I walked into my Berklee audition and sang “Stay” by Sugarland. Then I told them I was in my school choir as a Soprano 1, and stay is a low alto belt song. They were surprised but I simply said this is what I love and I think they respected me for that. Be reminded I am auditioning for Music Business not Performance so it’s a bit different but my best advice for you is do what your good at and what shows off your personality. The Berklee audition is so chill it’s in a classroom with a couple of professors and you feel so relaxed so play something you enjoy playing and they would enjoy listening to.</p>
<p>On the other note, don’t hold back-but don’t push your piece so hard that you might mess up. Berklee looks for potential so if you play a decesntly hard song flawlessly, have good personality in your interview and just knock it out of the park you’ll do great 
</p>
<p>Sorry if that wasn’t much help I realized my situation is very different because it’s not for performance but basically you never want to go in an audition unsure of your piece so if a harder piece cause that to happen, lower it down a level. Good luck!!! The Berklee audition is so fun! Its just like a jam session with the professors and very casual and they are so friendly! Can’t say anything about USC- was gonna audition there but it was a huge reach and the costs of flying to California for a campus visit and an audition was too much.</p>