Hang in there @tripletmama! Your D sounds a lot like my D—a terrific visual artist who has never wanted us to attend her shows or award ceremonies. She’s thriving in college although prone to a lot of the mishaps your D is (your accounts of her challenges sound so familiar!)
@akapiratequeen , thank you!
@tripletmama , appreciate your info. We will just warm up in hotel room (with so called “hotel mute”on) and head to the school 10:30 ish-. Good luck to your daughter.
Thanks jazzboydad…I’m glad I’m not alone! I might blow my cover. She left her tuner…her sister took a battery out of it last night ? so I might give it to the front desk to give to her.
If anyone else will be at the SFCM parent orientation I have on black pants and a creme shawl thing and wet hair (apple doesn’t fall far from the tree ?
As Dad to an aspiring jazz vocalist, I’m getting a chuckle out of the discussion among the jazz instrumentalist parents about the diva singers!
Oberlin had an interesting approach: they pulled instrumentalists randomly into groups, had them warm up together for about half an hour, then they auditioned together without a vocalist. Vocalists auditioned with a rhythm section made up of current students, not applicants.
The jam sessions at Oberlin and Frost included vocalists, who did call the charts for the most part. I’ve been impressed at how well most of the kids were able to jump right in, even on songs that they’d never played (including your D @DrummerDad18 ) It was unclear to me how much the jam sessions “counted” in the assessments of the applicants, though.
Eastman threw all the jazz applicants into a jam session together, which included playing one song “forever” (according to my S) so everyone could take a solo. He didn’t know the song well but it was fairly standard and he kept up. At the end, he said, “Well, I wasn’t the best soloist in that room but I definitely wasn’t the worst.”
I agree with @jazzboydad, though – I wonder how much the jam matters? Are they looking for kids who can dominate a song, or some other, ephemeral qualities?
Agree with @akapiratequeen and @jazzboydad that the “jam” at Frost (and seems like Oberlin) are likely used as additional info gathering vs. primary evaluation. Not sure about other schools where it might be the primary means of evaluation if there isn’t a “private audition” in addition to group setting.
The one dynamic that I did note during the Frost session was that it allowed other faculty, from beyond the applicant’s instrument, to evaluate the student for an additional perspective. I got the sense that in a smallish department, faculty will likely weigh in on candidates they saw. For example, in one of the songs, my D was playing with the head of the bass department. My guess is that he would likely share some level of feedback with head of drumset as those two departments work together very closely within the jazz program. Just my hunch from watching the way they interacted throughout the sessions.
So that’s my guess as to how it works. Private audition is the primary diagnostic tool, jams are just a way to flesh out a broader picture of the applicant and additional faculty exposure is used to help achieve consensus if there are tough calls or students on the bubble.
And as to @akapiratequeen’s question as to what they are looking for, I’m sure it varies according to school/teacher/dept based on philosophy. The only thing I have heard consistently from teachers in these kind of settings is to “play musically, not showboat, listen to each other, and make the song sound the best it can sound”.
Which makes sense for jazz at least. Hope everyone had a great weekend and is looking forward to sweating it out for the next month or so. Lol.
S’s New School Jazz audition in the books. It was no-frills but super efficient. He checked in 50 minutes before his audition. They told him he could go up to get a warm-up room in 30 minutes before his audition and sure enough, 20 minutes later they called him to take him up to the warm-up room. He went into his audition on time. He played 3 of his prepared songs – 2 of which he played through, the third they just heard part of. The entire audition lasted about 15 minutes. All in all, he thought it went all, partly because he thinks he is getting stronger each time he auditions. It does make me wonder if applying ED to Northwestern and auditioning in November vs. February was a strategic mistake. Oh well, there’s no looking back now. . . .
Congrats @lkbux64 S! Agree re getting better at auditions. If we had it to do again, I think we’d do at least one EA non-audition or easy audition or non-top-school, then ramp up to the bigger fish.
8th and final audition (Vanderbilt) complete. Whew! It’s been 24 hours and the wait is already killing us! How can we possibly survive another 5 weeks to hear from all the schools? Good luck to all those who still have auditions to do.
@lkbux64 thanks for the account of the New School audition. I don’t plan to go so good to know I won’t miss much.
I’m sitting in the lobby of the SFCM audition. There was just a fire alarm so interesting to see all the musicians on the street. I suspect it was someone who was nervous for an audition. A classical performance had just started so lots of tuxes in the street.
I like the size of the program here. 450 students…approx four times the size of Colburn or Curtis. Nice facility and they are building a new $100 million dorm two blocks away (half was donated by a mega donor). 35ish in the new jazz program.
Regarding the purpose of jamming and ensembles, that’s all they do here at SFCM for the audition. I think it’s great because most jazz musicians play as a group so collaboration is key. There are only two jazz vocalists here today that I met during the fire alarm and they told me they didn’t call all the tunes ?
Once I get to talk to my daughter (she doesn’t know we are here yet) then I will pass along her take on it. She is planning to drive back to LA tonight so I’ll have to ask her on the road.
Nice live reporting @tripletmama! It’s almost like we are there with you. I love the image of a fire alarm emptying a hall of tux wearing classical players into the street!
Really interesting to hear the format of their audition is entirely group based. It makes sense given the nature of jazz and would be nice to see other schools follow suit.
Anyway, enjoy the time with your D and we’ll be sure to say hi to her when we’re both at the New School next Sunday!
@lkbux64 thank you for the New School description. What instrument does your s play? My son is auditioning there
for saxophone week after next. His father is going with him.
Thanks for the New School info! The audition info they give for vocalists seems vague as to how many and what style songs to be prepared with. Based on the instrumentalists, she’s probably going to be prepared with 2 contrasting songs (one jazz and one pop) and one original and hope for the best! Any others looking at New School for contemporary/jazz vocals? My daughter definitely fits the diva image-that conversation made me laugh! Her audition for New School is on their very last audition day 3/7 (and she may have snagged one of their last time slots.) Hope they aren’t in audition fatigue mode when they see her! Lol. Love hearing the play-by-play for all these auditions! Very helpful!
@CaraCoMO, my S plays jazz guitar. For what it’s worth, the rhythm section was comprised of drums, bass and piano – all students.
Very interesting info on SFCM. My son did not apply, but the audition format sounds a bit like NYU’s jazz auditions. This taken from the NYU website: The audition will take place in a jam session setting. You will be in a group of about 20 students. NYU faculty and current NYU students will also participate in a supportive and friendly environment. You will play, listen and call tunes. The process will last about two hours and you will be immersed the entire time.
NYU is S’s next and LAST audition! March 5th. Woo hoo!
About the jazz audition format in group setting at SFCM, I think that SFCM is particularly looking for applicants’ willingness / well-roundedness as a musician, not heavily on their talents. In such a new program of all 18-19-20 year-olds, they all need to grow together as a group. My guess is, SFCM probably know applicants’ skills based on pre-screening videos (4 tunes!) but they just need to analyze more about applicants’ personality in live auditions. So, I do think that those jam sessions at other schools also matter because jazz is, always, new collaboration of live music between musicians. So, I guess, some outstanding solos in the group audition setting wouldn’t mean the best automatically. It is totally different from “private setting auditions”.
Chollist———Hope, your son’s audition wasn’t disturbed by a fire alarm incident…
Question about MSM———Does anyone have experiences particularly with MSM Jazz Arts auditions? It seems pretty intense since all undergrad and grad applicants are auditioning for an opening(s)…The school like MSM, do they consider applicants’ skills / ability for their age or they take only top musicians for an opening(s)?
Here’s a bit more about SFCM today - dorm rooms were modern but small (for $1500 to $2000 a room - got to love San Francisco!!!) - but they will have new dorms next year which I’m sure will be amazing!
Our daughter was the only female to audition on this jazz round - not sure if there were any the first week in Feb.?? Does anyone remember?
She really enjoyed the ensemble playing - they had her play in two ensembles because there were only 3 bassists and 4 ensembles (and one was an electric bassist).
She really enjoyed playing with a guitarist from LA (he wanted to play a ballad…) Is that anyone’s son here? She thought he was very good. (was that your son WestofPCH?).
There were only 2 jazz vocalists there today. My daughter thought I asked too many questions. Turns out that some of my questions had been answered last night in the opening session. It wasn’t clear that parents were invited to that or not. I asked about what the SF jazz scene is like on SF vs. LA, NY, Boston. One of the instructors said that he didn’t think that students should be gigging at this age anyway - which I can understand (e.g. gigging in Thai restaurants for $50 a night doesn’t do much for improving your playing). Interesting. He had gone to the Brubeck Institute in Stockton CA where there is not much to do and he felt that made him a better musician. He also said to be careful about schools who tout that they have amazing guest instructors that are there one week a year. (he alluded to the New School without mentioning their name).
All in all, I think our daughter liked SFCM. I think if she is admitted that she will ask for a practice lesson with the jazz bass instructor (he wasn’t there today). There is something to be said for being in a small program that is growing with access to the musicians that travel through SFJazz.
@JeJeJe , @tripletmama , my s was just warming up and suddenly we were all chased out cluelessly due to fire alarm.???. He end up having audition half an hour late.
It was an awkward situation but he was ok. Now in the airplane, taking late flight home…
Tripletmama———I attended 1st audition event earlier in this month. I am pretty certain that your daughter was only female instrumentalist to audition from my 1-1/2 day observation. There are two female instrumentalists currently, one is a horn player and another is a percussionist who sings as well. Great to hear that your daughter feels positive!