I learned a lot from this APs topic. Addition to no APs for my son this year, we didn’t encourage him to audition for All-State Honor Band. It’s in middle of February in our state. He has done All-State twice, if he were selected again, he would had miss 3 more school days, plus had serious college audition schedule conflict.
khill87——— I was very worried about “absences” for college auditions last year. Last May, I discussed with my son’s school counselor. She told me that a school district wouldn’t allow absences for those “college auditions” legally, so I researched a very tiny local private school (very $$$ / unit, private independent study kind) if I could enroll my son just for a year for English and Social Study requirements to graduate from high school as a very back-up plan. I spoke with Attendance office person as soon as school started, then I learned “Independent Study for up to 2 calendar weeks” can be a solution. Certainly, school would not mention this option unless it is absolutely needed. But I need to get an approval from a principal for any absence for “non-school activities”. Her son was an instrumental music student in several years ago in our school and she really supports school music programs and my son’s music path. So, she approved.
If you can, try to communicate with your daughter’s principal early. I also informed and discussed about college audition absence matters at Back-to-school-night with all of my son’s teachers. His band teacher actually gave me a list of days, “Not to schedule college auditions in 2018-2019” in last June. We are lucky that our school has a mid-winter-break in middle of February. So, my son is still in his later part of 2-week independent study plus 1 week of mid-winter-break. This means he doesn’t go to school for 3 long weeks.
We have finally concluded the audition run with the NYU and MSM auditions this past weekend!!! Both went well! The MSM audition, which was on Sunday, was moved up by an hour because of the impending snow storm, but we were glad to get it taken care of earlier. Once we got there, we realized that all of the bassoonists were provided the same time. They were also all in the same warm-up room, which I thought was odd, but the kids didn’t seem to mind and became friendly with one another rather quickly, and of course most knew one another from prior auditions and summer music camps.
Does anyone know off hand if MSM actually waits until April 1st to notify students of acceptance? If so, I will need to take up a serious hobby for the next 3 1/2 weeks! Almost there though… What a journey!
BassoonMom2019——— Congratulations! Very nice to end with great auditions! As I read previous threads in CC, MSM may send out acceptances before April 1st but very close to the end of March. This year’s audition week seems a little later than past two years so it may end up waiting until April 1st.
@JeJeJe That’s a great idea about recording as we go, just in case. We will definitely do that!
Is a smartphone video okay for a prescreen? (Obviously we’d use it if we had to, and having it as a back-up would be very reassuring). However, I’ve been a little worried after reading this forum and hearing about people hiring professional photographers or renting venues for their pre-screen recordings. Up till now, all of her audition videos have just been recorded in her voice teacher’s office using a web cam, with an accompanist as well as stacks of books and other office junk visible in the background. Does it matter about the background as long as the audio is okay?
@khill87 if the audio is good it’s fine. My S’s prescreens were shot in his teacher’s band room with crap everywhere. I’m told iPhones don’t capture the sound all that well but good as a backup! :)>-
@khill87 - we did not hire a professional photographer but my husband did buy an external microphone for the camerra and in the end we recorded everything in a church to get good acoustics. I see lots of different opinions on the recording. We went pretty conservative since our D is a soprano and as you know there are alot of them and you need to stand out. She wore her audition outfit (a pantsuit even though she is not a mezzo) and made sure the background was neutral. She recorded most of the songs with the lid up on the piano except for one quiet song where we did one with the lid up and one with the lid down. She submitted the lid down one on that song. Also check requirements some require full length body recordings and some don’t care. We recorded all full length body so we didn’t have to perfect 2 versions. For all her songs it took 4 or 5 takes to get a version she was willing to submit. I would look at what other sopranos are recommending since that is the set you are looking at.
@khill87 I think when you’re reading folks’ advice regarding prescreen recordings, you’re wise to focus on the instrument as classical/jazz/voice requirements are so different. My S auditioned in jazz guitar which required a backing ensemble, so his procedure was more formal than others might be.
So - the audition trail is OVER!!! She only had 4 auditions but it nearly killed me (and I only went to one (sort of) with her in SF where we live. Hats off to you all that did many more and went with them!
Regarding the New School today - said she killed the first tune (it was a ballad “I’ll be Seeing You”), even on her substandard plywood (God forbid) bass. The judges were both sax players - one was Robert Glasper. The second tune (Recordame) went “just OK” according to her (Miss Perfectionist). She said that the rhythm section was about a bar behind her at one point - she slowed down - but it went on throughout the tune to some degree. I told her that I thought that maybe they were doing that on purpose to see how she would handle it. She was very happy that she had a female drummer - made her feel better.
She is very happy that it’s all over! She is now at the New School exploring. She is going to sit in on an ensemble class (Charlie Parker) that Robert Glasper teaches after “Meeting the Deans”. Then she is going to an Ambrose and Walter Smith concert tonight at the Vanguard. Then tomorrow - she’s going to a Reggie Workman Ensemble class at the New School (he played with her LA instructor - they are both 81 years old - she loves the old jazz cats), and then hopefully to SpartanDrew’s daughter’s gig in Brooklyn tomorrow night. She is very excited about these classes and concerts and is bummed that the Jazz and Gender History Class was cancelled due to snow yesterday.
Her hotel is fully booked tonight so I booked her into a fleabag hotel near the Vanguard. I think it’s important for her to get the “full NYC musician experience” She has also been schlepping the rental bass all around NYC in the snow on the subway. It’s not her favorite thing in the world to do.
Regarding AP classes - well, our daughter is not taking any. She is all about music. We moved from SC to CA for her to focus on jazz…so that’s what she is doing every waking hour. She has fallen behind in academics…but she knows she has to pass this semester so she’s going to have to put music on the back burner for a month or two to do that. Not something she wants to do - but she has to.
So - we go into the “Waiting Game”. So happy for it to all be done - I’ll take a waiting game over the stress of the past 3 days any day!
@khill87 - Our daughter has done a few things for videos. For Berklee 5 Week Summer Program she went all out and rented a studio with her ensemble. I put a horizontal Iphone on a tripod to do the video and that was merged with the studio audio. It was much better quality (she got a full ride to the summer program so it was worth the price).
For college pre-screens, she taped them with an Iphone and then used an external mic and merged the audio and video. Wasn’t as good as the studio tapes but they were fine. Everyone says to START EARLY - and they are right. Our daughter was always uploading tapes 10 minutes before the due dates - I think I got a lot of grey hair from that.
For pre-screen videos (jazz bass), we did it at home with a small camcorder known for having a good mic. S wore the same suit each time, and it was nice that recordings from different days all “looked the same”.
His accompanyment was also programmed by him on iRealPro, so that musicians didn’t need to be gathered up any time we wanted to record something.
@tripletmama - I booked my D in a fleabag hotel in NYC and when she got home, she texted me a picture of her arm…bed bug bites…I’ve had them before so I knew. She did go to a doctor and got the confirmation. I’m proud to say that I’ve had bed bug bites quite a few times in Asia. They don’t really travel with you…at least not to my home!! You just don’t want to move into a building with them…spending a night or two with them…no big deal. She panicked. I (and the doctor) told her not to worry. And I was right! Good luck with that fleabag/bed bug place!!!
There’s probably some reason not to do so (privacy, etc) but I keep thinking that a repository of reference prescreen videos would have been super helpful.
During the early days of this process I really wished I could have watched a bunch of pre screen videos for kids I knew got into relevant schools on my D’s instrument. Just to calibrate ability level within an order of magnitude.
And during later phases, to understand song selection, configuration of backing bands, and production quality.
Sure you can search YouTube for some random videos that were left up from years ago. But the bulk of our CC kids videos I suspect are not public and not on YouTube.
Obviously we all made it through this phase without such a library. And judging by the sheer number and diversity of pre screens our kids passed, we all did a good enough job.
I’m just looking back and thinking about how much we would have benefited from that kind of resource. Sure calibration is different every year. But even ballpark comparables are useful in any field.
Anyway I’m sure this has come up in the past and been discussed or dismissed. But after this is all over I wanted to offer to send direct links to future jazz/pop drum auditioners who might be curious. Of course until we see where she gets in that’s of dubious value lol.
Congrats to everyone wrapping up this week. It feels like our kids all finished strong (even if it felt like we were the ones limping over the finish line).
Fingers crossed we all get great news in a few weeks!
@DrummerDad18 - I totally agree. We used YouTube preScreen or audition videos to get “some” ideas. It was so useful, that once S was in college, we set his to public so that others could see. It was interesting also how you would see a video and think - will you ever be that good, and then next year it’s like, “I guess so.”
@DrummerDad18, you raise an interesting point about the prescreen videos. A reference bank for video prescreens is a good idea, but also problematic for the reasons you cite. Your comment about prescreens that our kids passed also got me thinking. It seems to me that the group on this thread had near 100% success with their prescreens. Is this the norm? Do most kids pass prescreens or are we a self-selected group of parents with high-achieving kids?
Congrats @tripletmama - time for that glass of wine and a big sigh of relief.
@khill87 For prescreen videos - S used my ‘good’ camera (a Lumix) with an external mike (Zoom) and merged them together. Worked great although he didn’t bat 100% - he didn’t pass prescreen at one school. We had to video them in our house as schlepping a set of timpani to another location is truly a feat (and requires renting a UHaul) and S must have spent days on each instrument (snare, marimba and timpani) getting it ‘just right’ and was uploading up to the wire.
For voice - many choral groups use churches for their recordings as the acoustics are fantastic. We just saw a group perform in a lovely sanctuary (disclaimer - they were doing Carmina Burana and S was playing percussion) where the sound was fantastic.
tripletmama——— congratulations! You and your daughter made it through! I am very, very impressed by your bassist daughter traveling by herself as a 18-year-old with arranging her rental instrument! It is a lot, I know, my son’s best friend is a bassist. He did that, too but traveled with his parent.
My son and I checked in at our hotel in midtown around 3AM (well, it was about 12 hours delayed from our original plan). My son left our hotel room before noon (I didn’t need to wake him up today!) and started hanging out all of his jazz friends near and at The New School even though he didn’t apply to The New School! All of his friends seem finished their audition at The New School and ready for MSM audition (some have done both). Guess what? My son is going to see the show what your daughter is going tonight. All of his friends are going there at 10:30 show, too. It’s going to be a great show with so much teenagers there! (And I am not sure what time and how my 17-year-old son will get back to our hotel…whatever…)
khill87——— Regarding prescreening for classical voice, background shouldn’t be a problem at all. But sound quality and an accompanist might be super important, maybe more than jazz at some degree. There must be a small studio with a piano by a professional audio tech in your or NYC area. You should certainly book very early for (at least) two sessions if you are willing to invest.
We did invest on two sessions and we scheduled those in late August (or very early September) for 10/8 & 11/8 (I think that they were holiday weekends) with a live rhythm section formed by his friends who are very familiar with my son’s playing style. We didn’t hire professional musicians but we paid his friends (even though they wouldn’t mind helping my son with no pay but they should be paid as musicians!) and a professional audio technician at his basement with an upright piano and simple drum sets, then my husband joined with his camcorder to record. I was only to schedule. I just can’t take those hours of stress (I have done before and I don’t want to do anymore). We couldn’t figure out “sync” audio / video so we had another help on that part to meet deadlines.
Why did we invest this time? We did hire a recording studio first time last year for a national level honor band video audition. We did because a deadline was so close so we didn’t have a choice doing DIY. My son received feedbacks from two judges and one particularly judge mentioned that he / she really appreciated the professional recording quality that made listening very easy for him / her . That was first time for us to hear how helpful for some judges to listen so many kinds of videos with minimum efforts at their end. So, we really wanted to do our best for my son’s college prescreening time (but my son didn’t like the previous recording studio so we hired another studio professional who doesn’t sync audio / video).
DrummerDad18——— You are right. My son always uploads his videos with “unlisted” in YouTube. So, no one can google his videos except clicking the links directly.
@khill87 : What we did was to get a ZoomQ8 - It’s about $200/- and has excellent audio recording, not exactly cheap, but its very reasonable compared to pro studios. The video is not great. The good thing is that when my S went to college, the music department there has the same one that they loan out to kids doing videos for auditions which was a nice bonus - he already knew how to use one. I would have had the S take ours with him, but he wasn’t too sure if he’d care for it as well.
She has also been schlepping the rental bass all around NYC in the snow on the subway. It’s not her favorite thing in the world to do.