<p>My S will be submitting a preliminary audition on his instrument of choice to one or more of the music schools he is interested in. My questions are pretty basic. </p>
<p>Are there general standards for this process?
A resource I can go to that outlines what to do and not to do? </p>
<p>Like, do you state your name and or any other information at the beginning of the recording, title of the piece you are playing, then play, then pause to state the title of next piece before playing it? </p>
<p>Do you keep the recording going or stop and start between pieces? As the videographer, does one zoom or keep video steady and still? </p>
<p>Do candidates do these in a professional setting with specific video eqmt. and acoustics or are these done in the living room with a smart phone?</p>
<p>Site does not specify, but I did see on the flute prelim audition page that audio or video is accepted, video preferred. So we will go with video. The upload process looks easy enough.</p>
<p>There is an email contact for questions on the University site. I thought I would try this community first - as possibly I will get different opinions and ideas to consider. Thanks!</p>
<p>The trick to searching is figuring out which keywords to choose- and always start with “In Titles” only - otherwise you may be overwhelmed with too many results.
Oh, and choose “Search this Forum” which will again limit your results.
One more tip - it helps to use the ‘advanced search’ function.</p>
<p>Searching should provide a ton of info, but here’s a short answer: In my experience last year prepping prescreening recordings for my daughter for a ton of places (but not all, so there may be other schools with different requirements):</p>
<p>We did all video recordings; she never spoke; each piece was recorded and sent or uploaded separately; the camera never zoomed or moved at all; we used a nice recital hall but recorded everything ourselves with a zoom recorder; it seemed to be fine, as she made it through all the prescreening rounds.</p>
<p>Each music school will have its own website which will indicate exactly what they expect and even what files types are acceptable (MOV, MP4, etc.). The following got my D through all the prescreens:</p>
<p>*No speaking (at the schools she applied to). On the websites to upload the prescreening recording there is always a place to write the title of the piece. The same website asks for your son’s name, program to which he is applying, etc.</p>
<p>*Each piece was recorded and uploaded separately. In the case of a 20-minute Sonata, each movement was recorded and uploaded separately.</p>
<p>*Keep the video still.</p>
<p>*We used our living room with our own video recorder, a hall with a paid professional, and the teacher’s living room. All were accepted. We mixed and matched, unless the school stipulated they wanted it all in one sitting. I would hesitate to use a smartphone…</p>
<p>Be aware that the recordings can take a LONG time to upload. My D sat and did homework at the desk for 40 minutes, monitoring the site while all her prescreening pieces loaded.</p>
<p>Thanks for the links and suggestions. Very helpful.
My S will be doing only one (I believe) recorded audition to upload. I DID contact the school after posting here, and I am glad that I did.
They prefer audio, no talking, and separate recordings per piece. So that cleared a lot up. Private instructor suggested that we ask our band director about recording eqmt and room to create the best recording without buying any eqmt. Thanks again! This is a great resource.</p>
<p>I have a question about pre-screening videos–I’ve studied the requirements for various schools intensely and don’t seem to find an answer, so perhaps some of you might have advice. Has anyone used a recording of a live performance for one of the pre-screening pieces? (such as a performance with a symphony of a concerto for the concerto movement, or a performance of one of the required pieces on a recital). I don’t see specified anywhere that recordings cannot be of an actual performance.</p>
<p>I’m sure there are people out there that can answer this question – it didn’t come up with us – but I can tell you to keep in mind that at least some schools wanted the recordings to be no older than six months.</p>
<p>I am pretty sure they would not want a performance with a symphony. Only accompanied by piano (if specified) or unaccompanied (if specified.) Otherwise I supposed a live recording would not be differentiated from a studio recording (be sure to edit out the applause.)</p>
<p>I agree with GH,I would not submit a live recording like that either. First of all, if it is an amateur or student orchestra, it is likely that the playing of the orchestra may be less than stellar, and that could be a distraction to those listening to it (for example, a section that sounds out of tune, is it an intonation problem on the part of the person playing or is it in contrast to a <em>err</em> orchestra?). Plus the recording, unless done by someone who knows what they are doing, may not be so great, so even if it is during a cadenza, still not great…</p>
<p>The point of the pre screen is to hear how the person plays, and a piano (or solo) focuses it on the person, they won’t be more impressed if someone submits a tape with an orchestra, as in ‘gee, this person got to solo’…</p>
<p>If you think the performance is so good that it should be submitted, if you want to go ahead with that, I would suggest two things: 1)Send an e-mail to schools you might want to submit to, and ask if that would be okay and 2)get the tape listened to by someone who understands the admissions process (teacher at an auditioned music school, your kids teacher if you feel they are that knowledgeable, etc) and see what they think about the quality before submitting it. I suspect lot of schools will prefer it be done with piano or unaccompanied, especially given that they will be listening to as much as several hundred recordings (depending on instrument).</p>
<p>Thanks gh and mp for the advice. I was just curious because none of the schools I saw addressed the issue of sending in a recording of an actual performance, whether it be accompanied by piano or orchestra. (mp, the orchestra is indeed excellent and the recording quite professional in quality, but I agree with your advice that schools probably would prefer piano accompaniment for the pre-screening). Perhaps DS could list the links to his other recordings somewhere in the application, such as on the resume. This time around it is for grad school, so it certainly is different as far as my role goes. :)</p>