<p>My non-music major son is ok to submit his two violin pieces to his EA school because they want between 10-15 minutes. He's practiced these two pieces pretty exclusively lately but, er, I guess that was a mistake because the total time will be almost 12 minutes. One is a concerto, about 7:15 and the other is a sonata, about 4:26. It doesn't seem possible to edit the concerto. </p>
<p>Any suggestions? Would it be acceptable to do two sonatas of contrasting styles for the Common App. and any school that wants it under 10 minutes or will they want to hear a concerto and something else? Or can you slip in 12 minutes worth of music on the Common App?</p>
<p>Unfortunately, my son's recording the concerto tomorrow (already did the sonata last week) and I'm not sure we'll be able to borrow a recorder after this.</p>
<p>Thanks for any btdt experience.</p>
<p>I assume you are doing this as an art supplement to the common application? And he’s a non-music major so he’s not trying out to be a performer, but to show that he has a musical talent and perhaps could add musical value to campus ensembles? The common app arts supplement suggests 10-minutes, but I would say you are in the ball park.</p>
<p>If that’s the case, I would say record what he has ready. If it is enjoyable, they’ll listen to the whole thing. Good luck.</p>
<p>They may also not listen to the whole thing. Have you talked with admissions? We called admissions and asked if they would like my daughter to provide a cue for the 3 minutes that she considered her “best work.” Juilliard had asked for this, so we figured a college/university might also. The college admissions office seemed to appreciate this idea.</p>
<p>Your son could provide cues for the best 3 minutes on each piece, so that the school can hear contrasting styles. But check with admissions about this.</p>
<p>I still don’t know whether the admissions folks or the music department folks listened to her CD, and how much of it they listened to.</p>
<p>Thank-you very much for the feedback. Yes, my son will be a non-music major (<em>possibly</em> a performance minor, depending on the school he attends) and it is just to show that he’s had a strong interest in music for many years.</p>
<p>My middle son is fiddling with editing as much at the beginning and end (“dead time” or even piano music at the beginning of the concerto), so my son will just go with these two songs.</p>
<p>How would my son provide a cue? Sorry if I don’t understand how to do this.</p>
<p>Sorry, “cue” may be the wrong word, kind of old-fashioned. Just a note on what the best 3 minutes are, for instance, from 1:40 to 4:40 on the CD. My daughter did this after talking with admissions directly, so it may not apply, particularly if a school specifies that it wants 10-15. Her school certainly welcomed having less to listen to, I think: it was a busy year for them. She is a music major. (She is a composer, so it was a little different than an instrumentalist, too)</p>
<p>You may want to check to see if it is possible to minor as a performance major. That is not very common as most schools like to save the performance majors for full time music majors that have auditioned as performance majors.</p>
<p>“My middle son is fiddling with editing as much at the beginning and end (“dead time” or even piano music at the beginning of the concerto), so my son will just go with these two songs.”</p>
<p>sbjorio, it is common practice (and expected) to cut long piano intros in a concerto used for an audition piece.</p>
<p>We got it up on Youtube; it’s 11:49. Hope the Common App schools will be ok with that. Just didn’t know what else to do. </p>
<p>Glassharmonica, my son was able to put both pieces together with less than a second between them (a little weird but…) and he cut the piano at the beginning, though he left the last three piano notes at the end but I’m guessing most schools won’t bother listening to too much. I did put a cue where the second song started in case they want to jump to that.</p>
<p>Yeah, I don’t know about the minor. I know my son would like to be able to take lessons while in college but we don’t have the money for that. Eh, we’ll see how it all works out by April, right? :-)</p>
<p>Thanks again for all the help. I am grateful!</p>
<p>At some schools, lessons are available for credit, or the school will pay for them. (You might have to dig for information on the school paying, whether the student has to be majoring in music, whether the payments are related to financial aid status, and so on.)</p>
<p>Bennie,</p>
<p>Wish we’d known about soundcloud before! Well, can’t use it for the common app. now but I’m sure my son will want to keep it as a reference for future music. Thanks,</p>