Berklee Audition

http://www.berklee.edu/wst/auditions/drums.html

I'm thinking about doing this, but I'm not sure what they mean by "standard repretoire". I'm familiar with the standard reading texts for more classical percussion, but what could I play for drum set? I'm not sure if it would be wise to play a snare drum piece or something like that, as it seems more geared toward contemporary studies and drum set. Maybe I'm just worrying too much.

Edit: I'm talking about the "prepared piece" section. Any suggestions?

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ June 12, 2005 02:06 PM: Message edited by: Cameron Mahoney ]</font>

What a great opportunity to direct this question towards Steve Hass (or any other Berklee graduates we have here)! They should be able to help you out.

I did this audition in LA a few years back. Actually got a scholarship too but ended up deciding not to go to Berklee. I used some Dave Weckl play alongs for my prepared pieces.

Alright, I have some of those, so I'll consider it. Would you mind disclosing how good of a scholarship you got? I don't mean to be rude, but money is a large issue for me; if I have to pay a lot of the difference, I probably won't go.

I got two scholarships from them... The Best Entering Student Talent (BEST) schoarship which was done by tape and the World Scholarship Tour (WST) done in person. In total I was awarded $10,000 renewable every year based on grades.

I was looking to go there for two years to just take all the music classes of a Bachelors degree and do all the GE at my local junior college. For the two years I remember the total cost (tuition, living costs, etc) being around $60,000. In my mind, even with the scholarships, the cost was not worth it when an education at a State college is a fraction of that price.

Wow, that is a lot.

So you must have done pretty amazing to get the BEST in addition to that. Congrats, even though it didn't work out.

Any tips? Should I pull out a lot of chops or just groove or find a middle ground?

I'm not even sure I want to go there, considering everything, but I do want to get serious about music, and I figured a lot is reputation and connections. I'm also looking at PIT.

I'd say for the most part I kept things on the simpler side. A big tip btw... When I was judged at the WST audition the guys on the panel were not drummers; Sax, guitar, and piano. I'm sure the last thing a non drummer wants to hear is a ton of notes. I played with them live to which was cool.

So were you the only one to get those scholarshipos? Like it's competative, and you won over everyone else? Or is it by instrument, or what?


Thanks for the advice. I think I'm going to play something from the Contemporary Drummer +1 CD like Again & Again (jazz trio) and maybe one of the rock or pop ones, to show versatility. I do really like the latin number, though. I also have some Dennis Chambers play along tracks and DWB tracks, so who knows.

I'm gonna make sure to brush up on all my styles too, and reading of course.

Is anyone familiar with Violent Ice Cream?

http://www.tapspace.com/vic.html

I have this book and am considering doing one of these solos as my prepared piece, but I'm not sure if it would be appropriate. It seems like they are more geared toward drum set than just snare or orchestral or marching stuff. I've never marched corps, but I'm pretty confident I could work my chops up to play one of these.

Zak... Can you give me some details on how to prepair the auditions..? I?m planning to make one...
Did they asked you to play a particular tune? Different grooves? Maybe a couple of jazz standards?
Any possibility to share the video you sent to win the scholarship?
Thanks!

Cameron...

I don't know if I was the only one to get awarded the scholarships in each specific audition. I would imagine that's not the case. I bet the scholarship committee has a yearly budget of what they can award and they spread out that money how they see fit.

I'm very familiar with Violent Ice Cream and all of Tap Space Publications. I was one of Jim Casella's students (the head of Tap Space) while performing with the Santa Clara Vanguard. I would say that type of rudimental display is not appropriate for a Berklee audition; not to say that learning that material is a bad thing though. I did sight read a little snare drum etude at the audition, but it was know where near the difficulty level that Violent Ice Cream focuses on. I think they were more concerned in the ability to sight read; not how many rudimental chops I had.

Now in order to do the live audition I had to send a tape first. On that tape I demonstrated the Percussive Arts Society 40 standard rudiments.

Juli?n...

I prepared two Dave Weckl play alongs and a variety of different grooves. Their repertoire requirements page gives a list of what you need to have ready. I think that link was posted earlier by Cameron. I also went prepared with photo copies of the charts and grooves for each member of the committee.

The tape I did for the BEST scholarship was an audio tape. Same thing for the application process for the WST audition. I don't have them anymore though, sorry.

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ June 13, 2005 09:16 PM: Message edited by: Zak Morton ]</font>