Majoring in Music How to Nail Your Guitar Audition

Majoring in Music How to Nail Your Guitar Audition Megan L. Is a music major in your academic future? Guitar teacher  Brett M.  shares 10 things you need to know to have a great guitar audition at the music college of your choice If you’re a guitarist who’s planning to continue your music education at the college level, then this may  be one of the most important articles you could ever read. In fact, it’s something that I wish I could have  read, before auditioning and (luckily) getting accepted into Berklee College of Music over a dozen years  ago. Let’s meet someone His name is Dwayne, and like you (and me, back in the day) he is interested in majoring in music. Dwayne loves to play guitar, and he’s passionate about learning more. He’s a sophomore in  high school, and has played in a couple of bands off and on. Dwayne’s not a huge jazz guy, but he’s  thinking about trying out for the school jazz band, just to get the playing experience but he’s not too  sure he’d know what to play. Dwayne’s got above-average technique on the guitar and he knows he  wants to get faster, but that’s about as specific as he could say. He’s also got a feeling that there’s a lot  more to learn about scales, chords, etc. In fact, his overall knowledge of how everything fits together is  a bit sketchy. But he’s hungry to learn all there is to know, and is planning on attending music college for  guitar after graduation. Problem is, he’s not too sure what he’ll need to know to get in, and he’s a little  worried about it. Actually, hes a lot worried. Sound familiar? If so, then read on â€" you’re about to find out the 10 Guitar Strategies For a Successful  College Audition! 1. Have The Right Reasons If you’re really serious about wanting to attend college for guitar (and then making a go at a career in  music) you’d better be doing it for the right reasons. Here are two of the wrong reasons: I want to be famous. I want to make a lot of money. Those two things may in fact happen to you, and if they do, GREAT! But to have a sustainable, lifelong  relationship with music one that continues even when the going gets tough there’d better be more  behind your desire. For me, I simply couldn’t (and still can’t) not do music. The desire to create, to  challenge yourself, to deepen your character, and to share music with others is what will fuel a  successful and sustainable music career in college and after. Do it for the right reasons for long enough,  and getting rich and famous (while more importantly, being fulfilled) could actually happen. Here’s a wakeup call for you: Even if you go to music college and decide to major in performance (in  other words, in playing guitar) the majority of work that you do, especially for the first two years, will  not be on playing guitar. You must be willing and excited to spend a lot of time away from the guitar, learning about  all aspects of music. If you don’t enjoy this part, you won’t last. Examples of all the fun stuff that comes with learning about music include:  ear training, text  book music theory, music analysis, conducting, music history, arranging, and solfeggio (sight singing). You need to crave knowledge about all of these things, or don’t even bother. Sound harsh? Not if you’ve  got what it takes! If hearing this actually gets you excited to be in an environment like that, then music  college is probably a good fit for you. It definitely was for me. 2. Know Your Audience For a contemporary music college, the application process usually involves sending an audition tape of  music “from the standard repertoire”. In my case, not really knowing what this meant at the time (and  being a metal guy!) I chose to play an intro to a Testament song by Alex Skolnick, who’s a pretty rippin’  player. I figured that if a song was from a CD I had, then it must be “from the standard repertoire”. I  pulled it off alright, but in hindsight it was kind of a dumb idea to choose a song like that. You see, while Berklee and many other music schools certainly embrace many kinds of music, they are  historically jazz institutions. So, what they’re often really looking for are pieces that demonstrate your  ability to improvise a bit, play chord solos, interpret melodies, etc. In other words, start learning to play jazz music from “the  standard repertoire” (out of a big book of songs called “The Real Book”).   Even though my audition  turned out okay, if I had to do it again, I would have been smarter to choose some  performance pieces designed to achieve a specific goal in this case, impressing the instructors at a  â€œjazz school” and not just choosing music that I thought was impressive. 3. Listen Start to immerse yourself in music daily, and not just the styles that are your current favorites (I’m still a  metal guy!). Listen especially to classical music from all time periods, as well as jazz. You will absolutely  pick up and absorb some important musical concepts simply through osmosis. Check out Jamey Aebersold’s extensive library of CDs for jazz students, great learning tools even if you don’t understand  what he’s talking about yet. They’re mostly for putting on and listening to while you’re doing other stuff,  and getting used to the sounds of jazz harmony and soloing. And, if you listen to Bach or Beethoven  every day, you will reap rewards a’plenty! 4. Watch I dont just mean to watch random videos on YouTube! I’m talking about getting your hands on some good guitar instructional videos, preferably some  no-nonsense ones from the late 80s or early 90s, put out by the companies REH or Alfred. Be sure to check some out some killer guitarists who are way over your head, like Scott Henderson, Al DiMeola, Allan Holdsworth,  Greg Howe, and  Frank Gambale. Don’t fret if you can’t understand anything they’re talking about (a  lot of these guys play great, but couldn’t teach their way out of a paper bag)! What’s important is to start getting an idea about what skills are out there that you don’t know about yet. These types of videos will  help you figure out where your weak points are and the areas of knowledge or technical ability that you  need the most work on. They can be equally inspirational and frustrating! 5. Know Your Notes Knowing notes is more than simply  reading them on the page. Its about actually finding and understanding them with the guitar. One of the biggest  problems that plagues most guitar players is not having all of the notes on the neck memorized. Everything  that you do, especially at the college level, has to do with notes. So does it make sense to not know  where they are on the guitar? Of course not. It’s absolutely essential knowledge for a serious player. 6. Scale Knowledge Memorizing scales on the guitar is of immense importance. There are six “families” of scales (including  all of their modes) that you must know to play contemporary music: Major Melodic Minor Harmonic Minor Diminished Whole Tone Pentatonic Knowing the fingerings and shapes on the neck is an important first  step. But the actual ability to build them in your head in any key, to know the sound, and to start them from  anywhere on the neck is vital  for reading, improvisation, and writing. It’s a big task, but  one that every aspiring college guitar student needs to tackle. 7. Chord Knowledge Understanding how to build chords, from triads to extended harmony chords like E7susb9 and other  weird ones, is an absolutely essential skill to master before attending college for guitar. Analysis of chord  progressions is a necessary skill for really understanding how songs work and how they’re structured. Chord and scale relationships also help you understand how to play or improvise over daunting chord  progressions (like Dm7b5 â€"G7alt â€"CmMaj7) and actually sound like you know what you’re doing! This  will give you an edge over your competition when applying or auditioning for music school not to  mention an increase in confidence. 8. Arpeggios Arpeggios are the same as chords, but played one note at a time. They help you unlock the potential of  chords as a resource for soloing, and it’s important to be able to build and play them all over the neck, including everything from  the standard major and minors, to the  7th arpeggios and all of the extended harmony arpeggios  (9ths, 11ths, etc.). 9. Sight Reading and Rhythm Reading What’s the best way to get a guitar player to turn down? Put sheet music in front of him! It’s a joke, but  completely true. Reading music (and especially rhythm) is one of the biggest blind spots for most guitar  players, and it will be a major handicap for you if you’re thinking about continuing your education at the  college level. So why hide from your fear? Tackle it head on! I find that rhythm really  intimidates many of my guitar students. It can look like a foreign language with all those beams and squiggles and dots. But it’s really not that bad when you have the proper guidance. After that, reading the pitches on the  music staff isn’t that hard at all, it just takes some practice. Being a strong reader is very impressive to  the people you’ll be auditioning for, so it pays to spend the time getting good at it. 10. Technical Ability and Speed Believe it or not, when it comes to getting into a music college for guitar, your raw technical ability and  speed aren’t as important as some of the other areas that we’ve mentioned. You don’t have to be a  shred master but why not go for it anyway! It can’t hurt. Playing fast is a goal for many guitarists, and  increasing your technical skill will add to your confidence and ability to impress at the college level. So, is your guitar teacher preparing you for all this stuff? If not, show them the door! For many students, finding a top-quality guitar teacher is one of the first steps on the road to majoring in music. Remember,  there’s a lot of competition to fill those limited spaces in the school that you want to get into. Here’s the  good news though: If you’ve got a good work ethic, a passion for learning about all aspects of music and  the guitar, and a great teacher with experience in all of this, then getting into the music college of your  dreams is a thoroughly achievable goal. Good luck â€" and keep practicing! Post Author:  Brett M. Brett is a guitar book author, metal recording artist, and video game composer. He has over a dozen years of private instruction experience, and is the creator of the popular free audio course Unleash Your Speed: How to Shred on Guitar. Learn more about Brett here! Interested in Private Lessons? Search thousands of teachers for local and live, online lessons. Sign up for convenient, affordable private lessons today! Search for Your Teacher