Articles
Audition Advice
This article offers advice and insight about the audition process for the Jazz Degree Program at the University of Toronto. While other schools may differ somewhat in their approach, much of the information contained herein will be pertinent for all aspiring music students.
The Faculty of Music at the University of Toronto is a 4+2 year program, offering a BM and MM in jazz performance. There are approximately 60 undergrad students in the program and five masters students. The faculty consists of some of the most prominent jazz musicians in Canada. The small number of highly motivated students and the impressive faculty roster assures that there are many more applicants in a given year than we can accept. Aside from meeting the academic requirements for admission to the University of Toronto, admission is granted on the basis of an audition.
Each audition lasts approx. 20 minutes. In that time we have to get an idea not only of how the student plays, but also a broader understanding of the individual. We are not only looking for the best players, but for students who will benefit from what the program has to offer and who will offer something in return. In a small program such as ours, everybody knows everybody else, and the ability to fit in and work well with others is crucial to the success of the student. During the course of the audition we hear prepared pieces, sight-reading and ear training, and conduct an informal interview.
Prepared Tunes
Students prepare three tunes on which they can improvise. These pieces should exhibit diversity of style and show you off to strong advantage. In the interest of time, you will play the melody and a solo, and then we will stop and move on to the next piece. A rhythm section is provided, comprised of upper-level students currently enrolled in the program. While you may feel nervous playing with unfamiliar musicians, you’ll find them very friendly and sensitive (that’s why we choose them for the auditions). Chances are they will probably be stronger than some of the musicians you are used to, and that will only make you sound better. The ability to step on stage and interact with other musicians cuts to the core of being a jazz player.
As you play, stay in ‘present tense’. Don’t think about what you have already played or are about to play-concentrate on what you are playing now. This will focus your mental energy, and allow you to offer a faithful representation of your talents. Here is an important thing to remember: whether you have a ‘good day’ or a ‘bad day’ will not make a big difference in our assessment. We can easily hear where you are in your development, so just relax and listen and try to make music. Some of the things we are listening for include sound, time, conception, phrasing, jazz vocabulary, instrumental (or vocal) ability, and overall musicality. Students may also play a short classical piece, if they feel this will reveal other positive aspects of their playing.
Sight-reading
We’ll provide something for you to sight-read, so spend some time every day working on your reading, particularly in the jazz idiom. (Dance Band Rhythms, by Alan Raph, is an excellent resource for familiarizing yourself with typical jazz rhythms.) When practicing sight-reading, try to get through a whole piece once without stopping. Then go back and work on the parts you missed until you can’t imagine missing them ever again. Make sure you keep steady time and sub-divide the bar correctly. Practice with a metronome and develop your internal pulse.
Ear Training
You’ll be asked to identify various intervals and chords played on the piano. We start with simple diatonic intervals and progress until you are stumped. Try to go with your instinct and don’t second-guess. The secret to identifying chords is to recognize the sound, or ‘color’ of the chord. The ‘big three’ chords are major 7, minor 7 and dominant 7, particularly as arranged in the II-V-I progression. The more time spent at the piano, playing and listening to chords, the better. There are several recordings available to help you train your ears.
The Interview
The interview is a crucial part of the audition, as it allows us to get to know each other. Be yourself-we want an honest picture of who you are and what you are interested in. Don’t try to give answers that you think are ‘right’, or present an impression of somebody that you think ‘fits the mold.’ Just think about what is asked, and try to answer the questions as honestly as you can. If you have questions about the program, this is your opportunity to ask them.
The best way to prepare for the interview is simply to immerse yourself in the world of jazz. Listen to recordings, read biographies, watch jazz videos and take lessons (very important!) We ask questions that probe the depths of experience and knowledge of jazz specifically, but also music and life in general. Who are your favorite players and why do you admire them? What attracts you to jazz? Who are some of the most influential jazz musicians of the present and past? Why do you want to study at U of T? Do you know who is on the faculty? (It is amazing how many students apply for the program with no knowledge of who they will study with!) Do you understand the economic realities of the music business? Where do you see yourself working in ten years? If you are considering what many would term a very risky career choice, you should exhibit a passion for the music, and possess a realistic vision of the future. This is the kind of insight we are looking for in the interview.
General Audition Advice
- Relax! We are serious about music at U of T, but rather informal about everything else. We know you are nervous, and we’ll do our best to make you feel at ease and create a situation where you can play your best. We want you to do well.
- Prepare your material thoroughly, and memorize it. Know the correct melodies for the tunes you play. Knowing the lyrics is a huge help in establishing natural phrasing.
- Concentrate on making music, rather than trying to impress.
- Wear clothes that make you feel comfortable, but dress in a manner that suggests maturity and self-respect.
- Don’t over warm-up! Concentrate on tone, airflow, response etc. Don’t play a bunch of high notes!
- Listen to your favourite music while waiting for your audition. The more music you have in your head, the more likely it is that music will come out of your horn.
- Bring a bottle of water.
- While waiting, you’ll be seated in the lobby, probably in the midst of currently-enrolled students including your accompanists. Don’t be shy about asking them what life is like at U of T-they will be forthcoming with their answers. They were in your shoes only a short time ago, and empathize with the sense of insecurity that you feel. Talking with them beforehand will lessen your nervousness when you enter the audition room.
Don’t Be Discouraged
Because of the numbers, not every qualified applicant can be accepted. Your chances depend on your ability, how many players the program can accept in a given year and who is competing against you, just like the real world. If you are not accepted, that does not mean you are not acceptable, simply that someone else was more suited this time around. Do some studying in the year to come, either at another institution or with private teachers, and audition again next year. University is just a few years out of a lifetime of study; the more knowledge and experience you bring to the experience, the more you’ll get out of it. Remember: those with determination and staying power are the ones who will succeed. As Winston Churchill said: “Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.”
Good luck!
Sound Ideas
The number one goal of all brass players is to produce a beautiful sound. I like to think of the sound as a living thing that resides within my body. Each day, particularly during the warm-up, I search for my sound and try to release it into the horn. The difference between a good day and a bad day is how easy or difficult it is to find and release the sound. Producing sound on a brass instrument is four-stage process.
- Hear the sound in your head.
- Set the air into motion.
- Compress the lips on the airstream, converting air to vibration.
- Transfer the vibrations to the instrument.
Hear The Sound
The most important part of any activity is to picture the end result before you start; you need to hear a sound in your head before you’ll get one to come out of your horn. Before a practice session, listen to a recording of a great player to remind you of what is possible. Currently, my inspiration/despair CD is Sergei Nakariakov’s ‘No Limit’. That is an apt title-there seems to be no limit to Sergei’s ability. It should be impossible, perhaps illegal, to do what he does on the trumpet.
I am fortunate to live just up the street from Andrew McCandless, the principal trumpet with the Toronto Symphony. (It is only a two-block street, so it is rather coincidental that it is home to two professional trumpet players.) In the morning, as I walk the dog, I can often hear Andrew warming up. Listening to the way he centers every note with a beautiful sound always inspires me, and makes me anxious to get home and start practicing.
Air
Well, duh. It is a wind instrument. Much has been written on the importance of air. Some methods maintain that playing is 99% air-simply blow and forget everything else. Arnold Jacobs added the all-important ’sing the music in your mind.’ In other words, make sure the musical command from the brain is clear and focused, and that the air is flowing, and everything else will happen naturally.
Sometimes, however, the simplicity of this approach can lead to frustration. Some students actually use too much air, because they have been taught that blowing harder is the answer to all problems. (Admittedly, not using enough air is a more common problem.) Efficient playing demands a balance of air and embouchure compression: the setting of the embouchure primarily determines pitch, and the air (plus the tongue, which helps to control the air) largely determines volume and articulation.
If you can picture the fluid motion of a violinist’s bow, that is what you are striving to achieve with your air. It should be smooth and directed, extending from the base of your lungs, flowing past your lips into the horn. Make sure the air passage is not obstructed; poor posture or a constricted throat will rob your sound of power and intensity. Hold your horn up and let the air flow freely through your throat. Control it with the tongue and the aperture between the lips, not by tensing the body or constricting the throat.
Think of your sound and your air as one intertwined entity, emanating from deep within your body. Focus your attention on the air/sound as it travels through your body and flows into the horn. Try swirling your air/sound through the cavities of your head, as a singer might, and listen to the tone changes that result. Let your notes ‘ride’ on the column of air like ping pong balls floating on a swiftly moving stream. Maximize the power and effectiveness of your airstream-the more work your air does, the less the lips have to do.
Lips
When the lips are formed into an embouchure and compressed on the airstream, they vibrate (buzz). The purity of the buzz and the efficiency with which air is converted to vibration is a function of the shape of the lips and the amount of tension or compression.
The amount of lip area that vibrates is very small, particularly on the higher brass (smaller) mouthpieces. The adjustments that take place within the cup of the mouthpiece are subtle but critical-small changes in the embouchure can have a dramatic effect on the sound. Watch in a mirror while you buzz on a rim visualizer (a mouthpiece rim mounted on a handle or a shank), and focus your attention on the point of vibration. Become aware of how slightly changing the setting of the lips, or the position of the mouthpiece on the lips, affects the buzz. Each note requires tiny adjustments to produce the purest vibration.
Now watch in the mirror while buzzing the mouthpiece or playing the horn. Focus on the muscles of your face outside the mouthpiece. Try to reduce external facial movement as much as possible; the less movement outside the mouthpiece, the finer your muscle control inside the mouthpiece, where it really counts. Your accuracy will improve as you eliminate a ‘moving target’ at the source of vibration.
Many players rob themselves of tone by using too much embouchure tension, effectively strangling the lip vibrations. You can hear this in beginning brass students-with their lips tightly squeezed together the sound is usually pinched and lacking in resonance. By searching for the minimum embouchure compression for a given pitch and volume, you allow the lips to vibrate to their fullest-more sound for less effort.
Transfer the Vibrations to the Horn
Your horn is a simple length of pipe; the length is changeable by valves or slides. A given length of pipe vibrates at specific frequencies, which have a mathematic relationship to each other (the overtone series). When your lips vibrate precisely at one of the resonant frequencies of the pipe, the tone becomes robust, and the vibrations of the pipe actually feed and sustain the vibrations of the lips. This might be described as playing in the center of the pitch, or finding the ’sweet spot’. When you hit the sweet spot on a tennis racket or baseball bat or golf club, you efficiently transfer energy to the ball. When you find it while playing a note, you efficiently transfer energy to the horn.
Just as the ball player must ‘follow through’ the stroke, keeping his eyes on where he wants the ball to go, you should focus on where you want your sound to go. If it leaves your bell and immediately hits the music stand-WRONG! Your sound picks up resonance and energy as it bounces off every surface in the room-use this to your advantage, treating the room as an amplifier and a resonating chamber. Point your horn in different directions and listen to the change in your tone. Watch out for a common student error: as you play higher your eyes drift towards the ceiling-WRONG! In driving school, they teach you that during a skid you should look where you want the car to go (on the road). Picture where you want the sound to go, and your body will do what it must to get it there.
Summer Vacation
Many students wonder how to keep their chops up during the summer. They no longer have the school bands and music programs to keep them focused, summer jobs rob practice time, and the lure of the beach is ever-present. September is often a rude awakening as you struggle to regain your chops. Here are a few suggestions for staying in shape at a time of year when there are places you’d rather be than the practice room.
Practice First
Practice early in the day, before you get distracted by other activities. You are probably most alert in the morning anyway, so this is a good time to accomplish something. Put in an hour or two then go enjoy the day!
Adopt A Different Practice Schedule
To attract you to the practice room, set goals for the summer months. Perhaps you want to improve your jazz playing or increase your range. Look at this as a time to seriously concentrate on these goals and construct a program to accomplish them. If you have not studied with a teacher during the year, seek out some lessons during the summer months. If you have been studying, consider taking some lessons with somebody else in the summer to get a different perspective, maybe even on a different instrument. I always have new students who appear during the summer months. Just as well, too, since I have a lot that disappear.
Find A Summer Gig
For music students this is the Holy Grail: a paying gig for the summer. (The same might be said for professionals.) You might find a job playing in a summer resort, or working at a music camp, or maybe you can convince a local pub that a jazz band will attract summer crowds. Cruise ships are another possibility-for a summer job it is hard to beat. Ship musicians play in dance bands, show bands, pit bands, small cocktail groups, and possibly back up headliners. Meanwhile, cruise the Caribbean or the Mediterranean all summer and get paid for it!
Get A Practice Mute
For practicing in cottages, hotels or even tents, a practice mute is essential. The best choice is the Silent Brass system from Yamaha, but there are other less-expensive options as well. Just getting the horn on the face a little bit each day will help a lot, come September.
Practice In A Canoe
As a teenager, I spent my summers hanging out at Lake George in the Adirondack Mountains of New York. I would paddle my canoe out to the middle of the lake and practice. In one memorable incident, a friend swooped by in a sailboat to say hello, and snagged my anchor line with his bow as he pulled away. The canoe started to tip, shipping water over each side and threatening to capsize entirely. I stood in the partially submerged boat, holding my trumpet and case over my head until help arrived. Later that day, sunbathers were amused to see pieces of music weighted with rocks drying all over the dock.
Sitting Under A Tree Is Good For Your Playing Too
Arnold Jacobs makes the point that it takes more than hours of practice to be a complete musician. You must be a complete person as well, with interests and experiences outside of music. Summer should be a time to relax and refresh. Even as you float around the lake you are doing your soul, and therefore your playing, some good.
Footnote For Australians & Californians…
…and others that live in the land of perpetual summer. I don’t know how you people ever get anything done!