You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - How to Nail an Audition - #60

Episode Date: March 31, 2018

In today's episode, Peter and Adam outline some strategies to giving your best audition. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

I'm Adam Menace and I'm Peter Martin. And you're listening to the You'll Hear It Podcast. Today we're going to tell you how to nail an audition. Like with a hammer? That's it. That's it. Use a hammer. Nail it. Peace. And you're out. Sorry, that's not a very inspired pun at all. It's pretty good.

But we are inspired for this subject because we've been recording with Sean Jones the last few days here at Open Studios. Sean James, great trumpeter and professor of jazz, the head of the new Peabody Jazz Institute in Baltimore. and someone who has a lot of information and knowledge about not only how to do an audition from the player's standpoint, but from the adjudicator's standpoint as well. He has a lot of experience. And so just a little disclaimer here, we're going to steal a lot of these from Sean, because we learned a lot from him, right? Hope you like it, Sean.

Yeah. But you've done a lot of this, too, though. You've done some adjudicating. I've done a little bit. Yeah. But judging an audition, you actually learn a lot about how to nail an audition because you spend all day, like, you know, getting to see how people present themselves. and you get very strong opinions about how you want it to happen.

Yeah, I think that we've learned more from the adjudicator standpoint about how to actually do an audition than in doing. I mean, I've done a fair number of auditions, but it's been years since I've had to do one, you know, or been invited to do one. But so I actually don't even have a lot of experience doing that, but I've seen a lot of them. And I wish I knew back then when I was doing my little Juilliard audition

and I was terrified and sweating. I wish I'd understood about the process like I do now and had that information. So hopefully for those of you that are going into an audition situation. And I mean, look, this could be anything from auditioning when you're in high school or younger for a different orchestra or for a jazz experience or jazz band or something. Yeah. To, of course, you know, the big ones are usually the conservatory entrance auditions.

Yeah. But then, I mean, you know, people are called to do auditions for gigs all the time as professionals. That's right. Just like with actors, you'd be surprised that the A-list Hollywood actors. that still have to do some kind of audition or reading or whatever they call it. That's right. So it's a great skill to have. So Adam, why don't you kick it off?

What do you think is the most important thing about it? Well, the most important thing with an audition is to be prepared. Have all your materials prepared. Practice what the audition guidelines tell you exactly to practice. And, you know, be ready to play. I mean, there's only so much preparation you can do to be a better player in two months or whatever. But you should be, you know, if you're going to audition for anything, you should be at the top of your game. You should spend all your energy or most of your energy coming up to that point of the audition,

focusing on playing well at that audition. That is the most important thing. Not only because you're going to sound good, but the more prepared you are, the less nervous you're going to be, you know, the more comfortable you're going to be because you are ready and you know the material. Yeah, and in terms of preparation, wouldn't you say the minimum level of preparation is like, knowing the material that's required, like knowing where to show up. Like, I mean, by preparing, it's,

it's like you're even getting into some more advanced things, but some folks need to know, like, get the basic stuff. Don't jump up to like, I want to sound great and have my hair perfect of the thing, and then you show up on the wrong day or you bring the wrong materials with you or something. Get your beep together.

I'll tell you, this is a little, a story about when I auditioned at the new school, I actually, I knew that Jay and Ira Bloom was going to be the one, adjudicating my audition. And so I just checked out all her records, like the two weeks before. And so I had the sound of her music in my head as I was going to audition in the hopes that she would, like, you know, hear that a little bit.

You know what I mean? Did you wear a t-shirt with her picture? Was that taking it too far? No, but I did move the piano around different points in the room to activate the sound of the room, which is the thing she does. That's good. That's good. So that brings us to the next point, and that is, I think it's very important.

during an audition. You're prepared, you're at the right place, you've got the right t-shirt on, but once you get into the audition, going with the mentality of being very thick-skinned. So this means that you're not going to get rattled by anything that happens. You're there to put your best foot forward

to represent your playing and yourself really in the best possible light. So that requires that you stay on message with that. One thing that happens in many auditions is you get cut off, and I remember doing this and I try to be nice about it, but you just don't have time to hear everything and you want to hear a variety of things. So if you're not used to that, it can be kind of

jarring. You know, you're in the middle of your piece and they're like, stop, stop. And like, oh, they didn't like what I was doing. Like, don't worry about what they think. It's a weird thing. Like, you have to really just go in and represent. Even if they're like, that sucks. Go on to the next tune. That doesn't throw you off your game. Because maybe that's what one person thinks. Yeah. But if there's several different people judging you, you know, you just want to be concentrating on your game and that's it. And I think this is, all of these actually are good. lessons for just being a musician in general and life. I mean, you have to be thick-skinned, right, you know, out in the real world as well, but that's, that's great advice. Because, listen,

you know, you're going to get cut off probably, because the judges, the adjudicators, they know within 15 seconds. You're not going to, like, convince them after 30 seconds of that you're anything but what you've already showed them. And so whether they like it or not, you know, as long as they have an evaluation, they're, you know, they need to move on because it's a long day. Well, and what I learned later from doing a long day of listening to auditions was actually a lot of times the quicker we would cut people off, it actually meant the better that they were doing. Right. Like, during that 15 seconds, we were able to hear, I mean, sometimes we could hear that they couldn't play. It at least meant that we understood what they could do good or bad or

in the middle on that tune. Exactly. And that's what we're trying to get across in the audition is you're trying to represent yourself. So if you get caught, get caught off after a like five seconds, that's probably okay, unless you sounded horrible. But, you know, in general, try to develop some thick skin. You know, the music business can be rough or whatever, and not everybody's going to like everything you do. That's just, that's just the truth for anybody. I mean, not everybody likes Miles Davis. You know what I mean? So it's right. Not everybody's going to like, not. Well, that's a bad example. Actually, everybody likes Miles Davis, but anybody else. We have a two-star rating on this podcast, if you could believe it.

What? So subliminal thing, everybody go give us, you know, pull up our stars. We've got to pull up average. Well, help us out. No, but it's true, man. You know, not everybody's going to like everything you do, so develop that thick skin. Yeah, and I mean, it's not even like, it's not like a gig where you're making adjustments as you go based upon the audience and by how things sound. Your only purpose in going in is, is to be able to represent your playing on this particular material in the best possible light and represent yourself. It's all about you. Me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me. So, I mean, you know, you have to be thick skin because everything is about accomplishing that goal.

That's right. So that brings us to our third point, and that is to look good, to sound good, and to speak well. Again, good for audition, good for life. Good for a mortgage interview,

too, right? Absolutely. No, you know, presentation matters in these situations. It really does. You know, put on your Sunday best. Right. Comb your hair.

Right. You know, like stand up straight, put your shoulders back. Everything your mom always is bugging you about. Get your act together, son. This is the time to do it. Honestly, it doesn't look good to come in with your shoulders slouched and your shirt untucked and you know what I mean. Yeah.

It just doesn't come across like you know anything. Yeah, and it's not just about surface level you're trying to put on airs or anything. If your shoulders are slouched and you're kind of meekly coming in, it's physically going to be hard for you to perform your best because you're coming from that's, I mean, your body's actually scared. Like you are fearful. And you may be fearful and you should, but, you know, be fearful of an audition and have. But take that nervous energy and turn that into something positive as much as you can. And so sometimes it's just a matter of your body leads your mind. Maybe your mind is scared.

Stop being scared. So, all right? Well, you can control your body and, you know, put up a little bit of confidence and see if your mind and your playing don't follow. Yeah, that's right. You know, I always used to come in with as big of the smile as I can muster as nervous as I was. Yeah. And, you know, a warm greeting goes a long way. That's right.

As far as losing up a room, you know. Exactly. Now, if you do all that, and this has happened before when I've been judging audition, there's some kids have come in with, like, great clothes and hello, good to meet you, with like business cards, you know. How do they sound? They didn't sound too good. So up until the point they played, they were nailing that audition.

So make sure it matches you're playing. Both are important. Both are important. Yeah, because what happens is if you can play great, but your presentation doesn't really match it, of course, some of that's going to be excused. But what even really great players don't often come across sounding that great in an audition because it's such a sterile environment normally. Some kind of windowless room. You don't have much of an ensemble.

It's at a weird time of day. It's not a gig situation where we can. And of course, we're thinking about that as we're evaluating. But all the little presentation things do make a difference for sure. So the last thing I thought we could just talk about is it's definitely something obvious. but I'm ashamed to say I just learned it from Sean, Sean Jones, and that is that we're always auditioning. That's true.

You know, life is one big audition, you know, depending on what your religion is. It can be an important audition, you know. We're auditioning for you in this podcast right now. That's right. That's right. But, I mean, the concept is that in terms of how to nail an audition, a lot of times professionally the audition is how you're playing on the gig that you're on.

That's right. So you might be auditioning for somebody else that you don't even know. know is there, or maybe it's by reputation, or maybe it's a side man that's on the gig that's about to form their own band, and it's kind of auditioning without telling you. But, I mean, you kind of have to, you know, this advice that we're saying, I think as much as you can incorporate this stuff into your overall playing and your routine in terms of how you look, how you play, how, you know, preparing and all these kind of things, then it kind of becomes your musical and professional personality so that you don't have to worry about, oh, I'm preparing

for an audition. I'm always auditioning. Every time I walk out the door, I'm auditioning. That's right. That's great advice. Yeah, it never ends with this stuff. And the sooner you can embrace that and be comfortable in that, the better you're going to be in auditions and, you know, on the bandstand in life. So, yeah, always keep that in mind. Yeah. And I mean, we are, we're entertainers first and foremost. That is, it's funny, whenever I have to apply for, you know, a visa or work permit to go to certain countries and they stamp, you know, like, you know, Japan, you have to get this entry. Visa as for entertainer. It's written really big. Entertainer. And I'm like, I'm not just a dancing monkey, you know. I mean, but basically we are.

You know? Basically are. I mean, we want to think we're sophisticated artistes, but we're just entertainers. I've been juggling the whole time. This podcast has been going on. Man, if this was a video podcast, we'd be nailing it. But it's audio. So, you'll hear it.

Oh, nice setup. Thanks for listening to this episode of the You'll Hear It podcast. You can go to you'll hearat.com to get more information, submit a question, or just say hello. Wait, you can do that. Absolutely. All right, and if you like what you heard, please leave a review and a rating below. Thanks.