Audition Pre-Screen Hacks 1 - Manhattan School of Music

Hey All. You may have seen the video on Youtube, but wanted to give you the in-depth on hacking the pre-screening process for MSM.

First, here's the video, in case you missed it.

Here are the specific audition requirements, direct from the website- 

Required piece (must be first on the recording): the 12-Bar Blues piece, Billie's Bounce in medium tempo. Must include playing time for at least four choruses behind a soloist and at least two choruses of drum solo.

Perform a medium tempo selection or a ballad demonstrating ability to perform with brushes.

Perform two additional selections in different jazz styles, moods, and tempos. Each selection must include at least three choruses of playing time behind a soloist and at least two choruses of trading fours, eights, and/or soloing.

Original compositions should not be included.

 

In the video I discuss what I consider the most optimal way to perform Billie's Bounce (though it's by no means the only way), and suggest using Thad Jones' A Child Is Born as the medium tempo/ballad brush tune, especially if you're auditioning for Juilliard. Finally, Seven Steps, up, with brushes, creates good contrast in your audition repertoire, crosses off one of the "differentiators" (fast tempos with brushes), and fulfills a requirement for the Monk Institute. 

 

Stay tuned, as we cover, Juilliard, NYU, the New School, and the Monk Institute. 

What is 80/20?

I allude to it in the videos, but what was so important about 80/20 that I decided to name my instructional platform after it?

First, let's define 80/20 properly. In the video I say it's a principle by which a small amount of input is responsible for a lot of output, and that's true, but let's add some context.

Think about averages.

In the US, if you were industrious, you could compute the average height. You could compute the average income. But let's look deeper. How close to the average are how many people? In statistics class, we learned the "bell curve", which assumes the closer you get to the average, the higher the numbers. In practice this should mean that if the average height of adults is five feet, and height has a "standard distribution", there will be TONs of people that are 4'11" and 5'1", fewer that are 4'6" and 5'6", and still fewer four and five-footers.

Many systems follow standard distribution, but some do not.

Imagine a different arrangement of height. Imagine, for instance, that the overwhelming majority of people were only three feet tall, and a tiny minority were one hundred feet tall. If the numbers were just right you could still arrive at an average of five feet, but with a very different distribution from the bell curve. This is called Power Law distribution. It's also called 80/20.

Too abstract? It turns out many systems in nature don't follow a standard distribution at all, but instead an 80/20, or even more extreme (95/5) power law distribution. Income, in real life, is distributed as such, with a small minority making the bulk the wealth. Crime often follows 80/20, with a small number of offenders responsible for an outsized proportion of offenses.

And personal productivity, learning, and practice are far more likely to follow 80/20 than standard distribution. Everything you do in your life doesn't have relatively equal effect. A few things you're doing have tremendous effect, while many others have practically none.

Which brings us to musical instruments, and specifically to drumming. While it's true no one can become world class without thousands of hours in the practice room, not all hours are created equal. It turns out that some things you practice have tremendous impact, while others have hardly any at all.

Here are some small things that have outsized impact

 

-learning new skills, one-at-a-time, and at the appropriate pace.

-choosing a challenging but reachable goal, analyzing the differences between where you are and where you'd like to be, and working backward to deconstruct and invent exercises.

-identifying and practicing idioms likely to reoccur frequently in real life and/or single skills that improve multiple modalities at once.

Photo by Flickr User Sidonath

And here are some good ways to eat up time without getting better

-continuing to practice a skill long after it's reasonably comfortable.

-practicing abstractions like rudiments without context and application tools.

-trying to learn something way over your head and giving up before it sounds good (practicing bad habits) or trying to master too many new skills at once and giving up before any sound good.

Any of these sound familiar?

How to (Really) Play Jazz Part 3 - Grown Up Tempo

You know what's even more difficult than playing fast? Playing slow. With big spaces between every two notes, slow tempos can be death if you're not prepared.

But it turns out you may be better at playing slow jazz beats than you thought. You may already have been doing it, without even realizing it. And a simple brain hack can help you access all those hours of experience you didn't even know you had.

Here's the Youtube preview, in case you want to watch before you download.

Ready to Take it to the Next Level?

As you're enjoying this lesson, just imagine the possibilities of your own personal curriculum, with over 96 individual videos demonstrating exercises and concepts that get more challenging week-by-week as you get better. Say it with me: "cooooooooaching" ;)

Am I shameless? Hopefully I'm shameless with a purpose - making you a Stone Cold Killer on the drums.

Ah - Downloads - you can download the (Free) video, and transcriptions right below.

Transcriptions - Darion Ja'Von Beat

Want to know a secret? The best single thing I did for my jazz was cross-training by learning some gospel and fusion. All of a sudden, the playing of folks like Eric Harland started to make sense. Below is a video I did on a transcription of part of a Darion Ja'Von solo.

You can download your own copy at the link below, complete with a PDF of the transcription.

*There's no need to donate for this video. Simply claim it for free!

You can preview it here.

WANT TO TAKE IT TO THE NEXT LEVEL?

The 80/20 Drummer series is the blueprint for becoming great by practicing great. Wondering how to practice? Or just what are the most important things to focus on? Click below to learn more.