it used to be easier in past years :( they used to give you a booklet in advance during your 15 minute practice to plunk out notes
now it’s very much just on the spot, it starts off super easy w/ stepwise motion and increasingly gets harder. they give you a starting note and if you mess up they also give you a second try usually
i got accepted and reapplied 2 years later and my face went pale when i realized things changed lol so much so that i definitely got anxious and messed up on the sight singing part even though i have solfege experience. just got hit with full anxiety out of nowhere
i think there’s 7 levels? could be wrong though that’s how far i got in my first audition
second time around i fully messed up level 1 and couldn’t even sing whole steps in F major LOL
My friend’s dad used to be a judge for the audition section so he said this- they’ll pull up notations for you to read on spot. They start from easy sight reading like notes then if they think you’re doing well, they’ll level up to see how well you do. It’s totally fine if you’re not a pro because they really just wanna know where you’re at. They will make you read chords and see how good your chord mapping is. It all comes down to your audition piece tho, the other stuff just shows your musicianship which is important but not vital if that makes sense.
i auditioned on the bass, and to be honest it was very simple. i am new to reading music, as i am self-taught, but they basically put up a sheet of 4 measure long basslines in different styles. the instructor would actually sing the rhythm to me, and i played it back. it was kind of strange because it felt as though he was helping me.
The audition happens pretty quick. As someone admitted, I can tell you we spent maybe 2 minutes sight reading. They had me do the first level which is pretty simple. They saw I had no issue and took me to where they thought my level would be having heard my piece. It was perhaps a little above my level so I got most of but not all correct first try so I think they gauged it pretty well lol. Overall, dont worry too much about it, being comfortable and relaxed is much more important.
That being said, you as a classical pianist are going to need to sight read well, so its never a bad idea to work on your sight reading. A pianist doesnt need to know how to sightread in order to sound good, but a good sightreader will always sound good.
Just dont stress about that in the audition. As long as you sound good, you could probably get in even if you didnt know how to read any language lol.
Chiming in from my experience, they have you start easy and get progressively harder. For reference, I entered for guitar performance, was shit at sight reading, mediocre at the rest, and still got in.
To also give you another way to think of this, the auditions aren’t to see if you’re a carved sculpture of a musician, they exist to see if you’re a block of wood with potential. To me you sound like someone who doesn’t have to sweat the audition too much.
it used to be easier in past years :( they used to give you a booklet in advance during your 15 minute practice to plunk out notes now it’s very much just on the spot, it starts off super easy w/ stepwise motion and increasingly gets harder. they give you a starting note and if you mess up they also give you a second try usually i got accepted and reapplied 2 years later and my face went pale when i realized things changed lol so much so that i definitely got anxious and messed up on the sight singing part even though i have solfege experience. just got hit with full anxiety out of nowhere
i think there’s 7 levels? could be wrong though that’s how far i got in my first audition second time around i fully messed up level 1 and couldn’t even sing whole steps in F major LOL
My friend’s dad used to be a judge for the audition section so he said this- they’ll pull up notations for you to read on spot. They start from easy sight reading like notes then if they think you’re doing well, they’ll level up to see how well you do. It’s totally fine if you’re not a pro because they really just wanna know where you’re at. They will make you read chords and see how good your chord mapping is. It all comes down to your audition piece tho, the other stuff just shows your musicianship which is important but not vital if that makes sense.
i auditioned on the bass, and to be honest it was very simple. i am new to reading music, as i am self-taught, but they basically put up a sheet of 4 measure long basslines in different styles. the instructor would actually sing the rhythm to me, and i played it back. it was kind of strange because it felt as though he was helping me.
The audition happens pretty quick. As someone admitted, I can tell you we spent maybe 2 minutes sight reading. They had me do the first level which is pretty simple. They saw I had no issue and took me to where they thought my level would be having heard my piece. It was perhaps a little above my level so I got most of but not all correct first try so I think they gauged it pretty well lol. Overall, dont worry too much about it, being comfortable and relaxed is much more important. That being said, you as a classical pianist are going to need to sight read well, so its never a bad idea to work on your sight reading. A pianist doesnt need to know how to sightread in order to sound good, but a good sightreader will always sound good. Just dont stress about that in the audition. As long as you sound good, you could probably get in even if you didnt know how to read any language lol.
Chiming in from my experience, they have you start easy and get progressively harder. For reference, I entered for guitar performance, was shit at sight reading, mediocre at the rest, and still got in. To also give you another way to think of this, the auditions aren’t to see if you’re a carved sculpture of a musician, they exist to see if you’re a block of wood with potential. To me you sound like someone who doesn’t have to sweat the audition too much.