Jazz Studies (Undergraduate)
Jazz Saxophone/Trumpet/Trombone audition consists of the following:
- Prepare two 12-bar blues heads and improvise on the changes chosen from "Billies Bounce", "Straight No Chaser", "Tenor Madness" or "Isotope".
- Prepare the melody to one jazz standard ballad and improvise at least one chorus on the changes chosen from "Misty", "Body and Soul", "Lover Man" or "I Can't Get Started".
- Prepare the melody to the jazz standard "All The Things You Are" and improvise at least one chorus on the changes.
- Prepare the melody to the jazz standard "Oleo" and improvise at least one chorus on the changes.
Jazz Piano applicants should be prepared to play a twenty-minute audition consisting of three or more contrasting jazz pieces. Additionally, the applicant should be prepared to play two or more contrasting classical pieces. The jazz piano audition is combined with the classical piano audition and both are required for admittance to the Jazz Studies degree programs. Music should be memorized and include a work by J.S. Bach and a movement of a classical sonata.
- Ballad: I Can’t Get Started, In A Sentimental Mood, Misty, What’s New, When Sunny Gets Blue
- 12 Bar-Blues: Au Privave, Billies Bounce, Now’s The Time, Straight No Chaser
- Medium-Up Tempo Swing: All The Things You Are, Autumn Leaves, How High The Moon, Just In Time, My Romance, Stella By Starlight.
- Jazz Standards: Confirmation, Donna Lee, Oleo, Ornithology.
- Latin: Black Orpheus, Blue Bossa, The Girl From Ipanema, Wave, Green Dolphin Street.
- Tunes in 3/4: Bluesette, Someday My Prince Will Come, Tenderly, Valse Hot, Alice in Wonderland.
Music typical of undergraduate auditions includes selections from any of the following, as well as many other works of the standard piano repertoire from the Baroque through the contemporary era:
- Bach: French Suites or Well-Tempered Clavier
- Haydn, Mozart or Beethoven: first movement of a sonata
- Chopin: Nocturnes or Etudes
- Brahms: Intermezzi
- Debussy: Preludes
- Bartok: Suite, Op. 14
- George Crumb: A Little Suite for Christmas
Jazz Drumset auditions consist of the applicant being able to demonstrate their ability to play in the following musical styles:
- 4/4 swing at a variety of tempos
- Funk and rock styles at a variety of tempos
- Samba and bossa nova
- Mambo
- Afro-Cuban 6/8
Additional skills assessed during the Jazz Drumset audition:
- Brush technique
- Waltz and odd meter performance
- Repertoire knowledge
The prospective student should be prepared to discuss previous performance experience, teachers, and method books used in study. If available, the prospective student will have an opportunity to demonstrate the above skills in a performance situation with either a large or small jazz ensemble.
Jazz Guitar
- Technique:
- Prepare major scales and melodic minor scales in all keys in three octaves. Prepare the dorian, mixolydian, lydian, and phrygian modes in three octaves. Also prepare the “lydian dominant” from the fourth degree, and the “diminished whole tone” from the seventh degree of the melodic (“ascending” form) minor scale.
- Prepare the major seventh, minor major seventh, half-diminished, and minor seventh arpeggios in two octaves in all keys.
- Repertoire:
- Prepare a complete performance of a standard jazz ballad, including one chorus of the harmonized melody as well as an improvised single-line solo. Suggestions for pieces include: "Body and Soul", "Autumn in New York", "Here's That Rainy Day", "Infant Eyes", or other song of the applicant's choice.
- Prepare two jazz tunes in contrasting style, including one Be-bop tune. Each piece should demonstrate a personal interpretation of the melody, an improvised solo, and one or more choruses of comping. Suggestions for Be-bop tunes include: "Au Privave", "Joy Spring", "Jordu", "Yardbird Suite", and "Donna Lee". Suggestions for a non Be-bop piece include: "Milestones" (new version), "So What", "Ceora", "Manha de Carnival", and "Up Jumped Spring".
- Prepare a piece of European “classical” music either composed or transcribed for the guitar. This may be an etude or an excerpt from a sonata or suite: Bach cello suites or violin partitas, for example. This may be performed fingerstyle (classical guitar), with a plectrum, or as a combination of the two.
- Prepare a transcription of a solo by an acknowledged jazz master. This could be a work by a guitarist such as Wes Montgomery, Barney Kessel, or John Scofield for instance, or another instrumentalist such as Charlie Parker, Lester Young, Lee Morgan, or McCoy Tyner.
Jazz Bass
- Technique:
- Prepare major scales, arco, in two octaves in all keys, played in long tones, one note per bow, with the whole notes at mm. 60 for the quarter note. Prepare the same scales in triplets, playing three triplet notes per bow at mm. 40-60 for the quarter note.
- Prepare melodic and harmonic minor scales in two octaves, arco, in whole notes and also in triplets as above.
- Prepare major and minor triads, major seventh, dominant seventh, minor seventh, and half-diminished seventh chords as two octave arpeggios in all keys.
- Walking Bass:
- Prepare the major blues in B-flat, B, C, D-flat, D, and E-flat Major, and the minor blues in D, E, F, F-sharp, and G minor.
- Prepare the “rhythm” changes, based on the song form for I Got Rhythm, in B-flat, C, and E-flat Major.
- Repertoire:
- Prepare two pieces in contrasting styles, one of which is to be a be-bop tune. Demonstrate a personal interpretation of the melody, an improvised solo, one or more choruses of walking bass, and the ability to also accompany in a “two beat” style, with appropriate fills and inflections. Suggestions for Be-bop tunes include: "Au Privave", "Billie's Bounce", "Tricotism", and "Joy Spring". Suggestions for non Be-bop tunes include: "Autumn Leaves", "I'm Old-Fashioned", "Beatrice", "Dolphin Dance", and "Ceora".
- Prepare a piece of notated European “classical” music. Suggestions include the Bille Etudes (E.R. 263 or more difficult), any selection from Storch Hrabe 57 Etudes, a movement from a Baroque sonata or suite by a composer such as Marcello or Bach, or any other comparable repertoire.
- Prepare a transcription of either a bass line by an established master player such as Ray Brown, Dave Holland, Slam Stewart, or Christian McBride, or a solo or portion thereof by a master player on any instrument, including Lester Young, Wayne Shorter, Wes Montgomery, Ray Brown, or Sarah Vaughn.
Arranger/composer applicants must complete additional requirements that consist of:
- Show a portfolio of your arrangements/compositions at your audition as well as recordings of those works
- Demonstrate the ability to harmonize a lead-line using 4-part closed position voicings and 4-way drop-two voicings
- Demonstrate a working knowledge of transpositions and ranges of instruments found in a contemporary jazz setting