Musical Ideas--Audition for William Paterson U for Jazz

by Bryan
(Ireland)

I am thinking of applying to William Paterson university for jazz, and at the moment I am without a teacher so cannot ask anyone this question. On the schools site it says that while playing the tunes you must

1)4.One chorus within the presentation of the medium tempo and up-tempo tunes should be performed entirely unaccompanied...this couldn't mean without music, so could you enlighten me?

2)Play through the head of the up- tempo tune unaccompanied, outlining rhythmic structure of the melody.....play through the head of the tune? When they say rhythmic structure, would that be just playing on the drums, leaving out the ride?
Any response would be greatly appreciated

ANSWER

Hi, Bryan--

Instructions for drummers in these auditions are always a bit confusing. My interpretation would be that you could play the Ballad using brushes.

The head of the uptempo tune you should go ahead and use a beat, but add toms and rhythmic variations on the snare and cymbals to make the beat sound like the rhythm of the melody.

The unaccompanied choruses of the medium and uptempo tunes, I would go ahead and play just as though you were playing with a group--beat and fills. Play it with just drums.

Unless you have a group who will record the tunes with you, you are going to need to get some background tracks and be able to alter them so that you can leave out the parts that need to be unaccompanied.

You might try

http://www.musicminusone.com/

There is a drum section and several jazz collections. Then you would have to convert the CD's to MP3 format and edit them.

Another easy way would be if you could find Midi files and then you could just edit them in a midi editor.

Hopefully, this has been helpful!

Lynne

Save Up to 95% in the Price Cuts Section of the MusiciansFriend.com Outlet Store