College professors will gather as much information about prospective students as possible to determine if the student will be a good fit for their program. For students, the college audition process can be a scary endeavor with a lot of unknowns. The following areas of consideration are designed to help you better understand the audition process more fully and are presented in no particular order: 1. ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE – GPA, ACT, SAT, Grades Your academic performance in high school can be a good indicator for how you’ll do in college courses. These grades aren’t usually a “make it or break it” component of the application process. However, they do carry considerable weight with the academic faculty when awarding scholarships and other...
This article originally appeared on robknopper.com what to do if you make a mistake in orchestra my hilarious epic fail on tam-tam happened 7 years ago this month. in 2008 i got into my ï¬rst major summer festival: paciï¬c music festival in japan. i was 21, i’d taken a million auditions to get there, and it was amazing. but while i was there… something happened. something very… memorable. to set the scene, this was one of the biggest concerts of the festival for me. we were playing turangalila by olivier messiaen. it has a HUGE percussion part, and members of the vienna philharmonic flew in to coach us. for the percussion sectional, we all sat down with copies of the score, listened...
Holding the triangle Holding the triangle should look graceful. We want to at least look professional. Resting the clip on the thumb and middle finger, leaves the other fingers available for muting if necessary. Holding the triangle around eye level is preferred so the audience can see what you are doing but also to allow the sound to travel without any interference from a music stand or any other instrument. Gripping the beaterr I have heard of two ways to hold the beater, although I’m sure there are many more. The first is similar to a snare drum or timpani grip. Very typical, with most of the pressure using the thumb and first two fingers. The other is almost like...
One of the most common statements we hear from percussion students is, "My teacher told me to purchase a tambourine, but I don't know which one to choose". Given the fact that we offer 28 different models this is not surprising! Our time-tested model T2/GS Projection Plus with German Silver jingles is the world's best selling concert tambourine. And for good reason! It is a highly versatile, great sounding instrument and has become the "Go-To" instrument of many pros as well. However, when it comes to THE perfect general purpose concert tambourine we have two newer models worth a hard look: T2/HS "HYBRID" Silver - this model combines the best of our standard German Silver tambourine with the clarity of...
Getting Organized. We all aspire to it. We know it will make our jobs easier. We know that our students will learn more quickly and become better performers. Then, if we are successful by May, a new group of students shows up the following year and we will start all over again. Few, if any of us ever achieve the ultimate, organized percussion section year after year. The following are some suggestions to help reach the goal of maintaining an efficient and well organized percussion section. The results are directly proportional to the persistence of the teacher. The good news is that in the end, less rehearsal time will be spent setting up and searching for instruments, and more time...
