 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: patrickryan04
Date: 2008-04-01 13:02
Has any forum user won or made the finals for a Millitary special band?
I have heard horror stories about the amount of sight reading asked for such an audition. Can anyone expound on this?
1st Armored Division Band
Clarinetist
Dixie Band
Woodwind Quintet
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Author: Blake Arrington
Date: 2008-04-01 13:10
Hi Patrick,
I'm in the USAF Concert Band. Before I won that audition, I'd made finals at 4 other military band auditions. Of those, only one was insane in it's sightreading. I was once asked to play 8 pieces of sightreading. I was given a tempo and told to start. I remember 3 Hindsley transcriptions in there (Don Juan was one of them), 3 marches and another wacky piece.
Of the other auditions, I haven't felt that the sightreading was brutal. I did make a copy of every march that was in UNT's Wind Studies library and also every Hindsley transcription I could get my hands on and started reading from it every day. By the time I won my audition almost 2 years ago, the sightreading seemed easy.
You can expect some marches...play with good style, rhythm, etc. Also, expect some mixed meter things.
Hope this helps,
Blake
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Author: Blake Arrington
Date: 2008-04-01 13:11
Oh and my favorite...I once had to play the National Anthem of Turkmenistan at an audition!!!! Talk about interesting harmony.
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Author: redwine
Date: 2008-04-01 13:48
Hello,
The Naval Academy Band was my first military audition. I wouldn't say that sight reading was overly difficult, but that's one of my strengths. Sight reading, in my opinion, is important for military band auditions. Sitting on the other side of the screen, often, sight reading is what really separates our candidates. Since we prescreen, everyone that is invited is a great player already, so how someone plays under pressure with no preparation is a good indicator of how one will perform a military job. For the first several years of a military job, almost every gig will seem like you are sight reading, as we tend to not over rehearse anything (varies from commander to commander). Sight reading is a skill, just like any other, that improves with practice. I'd recommend finding etude books or band or orchestral excerpt books of pieces you have not played and sight read them as part of your daily practice. Good luck.
Ben Redwine, DMA
owner, RJ Music Group
Assistant Professor, The Catholic University of America
Selmer Paris artist
www.rjmusicgroup.com
www.redwinejazz.com
www.reedwizard.com
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Author: DavidBlumberg
Date: 2008-04-01 13:51
I won the US Navy Band Audition back in 1987. John Coulehan (Soloist) who was notorious for giving hard sightreading had previously given me (at a duet get together) The JeanJean Carnival of Venice to sightread - not only had I never played nor heard that version of Carnival, but it was on 2 condensed pages shrunken down from the normal 8 or so pages. It was REALLY SMALL but not a problem. I had asked him to give me something to sightread that was really hard as I love to sightread ......
At the actual audition I played a duet sightreading the last mvt of the Mozart Gran Partita with another band member.
One big thing about those auditions and auditions in general is that you have to be sure to know every single part of every single piece that they ask for. Example is the Aegean Festival Overture - one would expect that they would ask for the Cadenza as a given.
They asked for the opening and didn't ask for the Cadenza.
Pineapple Poll - they asked for a bit of the slow mvt and not the first mvt at all. I had one night to learn that piece!!
Also be prepared to be asked for scales - major and minor. I played the Klose 2 pages of scales exercise.
http://www.SkypeClarinetLessons.com
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Author: redwine
Date: 2008-04-01 14:57
Hello,
You won't be asked for scales at a special military band audition.
Ben Redwine, DMA
owner, RJ Music Group
Assistant Professor, The Catholic University of America
Selmer Paris artist
www.rjmusicgroup.com
www.redwinejazz.com
www.reedwizard.com
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Author: Blake Arrington
Date: 2008-04-01 19:23
The only exception to that was when I auditioned for the US Air Force Academy Band audition years ago...they did ask scales.
Having been in for almost two years, I will say that sightreading is a must with this job. You really wouldn't have enough time to practice two separate tour programs with at least 1.5 hours of music on each program with only 4 rehearsals before tour...unless you have chops of steel!
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Author: Daniel Frazelle
Date: 2008-04-01 22:27
Yes, but for a number of years, scales have not been asked for the Marine Band, Army Field Band, Pershing's Own, Naval Academy Band, Air Force Band, or the DC Navy Band (my band). It just doesn't happen anymore. The Air Force Academy Band seems to run their auditions very differently in many ways, though, as Blake mentions.
I should note that out of all of those bands, only the Army Pershing's Own had what I would term particularly difficult sight-reading in later rounds (I have no experience with the Air Force Academy Ban). I am a poor sight-reader and felt very comfortable with what I had to read in all of my auditions. Sight-reading is a part of all of these jobs, but I wouldn't say you have to be particularly proficient. You just need to not be a complete wreck when faced with it, both in the audition and on the job.
Ben has the firsthand experience of sitting behind audition screens, but I will say I have heard conflicting viewpoints on the emphasis placed on sight-reading. I have heard that showing decent proficiency in the sight-reading is often enough for a committee to then accept the player they felt was better in the rest of the audition. Then again, I'm sure there are cases such as Ben mentions (was I in one of them??) where two close candidates are separated by the sight-reading.
I firmly believe that if you are a competent player and solid enough to win a premier band job your sight-reading should take care of itself. That's not to say don't practice it, but there's a limit to the returns one will get.
Daniel Frazelle
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Author: Brianj
Date: 2008-04-01 23:02
You also might want to ask folks at the particular band you want to auditin for what all is involved. I have never auditioned for one but know people who have, and the people in the bands are usually quite friendly and helpful.
SSG Brian Jungen
399th Army Band
Ft. Leonard Wood, MO
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Author: ken
Date: 2008-04-03 00:43
During my USAF Regional Band career I auditioned for my services' Academy Band and U.S. Navy Academy Band at Annapolis, both in 1991. In 1992, I received written invitation to audition for the USAF DC Concert Band but declined. Searching the gray matter, the combined sight reading set before me was:
Orchestral Transcripts / Excerpts:
Brahms 1st
Peter and the Wolf
Mozartiana
Polovtsian Dances
On the Town (Bernstein)
All I can remember
Band Compositions / Transcriptions:
Aegean Festival Overture - Cadenza
Sinfonietta for Band (Dahl)
Santa Fe Saga (Gould)
Roman Carnival
Washington Grays (Grafulla)
Pineapple Poll
Tam O'Shanter (Arnold)
Procession of Nobles
Sorcerer’s Apprentice
Jupiter (Holst)
1st Mvt. of Mozart
The sight reading portion for the USAF Academy went on over 30 minutes. No scales were asked by USAF however, the Navy requested 5 or 6, 2 octave melodic / natural minors plus a 3 octave (low E to high E) chromatic scale. v/r Ken
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