Guidelines
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Guidelines Notebook

HS Band - Audition Guidelines

Page  4-D-2
Updated: Jun. 26, 2011

  1. Auditions will be by submitted recording. Each recording will contain one audition on one instrument. Please listen to your students' recordings before they are sent in. This should help avoid some embarrassing situations.

  2. On each recording, place the student's NAME, SCHOOL, GRADE, and INSTRUMENT on an EASILY REMOVABLE LABEL. [We recommend using masking tape.] DO NOT write directly on the CD or tape. Upon receipt, the label will be removed and the recordings will be numbered. DO NOT say the student's name or school on the recording. This is a blind audition.

  3. Students in grades 9-12 are eligible to audition for the SWKMEA High School Band.

  4. The recording device may be stopped after the chromatic scale or etudes. Stopping the machine between sections is permissible, but not during a scale or etude for the purpose of correcting errors in the performance.

  5. The audition material will be recorded in the following order:
    1. A Chromatic Scale extending over the entire playing range of the individual, slurred ascending and tongued descending, at a tempo of a quarter note=120.
    2. The etude or exercise listed in the tryout information for each specific instrument.

  6. PLEASE REWIND EACH TAPE or ASSURE THAT EACH CD IS PLAYABLE IN A CD PLAYER.

  7. It is of great importance to the student that the band director make certain the audition is complete and in proper order.

  8. Each band director submitting students for auditions is required to send a roster of those students to the High School Band Chair by the "roster deadline date." This will help to facilitate the planning and organization of the audition process.

  9. If your recordings are not mailed to the Chair by the due date, you must hand deliver them on the day of the listening before the time set by the Chair. You still must send in a roster even if you hand deliver the recordings. Band directors submitting their student roster after the "roster deadline date" will be required to pay double the registration fee for each of their students selected. The minimum amount for this late penalty will be $50.00.

  10. Each band director submitting recordings must be available for judging of the recordings. This takes place on the day of the Middle School District clinic. Please notate on the roster which instrument(s) you would best be able to judge.

  11. All students, excluding percussion, may only audition on one instrument. Also, students cannot audition for both choir and band.