Warm-up
On the day of the audition, I arrived at the place about 30 minutes earlier than the scheduled warm-up time. As I walked in, a bearded guy holding a Fender guitar sitting at the entrance stood up and warmly greeted me, asking if I was here for the audition. I confirmed, and he found my name on the sign-in sheet and checked it off. He asked me a few basic questions, like "Is this your first audition?" After a brief chat, he showed me where to put my things and said I could rest there until he took me to warm up.
I sat on the sofa in the lobby downstairs and practiced for about 10 minutes with what I had brought. Then he stood up and said, "Let's go! I'll take you to warm up." He helped me carry my equipment and examined my bass guitar before saying, "This is a really nice one." We walked to the practice room on the second floor, where we had 15 minutes to warm up. During this time, I practiced the sight reading content that I would be tested on later (more details on this can be found in my sight reading notes below). However, since I wasn't well-prepared for this part, I only practiced the three levels that I was more comfortable with and let the others slide.
In addition, I also practiced my solo piece for the prepared piece. After 15 minutes, the guy with the guitar came to knock on the door and reminded me that it was time to perform. He took me back downstairs and another staff member from the school led me to the basement where the audition was held.
Prepared piece
My prepared piece was Detroit by Marcus Miller. When I was deciding what song to choose for the audition, I was hesitant at first. However, since I already knew how to play the main melody of this song, I decided to practice the solo and other sections together with it. I thought it wouldn't take long to practice since it was a song I really liked. However, my strategy turned out to be not very wise. Although the solo was not difficult to play, there was a 32-beat section in the middle that was very difficult to practice and I had a very high error rate. I was determined to play this song well because I wanted to showcase my cover and other abilities. So, I practiced until a few days before the audition to barely get the piece.
On the day of the audition, the first test was the prepared piece. The school staff (an old man with white hair) took me to the basement and helped me set up my equipment. Once I arrived at the basement, he helped me connect my Mac and test the volume of the backing track (a version without bass that a friend helped me make). I then connected the wires to my bass guitar and effects pedal by myself. The other two teachers in charge of the audition (an uncle who interacted with me with his instrument [bass] and an aunt holding a Mac who was responsible for recording) also asked me basic questions, such as "How long have you been playing?" and "Who is your favorite bassist?" After everything was set up, they asked me to test the balance. I played the backing track and adjusted the balance quickly. During this time, they tried to talk to me, but I couldn't hear what they were saying clearly so I didn't stop and played the whole piece.
During the performance, I was very nervous. I made some mistakes even before the solo part, and I missed a section because I played the wrong part. However, surprisingly, my solo part went well, and I almost didn't make any mistakes (similar to the best case scenario during practice). However, I forgot to use the effects pedal I wanted to use because of my nerves. As I played the piece, I became surprisingly calm towards the end. Maybe it was because the groove came out. After I finished playing, the teacher in charge of recording said, "It's a really funky piece." It was probably meant as encouragement.
Jam
After I finished playing my prepared piece, the teacher immediately said that we were going to jam on blues and asked me to pick a key. I chose F and he asked what style I wanted, and I said jazz blues. He then said to start with me walking and then we would switch off soloing in the middle. After explaining this, he started playing at an incredibly slow tempo, saying "1 2 1234". This made me panic because the tempo was too slow to feel comfortable using the first two beats as one bar, but using the last four beats didn't feel right either. I tried playing walking bass at my own tempo, but the teacher said it was wrong and we tried again, but the same thing happened a few more times until the teacher gave up. I was so confused and flustered that I played walking bass very poorly, and the teacher was looking at me with a strange expression, which made me feel even more discouraged. However, I was more confident in soloing, so I focused on listening to the teacher and tried to come back into the groove. The teacher started with walking comping, but suddenly switched to playing chords, and we played a short section before ending the jam session.
Ear-Training
After the jam session, the next thing was ear training. It seems like everyone had a different approach to this part. The first section was pitch recognition, and since both the teacher and I play bass, our method was that he played some notes, and I had to listen and then play them back. He started by playing the note D, and fortunately, I was able to play it correctly. Then he played some variations using the D as the root, such as the 1-2-3-1-2-7-6 in the key, as well as some chromatic notes like 1-2-3-4-6(b)-5. I was getting slower as we went on, mainly because I tended to forget the previous notes halfway through. Eventually, we stopped at a certain point.
The second section was about rhythm. The teacher played a rhythm on his bass guitar, and I had to copy it. This part was mostly based on intuition, so I didn't really remember many specifics. However, I could recognize some of the more common rhythms that I had heard in songs, such as drum beats during transitions. Towards the end, the teacher added some longer pauses that made it more challenging, and I struggled to keep up with them.
Sight reading
During the warm-up, they will give you sheet music, which was much simpler than I expected. There are a total of eight levels, with a maximum of eight measures in each level. The ones I remember are Level 1, Level 2, and Level 8.
Level 1: A four-measure 2-feel (swing) with only the third measure consisting of four quarter notes. Even if you cannot read sheet music, you can still play it on the spot by using logic and finger memory.
Level 2: An eight-measure Latin rhythm with the first and second halves being identical. It starts to include eighth notes and off-beats, but it is still not too difficult, with only three notes being used.
Level 8: An eight-measure funk, which is even simpler than a regular funk song. Although it has 16th notes, the majority of them are on the beat or off-beat. It sounds very mechanical and uses only a few simple notes, including the root, fifth, eighth, and some passing notes.
Other styles, such as waltz and R&B in triple meter, have similar difficulty levels. Each level also has a suggested tempo, but the teacher may not necessarily accompany you at that tempo.
I originally planned not to practice sight reading, but only to use it to familiarize myself with sheet music during my daily commute. So, the 15 minutes of warm-up time was only enough for me to get used to the three levels I mentioned above (which are also the styles I am better at). However, I still struggled during the actual audition, playing the wrong notes and struggling with the teacher's tempo. I barely managed to complete Level 1 and when the teacher introduced Level 3, I expressed that I couldn't do it. The teacher then said, "Okay, that's it for today." And so, the audition ended like that.
Interview
The interview, as expected, was conducted by Tim, who was in charge of admissions for the Asian region. The questions asked were common: 1. Personality traits, 2. The process of studying music, 3. Why Berklee? 4. Recommend yourself, 5. What major do you want to study? I had prepared for these questions, so it was a relatively normal interview. At one point, Tim mentioned that the bass department was in need of people and that I played well, which made me quite nervous. I also noticed that there was an EP or album on the desk that someone had brought, and I suggested that learning from it might give extra points. In any case, the more comprehensive the preparation for the interview, the better.
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