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I've noticed that all of the service bands require sight-reading for auditions. For the DC bands, what pieces are used for the sight-reading usually? The Field Band awhile back used a single etude. Is that normal, or is it normally a bunch of band pieces?

Sean, I've noticed in the archives that you sometimes put quotation marks around "sight-reading" when you've refered to it in these auditions. Does that mean there are pieces one should work on in prep for a sight-reading portion of a band audition?

Auditions I've been involved with try to use obscure excerpts or newly written stuff for sight-reading. Anything goes, as long as there's a point to it and not just random bleep-blop.

Also, you'd be surprised how many people step all over simple 6/8 meter.

The auditions I have taken and my wife have taken have usually been a mixed bag of the obscure and the standards. I saw very very few things which I had not seen before or at least knew i should know. Stuff like warhorse overture transcriptions of Weber and the like. Also the typical quick marches like Barnum and Baileys. Also pay attention to the more challenging band standards like James Barnes and Claude T Smith. Of course the most obvious composer which was on just about every audition is Holst and the Hindemith Symphony.

There are several books of compilations floating around. Basically anything with loads of accidentals, odd intervals, changing keys, funky meters and rhythms, exposed tuba solo, fast and technical, slow and melodic.

If you can obtain access to your band library for a week or so, then make a project out of it with some fellow students. Start with A and work your way to Z. Look at every tuba part. If it is anything more than easy oompah stuff then photo copy it and add it to the binder. When you get several hundred pages of stuff in multiple binders than you have enough material to really dig into the sight reading.

For the stuff in there which is particularly tricky to sight read like Circus Polka or some of the Claude T Smith stuff, spend some additional time working through the tricky licks apart from your dedicated sight reading time.

Part of this aspect of learning the "sight reading" literature is to familiarize yourself with the correct styles and tempos of known tunes. An important part of sight reading in an audition is to convince the committee you know the tune and how it goes, not just the ability to play the notes. Most everyone on the committee will have performed the music being put in front of you even if you have not. Wrong notes and wrong tempos stick out like a sore thumb. Think of it as going to a double bass recital and listening to the Vaughan Williams Tuba Concerto. You hear several wrong notes or a style which is outside what is in you head and it sounds wrong. The string bass students might not notice so much. You gotta sound the part.

Sight reading should be practiced as it is performed. In other words, open the page, spend 30 seconds or so looking it over making mental notes of the technical stuff like notes, accidentals, key signature, time sig, glance at tricky rhythms, check all dynamic and time changes like crecendos and accellerandos. And of course spend the last few seconds focussing on the MUSIC aspect. Sing the tune to yourself and then sing it through the horn.

After you play through the tune WITHOUT stopping you might spend 10 seconds glancing at what you missed and remembering it for later to break it down in other practice. Then TURN THE PAGE and CONTINUE. In an audition you don't go back and try again unless asked to. Your goal is not to be asked to try again. You want to convince them the first time.

I have also recorded myself sight reading and it is also VERY revealing how neglectful we can become of the MUSIC aspect of the MUSIC we are trying to stumble through at tempo sight unseen. While it is paramount that you are technically accurate, DON'T neglect the music. Those who can play all the notes AND convey a convincing musical line at the same time REALLY stand out.

Fortunatelly or unfortunatelly sight reading in many auditions turns into a scoring system of who gets the best batting average. It is not always about who has the best ideas, but who hits the most correct pitches at the most correct time. This is the paradox.

WoodSheddin wrote: ...
An important part of sight reading in an audition is to convince the committee you know the tune and how it goes, not just the ability to play the notes. Most everyone on the committee will have performed the music being put in front of you even if you have not. Wrong notes and wrong tempos stick out like a sore thumb. Think of it as going to a double bass recital and listening to the Vaughan Williams Tuba Concerto. You hear several wrong notes or a style which is outside what is in you head and it sounds wrong. You gotta sound the part.
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This whole post should be required reading before an audition for any job, military, band, or orchestral!