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Hello,

I am looking for some good music for auditioning for the PSU Blue Band next year (I am currently enrolled at a PSU branch campus). I would have auditioned for it this year but the current situation made me reconsider, so I for goed the audition. I will be getting my tuba on Saturday and want something good to work on. My band director does not know brass well, so I have turned to you all for help looking for good audition music. Thank you for any suggestions you may have!

Connor H

I played some of Blue Bells of Scotland (a trombone piece, and an octave lower) for my marching band audition. I think the director was pleased to hear something a little different.

It’s a marching band and the director doesn’t know brass well. If you show up with your own tuba I would bet you’re in! In the meantime, anything melodic would be fine. Probably downright impressive. An etude would be more than sufficient. Rochut, Grigoriev, Blazevich, Tyrell. Best of luck.

Glad to hear you are hoping to audition for College Marching band! It's going to be one of the best parts of your college experience.

The first thing is definitely get to know what they expect at the audition.. Do they want to play Penn State's fight song or a special etude? If so focus on those.

If not...
Find a few varying styles of etudes from a Tyrell, Bordogni (Bell Canto), or Blazevich book. If you have not played out of any of those books I would personally suggest one of the first Bell Canto etudes for a slow and beautiful piece and then a contrasting piece from Blazevich's book (take a look at 19 and 21).

You don't need a fancy solo. It's considerably better to play an etude well and show strengths as a musician. Dont try to flex on your director with crazy double tounging and range but instead focus on your power and more importantly CONTROL as a tubist.

Make sure to include something that can show a command of TIME, as keeping a pulse is a major part of marching band what with the distance and the relatively slow speed of sound. I'd recommend Tyrell or Kopprasch for that

Do what I say, not what I did.

At one of my college auditions at Notre Dame, I practiced the required etudes. I played them okay. Sightreading was my strength back then, check that block.

I didn't practice scales. That was stupid - the scales portion would have been guaranteed points, if I'd just planned ahead. Harmonic and melodic minor scales? Major scales in outer keys? Crashed and burned.

That was needless, all I had to do was put the effort in. If you know what they want to hear, a little preparation goes a long way. (I didn't learn that lesson until long after.)