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Listed below are the audition procedures as well as the various audition requirements/repertoire for each degree level.

Prescreening Procedures

• All jazz applicants are required to submit a CD (no mini disks) with the application for prescreening purposes, in order to receive an invitation to a live audition in New York City. It is not required that the format be a professional or studio recording, but the sound quality must be as good as possible.
• Repertoire for the prescreening recording must demonstrate the ability to improvise and play with a rhythm section, using a live band or play-along recording.
  
  1. Three required scales (must be first on the tape). Scales may be sung in any key, and must be one octave, ascending and descending, and sung with letters, syllables or on la;
  • diatonic major scale
  • harmonic minor scale
  • whole tone scale
  2. Standard ballad. First eight bars sung a cappella, then in a ballad tempo (accompanied).
  3. Jazz standard (medium or up tempo). Perform two choruses, with the first 8 bars of the second chorus to be improvised, using either scat syllables or altering the melody by choosing notes that demonstrate an awareness of the harmony.
     NOTE: standards should be selected from the songbooks of composers such as Gershwin, Ellington, Arlen, Rodgers & Hart, Kern, Berlin, etc.
  4. Two additional selections of contrasting nature.
     

Audition Procedures

• Applicants who pass the prescreening portion of the audition will be invited for a live audition in New York City.
• All auditions are approximately 10 minutes in length. Each applicant chooses his/her first work, and the faculty will choose a second and possibly third work from the audition repertoire list provided by the applicant.
• Rhythm section, amplifiers, and a drum set (without cymbals) will be provided. Applicants must provide music for the trio. Auditioning students may provide their own rhythm section players if they choose.
• Applicants with piano skills are encouraged to accompany themselves.
• Play-along recordings are not acceptable for a live audition.

Graduate Audition Requirements

1. All of the pre-screening requirements PLUS:
2. Six additional works of contrasting nature, one of which must be another ballad (for a total of ten songs, two of which must be ballads) from memory.
   
3. Sight-reading.
4. Create an improvisation over rhythm changes.