audition

I went for the audition purely because I wanted to know how far I could go. I was asked to:

1. Prepare pieces amounting to between 5 and 10 minutes from any genre/style
>>  I did not manage to practise because was at my mum's place when I knew about the audition date. I mentally prepared a baraque / classical / 20th century pieces, and some pop pieces. Luckily we ( I made yq drive me there with k) arrived there early and I was a given a soundproof room to practise whilst waiting. I played a Beethoven piece first (with lots of mistakes). He asked if I wanted to play other pieces but  I thought its better not to embarass myself furthur.

2. Sight-sing a tune
>> It was an easy one, so not too bad

3. Harmonise the same tune
>> Anyhow played chords to harmonise

4. Using the harmonies, improvise the melodic line.
>> I didn't quite understand what this meant. He said I could add anything to the melody (???), I tried twice with hardly any changes, and he said never mind.

5. A brief interview...
>> It was anything but brief. It lasted an hour!!
He started off by commenting that I was playing Beethoven Op2  No1. I tried very hard to peek a glance at the score but failed to see the title of the piece I was playing (but I verified later it really was Op2. No1.)  He asked me how I thought about Beethoven's earliest pieces as compared to his later pieces like the Op dunnowhat No dunnowhat. I sheepishly commented I am not sure of the titles of the pieces I played, so he played it out for me, but I dont recognize the piece. And obviously have nothing to comment on Beethoven's progressions to his Fantasies. Nor on how Mozart's influence on Beethoven. The last time I read about them was during preparation for my Dip more than 20 yrs ago. We had to do GP-style essays, so we did what we were taught perfectly in school- memorize and memorize other people's essays and regurgitate them during the actuals. Disgusting right?

He then asked me why I started harmonizing the tune in descending chords progression but later kept to the standard chords. I cooked up some excuse that I wasn't confident of doing the chords progression. In actual fact, it was just a gut feel when I played, and because the tune sounded so much like a church tune, i wasnt sure if it was appropriate to be too adventurous.

He asked where do I get my influence from, on the initial chord choices. I pluck off the air to say 'jazz' . He asked me which jazz pieces I listen to, I said Frank Sinatra. The discussion veered towards the big band and other jazz singers in that era, and touching on Michael Buble vs FS vs so and so... Honestly, i don't listen to that much jazz to even recognize the names that was being rattled off... the last straw came when he asked me point blank what's the relationship between jazz and beethoven.

Huh?

Me: Erh. No relationship?

Him: Are you sure?

Me: Actually, I listen more to pop music off the radios.

Him: Which pop? English/ Chinese? Taiwan / HongKong/ Korean? Who?

Me (softly): .... Jay Chou ......... Lee Hom.

Him: Oh, the guy whom plays the Cello? .. and Wang Lee Hom?

Yes yes...thankfully for a bespectacled non-Chinese professor like him, he actually knew whom Jay Chou was.We discussed wide ranging topics like how Jay likes to infuse Bach music to his pieces, music arrangement in pop pieces during teresa tseng's era , and power voices like whitney houston vs the newer generation of christina aguilera, alicia keys, to the kpop rap styles to rock metallic 4th chords, even on liang wenfu and the xinyao singers.. and I gushed about how much I admired Dick Lee and John Lee whom arranges the Vocaluptuous acapella pieces... even on puccini and symphonies.. before it ended on a more serious note on how music has its influence on the society.
 
 
I would say the entire experience was interesting rather than stressful, mainly because I had went in for the fun of it. It was also quite interesting to have a chat with someone whom has knowledge of a wide genre of music, and it did make me feel very much want to go back to school and do that little dream of mine of studying in a music school.  The last time I had this type of 'adrenalin' was in Berklee and in the small music school at Karlskrona where I took my violin classes.