How to prepare for an audition or exam

So our son is preparing to audition for a selective high school in year 7. The audition has two parts, an online video submission followed by a second round,  live audition. We are learning a lot about what it takes to knock an audition out of the park, and wanted to share. 

Your child’s (or your) first audition can be a stressful time. If like our son, you are shy and/or have limited performance experience, this is even more nerve racking. So how do you prepare yourself, or your child to succeed? For us it is coming down to three key things

Nailing an audition can be broken down into three buckets. Hitting the brief, perfecting the fundamentals, having a backup plan.

Hitting the Brief

Like any subject in school, if you don’t answer the question you cannot expect to get good marks. I remember having this drilled into us by our year 12 English Teacher - “The writing was great, but you didn't answer the question!” In music even if you smash it out of the park from a performance standpoint, if you don’t stick to the brief, you likely won’t get the part, or pass the test. 

So what is the brief? Simply put this is a written description of what the examiners, or the recruiters are looking for in their next drummer (or insert instrument here). In my son’s case there were some key areas the school has defined that his performance needs to demonstrate. In this brief they describe the need to play two songs, 2 to 3 minutes each, of contrasting styles that demonstrate a high performance quality, technical ability, intonation,  rhythmic accuracy, and overall musicality. These were provided to us as a dot point list, with zero elaboration, but let’s focus on a few and read between the lines. 

Contrasting Styles 

In this case the school clearly wants to see that your young drummer can do more than play rock. Versatility means a lot, and playing the Red Hot Chilli Peppers does not count as a contrasting style from (insert your favourite rock band here). Specifically, the school is expecting to hear a traditional rock or pop track, and perhaps jazz, blues, or swing. This is why our son is playing an Incubus track, followed by a more bluesy Dave Matthews Band piece. Musically these are different genres, and thus hit the brief. From their perspective, they want a drummer in their school who will want to participate in multiple performances, which include big bands, through to jazz, musicals, and rock clubs. This is a much better investment for them, than someone who can play just rock really well. 

Rhythmic Accuracy

This is a given for any drummer, and is covered in more depth in the “perfecting the fundamentals” section below. In short, it is much more important to hit the groove perfectly on an easier piece, than it is to showboat and scrape through on a harder one. 

Musicality

What exactly is musicality? For drummers this is typically broken down into four sub-areas, each of which you want to try and demonstrate during the exam (especially if it is in the brief). These include:

Understanding rhythm 

We have already covered this above to some extent, and will do some more below - but as a drummer, understanding rhythm is critical. This is the practical and accurate application of what is written on the drum score. This involves counting the notes, and making sure each note is struck perfectly in time. One of the most important strategies to develop rhythm in young drummers is to have them count out-a-loud as they play. 

Control

The next area of musicality is control. This has many definitions in itself, and is more than just striking the drum heads in the right spot - as many suggest. Control also includes elements of restraint, and for a developing drummer this sometimes means NOT adding additional fills. Control also includes using different parts of the cymbal like the bell, to emphasize certain notes. This is in part why my son has chosen “Grey Street” from The Dave Matthews Band, as it will require a lot of control while moving between different ride cymbal effects. 

Dynamics

Drums don’t always need to be ear-bleedingly loud. A good drummer needs to showcase their ability to control the volume of certain notes. Ghost notes on the snare are a good example of this, and when combined with rim shots etc, really show off the entire dynamic range of the drummer, and their drum set. 

Application of Rudiments

Rudiments are the cornerstone of drumming - and when combined make up most of what you hear on a drum kit. Drum examiners want to see young drummers apply these skills. Think of rudiments in a similar way to scales - in fact for anyone who has ever sat a piano exam knows that you will almost certainly be asked to play your scales… The drums are no different. 

Technical Ability

I often write about the importance of technique, and making sure your child has the foundations perfect before jumping in too deeply. For any musician, technique can serve as either a catalyst to life-long growth, or as a cause for plateauing. Examiners in particular will be looking for sticking technique, how a child holds the sticks, posture, cymbal technique, and a range of other things - single stroke rolls, doubles, and rudiments to name a few. 

Perfecting The Fundamentals

Mastering the Groove

This should go without saying - but the most important thing for any audition, or exam is to nail the groove. If your child cannot perfect this, then it is best for them to choose an easier piece. Remember that under pressure your child will almost certainly make mistakes, and if they are not able to recover immediately, or lose their rythymn entirely, then it is much harder to get back into a complicated groove. Play smarter, not harder. Playing an easier piece perfectly is always better than messing up a harder one entirely. 

Not embellishing the quiet parts

Examiners, and future band-mates want to make sure you are a team player, and can actually play the groove, fills, and other bits as they are written. While for you and your child, it might sound cool to add in lots of fills over the singer, or to perhaps sneak in additional crash or splash hits, this is typically frowned upon. Your job as the drummer is to make the rest of the band shine, and masking the singer with your fills is not a great way to win an examiner or band’s heart.

Hitting the fills, and accents

This is especially important if you decide to use a full backing track, as it is much harder to hide a mistake, or missing fill, when the real drummer can be heard in the background. Your child should work with their teacher to deconstruct each fill in the song, and learn to play these note for note if possible. While it is rare for an examiner at my son’s age to actually have the musical score available to them, there is a good chance that they will be familiar with the pieces your child plans to perform. As such, they will often expect that the fills be as close to the original recorded track as possible. That being said, there are some tracks where this just won’t be possible. It is OK in these situations to simplify a fill, and your child’s teacher should know how to do this in a way that isn’t detrimental to the overall feel of the song. 

Back Up Plans

It should go without saying that every plan needs a backup plan. If you are preparing for an exam or audition that requires you to perform two songs - reherse three.

If you lose confidence during the audition, or make a mistake mid-song, you need to think of ways to simplify and get back on beat. Your child’s drum teachers should be able to come up with strategies to do this, but often times it is as simple as leaving off a fill, or just stripping back to the groove.

Going Drumless or With an original backing track

As a footnote to this article I just wanted to discuss the differences between a drumless track, and an original backing track. For a young drummer, playing with the original drums left in place is far easier. This is simply because they have a reference to work with that can keep them in rhythm. However, it is much more difficult to hide mistakes when the original drum track can be heard. 

For examinations, and auditions, it is preferred of course to have a drumless version of the son, with some form of click track feedback into your child’s headphones. This isn’t always possible, but offers the best of both worlds. I will write an article soon on how to set this up, and the equipment you need to make that happen. 

For my son’s audition though, we will most likely use the original spotify track - as the facilities available to us at the school are limited. For the higher school certificate (our year 12 exams in Australia) we will look to invest in our own equipment. We will keep you posted of course.