Auditions at Leeds College of Music: QUESTIONS?

Hi there!
I'm auditioning for the Jazz (Piano) and Production course on Friday and I was just going through my portfolio, what sort of things are you hoping to see? Also, how are we able to present them? The letter, while very helpful on everything else, didn't cover much for the portfolio
Looking forward to hearing back!

Hello!

You'll be presenting your portfolio as part of your Production interview if I'm not mistaken, it should state that somewhere on the letter you were sent. Your Jazz interview will be based around your piano playing, with a short interview either before or after you play.

I recommend you bring your portfolio in a variety of different formats, both for preparedness and for backup purposes. It depends on what you're bringing the Production lecturers to show; you may want to bring in CDs, a flash drive, a laptop, sheet music (depending on what applies), I do recommend you bring your portfolio in a number of different capacities. They may have a computer in your interview room with which to open any files or recordings from your flash drive, but then again they may not - prepare for every scenario.

Is there anything else you'd like to know?
Liam

Hi Liam,
Thanks for your reply, very helpful
It was outlined that the production and jazz audition and interview were separate audition, I have been trying to record video footage of individual aspects of my works but my screen recorders aren't co-operating with any of the DAW's I've used, so I'm going for a paper based portfolio with screenshots and notes, sheet music and photos of set ups etc, with a flash drive and CD with audio.

Just wondered if you had any advice for the audition, what sort of things they're particularly looking for?
Many thanks,
Jon

Hi Liam,

I am auditioning for the BA (Hons) Popular with Guitar in early April '16.

I attended the invitation day yesterday (14/03/16) and forgot to ask a few important questions...

1) How does the band task part of the audition really work? Will i be put with applicants or musicians already taking the course? Will we be given random genres of music to work on for the 20-25 minutes ?

2) What sort of theoretical questions will i be asked with the guitar? Scales? Modes? Chords? I have done my grade 5 theory so i have a good understanding of chords, inversions etc.

3) I am having difficulty choosing a second song for my audition. My first song is an Eric Clapton blues instrumental (backing track included) which is mostly improvised, which can be the piece i can put my own stamp on. However, after reading the audition guide some time ago, one of the pieces I play to the panel should be original. Is this strictly true? Would I be able to do another song cover and put my own stamp on it rather than create an original? I'm struggling to this day to think of ideas as i want to do a Ska/Reggae track (Blues and Ska being my favourite genres). But i find Ska/Reggae fairly straight forward to play (guitar wise) and i'm thinking it will seem to easy with the grade 8 standard thing...

Any help will be greatly appreciated

Kind Regards

Harry

Hi Liam,

Thanks for your reply,

The invitation day was very helpful and I particularly enjoyed listening to the contemporary pop choir.

I appreciate you won't be able to give out full details about the audition itself but I now have a better understanding about how the audition day will work.

If you can let me know about the song choices it would be greatly appreciated.

I have no further questions to ask but i shall post on this discussion if anything pops to mind.

Thank you for all your help!

Harry

Have you got an audition at Leeds College of Music coming up this academic year? If you have any questions that you'd like answering prior to your interview, feel free to ask on this thread

We can't wait to meet you!

I auditioned for the (BA) Popular Music degree at Leeds on 19th December 2016. Although I'm aware you have to take the christmas holidays into consideration, it's now february and I still haven't heard anything, despite the University policies stating applicants should find out within 2 weeks, and if not, a letter apologising for the delay would be sent out. I'm unsure whether I should email the Uni, or trust that a response will be sent out soon. I don't mind waiting, it's just a bit stressful not knowing when I'm going to find out, as I'm pinning most of my hopes on Leeds Uni and wouldn't audition elsewhere if I got a place at Leeds. Is it normal for confirmation of getting in/ getting rejected from Uni to take this long?

Has anyone else had this problem?