<p>Instead of live auditions, some institutions allow you to send in a video or audio recording of your auditions. But how will they know that it’s really you performing? Especially with audio recordings, it seems really easy to record a recording, and then submit it as your own. Or you could record it and then edit any which way to make it sound perfect. How would anybody know that your tape is edited, or the recording is not your own? Or is it just an honesty system?</p>
<p>First off, if the recording was perfect, that would be the first key that there were issues. 18 year olds who are applying for conservatory level programs will be very good but there will be issues with the playing. If they were THAT good, they would already be well known in the music community. However, I do believe that many programs that allow audition by recording are going to ask for DVD if possible. It is a little harder to fake stuff on a DVD.</p>
<p>I believe that most colleges will only admit students after a live audition. the recording is just to be invited to audition live. Even if one was admited based solely upon a recording, a student who cheated on the recording would likely be discovered first semester of attendance.</p>
<p>I am very brave for even commenting on this subject.</p>
<p>Imagep, I will be gentle, it is possible for a prospective student audition by DVD for a number of schools. Not ideal but possible. Schools make allowances for distance and other circumstances. And to throw in another curveball, sometimes a regional audition with a school representative present is videotaped for review by faculty in lieu of an on campus audition.</p>
<p>Agree wth Shennie: An excellent recording will be detected immediately–if the auditoner is not well-known already, then the listener will know that it is almost certainly a fake. There is a huge difference between most excellent conservatory bound 17-year-olds and professionals who record. The resume and repertoire lists will also tell a tale–if you sound that good and haven’t won a major competition, then . . …</p>
<p>Also agree with musictwins: My son was accepted to one program with generous merit aid strictly on the basis of a recording. However, prolonged correspondence preceded the offer and the recording included video and the recording was definitely not perfect.</p>
<p>what about an edited recording? take piano for example. it wouldn’t take a lot to record the right and left hand separately and then putting it together to form 1 audio recording. how would anyone ever know?</p>
<p>First of all, more and more programs now require a DVD, not just a CD. I suspect within a couple of years, it will be all DVDs.</p>
<p>My son was admitted to a local state school’s music program via his prescreen DVD (the live audition was optional, and he was already accepted to higher choices on his list) and had the option of being evaluated solely on his prescreen DVD at at least one other school.</p>
<p>But I would assume that anyone who was accepted based on a faked CD… would flunk out rather promptly once in the program. So what would be the point?</p>
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<p>Nothing wrong with that, and the music world turns out to be so small that it might even work out! I suspect that there would be technical clues that inappropriate editing has taken place and certainly it would be obvious when the mediocre performer showed up on campus. Even if you could fake a flawless recording, many if not most, musicians would prefer to have their personal “style/voice/interpretation” shine through. It’s not really parallel to having someone take the SATs for you.</p>
<p>musictwins…I SAID “most of the time”!</p>
<p>Yes, there are exceptions to everything. You are talking about the exception, not the rule. </p>
<p>And while, sometimes they may record regional auditions, I really don’t know how how you would fake a recording that the college makes. </p>
<p>I once saw a two headed turtle. That doesn’t mean that “most turtles have two heads”.</p>
<p>WaterTastesGood,</p>
<p>Based on your comment, you definitely are not a pianist nor do you have pianist children.</p>
<p>And re: how could they tell…at my son’s school, most of those profs can even tell if you sweeten it with just a teeeeeensy bit of reverb on a recording, let alone edits. So I’m betting they actually could tell a fake pretty quickly ;)</p>
<p>And don’t forget the confluence of recommendations and repertoire in terms of verifying performance level.</p>
<p>Even if accepted on the basis of a recording, at some point it is put up or shut up, and academic dishonesty is no way to stay in the school one may have faked their way into.</p>
<p>Yes, imagep, you did say “most.” But countless more-than-reputable jazz programs including USC Thornton, Cal Arts, NYU Steinhardt (just off the top of my head; I know there are many, many more) WILL accept the prescreen AS the final audition, if the student can’t make it. Is it a good idea? Probably not the best in terms of acceptance and scholarship, but it is often enough allowed.</p>
<p>Luckily this information is available on the school’s websites.</p>
<p>A lot of schools will allow audio or video auditions if the student can’t make it even to a regional audition, and in recent years, with the influx of foreign music students, especially from Asia, it can be difficult to schedule auditions in person. I know of a couple of programs who had a lot of foreign applicants, who took to sending audition panels overseas to to regional auditions there (or at least that is what I have been told), that they weren’t happy with more then a few of the kids they admitted via video. Not necessarily cheating, could also be someone who legitimately submitted a recording, but in person turned out to not be as spectacular as though (among other things, someone who can do a great audition and otherwise is musically, well, not so interesting)</p>
<p>As far as can the people watching the recording/getting it tell if it is suspect, the answer is probably yes. Among other things, the playing style may not fit an 17 year old student,no matter how high level, or on a video recording you might see clues it was a dub job, like, for example, the recording sounding like the note was played on an open string while the recording showed it played on another string closed, and so forth, or seeing a really awkward bowing on the video and hearing perfect intonation. Keep in mind the people watching this have auditioned students for a lot of years and signs of fraud are going to stand out to them, kind of like watching a movie and picking out cgi generated lifeforms…there are also technical ways to scan a recording and see if it has been modified as well. </p>
<p>Sure, a recorded audition is unfair in that the auditioner could do X number of takes to get the recording right (though if they have fundamental technical issues, not likely to help that), as opposed to a live auditionee who has one shot to put himself/herself out there…but that is why audition panels also listen knowing about nervousness and the difference between a slip and a technical issue…</p>
<p>A lot of programs will in the end allow a recorded audition but they also don’t encourage it, I know of some programs that took recorded auditions in some cases where their website doesn’t even mention it…but in the end, it is better to do a live audition if humanly possible, my take is they prob give more weight to the live auditions then the recorded ones anyway, though kids playing at a really high level will get in either way I suspect. I suspect almost all if not all music programs would strongly prefer a live audition and will do everything they can to discourage taped auditions (live preferable to taped regional, both preferable to straight recorded).</p>
<p>Jazz, add UMich Jazz Improve to that list – they strongly strongly discourage it but will allow an upload or regionals if a student really can’t get there…this is to ensure in theory that access is available to students without fiscal means to audition (though how said students would pay for umich out of state or internationally is beyond me ;)</p>
<p>WaterTastesGood wrote: “what about an edited recording? take piano for example. it wouldn’t take a lot to record the right and left hand separately and then putting it together to form 1 audio recording. how would anyone ever know?”</p>
<p>If the left and right hands were recorded separately and then “put together,” the result would be genuinely awful. Without playing the hands simultaneously, the balance between the hands would fluctuate in bad ways. Notes that should sound at the exact same time would be fractions of a second off. Playing with the same amount of rubato would be very difficult. It would be difficult if not impossible to pedal both hands in the exact same way, making the editting very obvious (and the performance somewhat bizarre if not hideous). </p>
<p>As well, it would be difficult to play each hand musically without the aural presence of what the other hand produces. The hands depend on each other. How would one play a melody which switches between hands? The breaks would be conspicuous.</p>
<p>Asking a pianist to play a piece with a single hand is like asking a basketball player to play with moving only one side of their body and leaving the other side as immobile as possible–doable? yes, but with what result? Yes, I know that beginning piano students often learn their pieces hands separately, but these are trivial pieces and the purpose of hands separate is strictly for learning.</p>
<p>Certainly editting can remove imperfections, but not an editing that joins a right hand recorded independently from a left hand–that would just add a host of imperfections and also remove so much of the spirit which makes the notes into music. The sum is greater than the parts. It would be like recording the piano accompaniment to a violin sonata independently from the violin part and then joining them. Could it be done? Yes. Could it be done quite well? Yes, if both pianist and violinst were excellent musicians, but I’m sure the pianist and violinist would always choose to record together–they feed off of each other, just as a pianist’s hands do!</p>
<p>“Asking a pianist to play a piece with a single hand is like asking a basketball player to play with moving only one side of their body and leaving the other side as immobile as possible–doable? yes, but with what result? Yes, I know that beginning piano students often learn their pieces hands separately, but these are trivial pieces and the purpose of hands separate is strictly for learning” - violindad.</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure you could do this pretty successfully in a fugue, which is required at any major music school. I agree with you, it would not be easy, but theoretically it could be done with the different voices recorded separately, especially if using a metronome and if you’re going so far as to edit the whole file removing the metronome’s sound or using one with a light rather than a tick, etc wouldn’t be out of the question. This proves a serious potential flaw in the entire auditioning process, given that not everyone is a great fugue player and anyone auditioning for a good school would need to play one.</p>
<p>That sounds like it would take more effort than just learning to play the piece adequately :D</p>
<p>RoKr93, I think you’re right! Just saying, that’s the only way I can see in which in which that piano faking idea would be feasibly possible.</p>