Quality of pre-screen recordings

jazzpianodad
Fri, 22 May 2015 18:33:19 +0000

@ScreenName48105, my son knows at least seven kids (that I’m aware of) who submitted pre-screen recordings for the Juilliard jazz program this year and six of the seven made it through the pre-screen to the audition, so it does happen. (Five of the six who auditioned made it through callbacks, and two of those five were admitted.) However, none of the seven was a high school student auditioning for a freshman spot. Four were Columbia students applying for the Columbia-Juilliard exchange program, and the other three were seniors in other NYC music schools applying for the masters program, so they were all able to record at their schools.

I don’t know exactly what they used, but I do know that my son thinks that the Zoom does a good job – you probably don’t need anything fancier than that. I’m pretty sure that’s what my son used for his pre-screen recordings a few years ago, and he did fine with them. I also agree with others that having a good acoustic space in which to do the recording is helpful. I can see @jb1966’s point about the advantages of using a recording space where your son feels completely comfortable playing, but with a jazz pre-screen you need to line up the rhythm section, so it’s not possible just to set up a camera or mic in the back room of your house and have your son wander in to record whenever he feels like it. Good luck with everything!