Recorded Audition Vs Live Audition

ScreenName48105
Wed, 23 Mar 2016 13:05:40 +0000

It makes me crazy to learn that parents feel they must invest thousands to record prescreening auditions. That sort of burden in a process that is already very expensive, often prohibitively, is terribly unfair.

I agree and confess to being guilty of perpetuating the trend, but it’s what teachers and music directors around here are recommending and from talking to the guys at the recording studio, they seem to be doing a brisk business every audition season. For us though, being a jazz horn prescreen, hiring the rhythm section (piano, bass, drums) cost more than the studio time. I was originally on the fence about that, but had to agree with my son that expecting 3 friends to learn 10 songs when they’re trying to prepare for auditions themselves was unreasonable.

Still, not quite “thousands”, but about $1K for 5 hours of studio time and a professional rhythm section (3 musicians). Didn’t have to pay for any extra sound engineering/mixing because you can’t edit prescreens. Note that the pro’s we hired were musicians my son knows, so while they took a fee, I think they gave him a big break from their usual session rates. His teacher didn’t attend the recording session, so the guys helped guide him through some of the songs. Overall, much smoother and a lot less stressful than rehearsing/recording with a peer group.

In the end, I think going the pro recording route only made a difference for one school, perhaps two. The pro rhythm section (comparable to hiring an accompanist) was definitely worth it.