13 Essential Audition Tips for Bass Players /// Scott's Bass Lessons

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In this lesson Scott gives you some great tips on how to best prepare for auditions and some advice to help you out at the audition itself. How you prepare for an audition can have a large impact on how you perform on the day. Being fully prepared not only allows you to perform to the best of your ability but it can also help you to stay relaxed, in what can be a pressurised environment.

During the lesson Scott talks about writing charts out for the songs. Even if your intention is to learn to play the songs from memory it is still worth charting them to speed up the memorisation process and to better understand the harmony being used.

The reason why charting & analysing harmony helps you memorise songs is to do with how your brain works. The best way to understand this is to think of the neutrons in your brain being interconnected like a spider’s web. When you connect new information with the existing information in the web it strengthens the web as a whole. So for example if you recognise that the song has an 8 bar verse and there is a II-V-I progression in the chorus, you will be taking the new concept of the song and connecting it up to these existing ideas. Approaching songs this way can greatly increase how quickly you can pick up new material.

There are also other benefits to writing charts, such as the memorisation benefits of writing something down as well as the visual aspect of being able to see the “layout” of the song. When it comes to the actual audition it’s also useful to have something visual to refer to. It’s much easier to talk about the hits at the end of bar 5 of the verse if you can see the structure written out.

Like with anything there are a number ways to approach memorisation and as Scott mentions, simply listening to the songs can be invaluable. Your subconscious mind is a powerful tool and listening to the material is something you can do while you go about your daily life. While it isn’t as effective as time spent with your bass in your hands, using both of these methods together will really ensure you know the material well.

Using the lyrics is another subject area that Scott touches on. Not only is this great for really getting a feel of what the singer is trying to convey to the audience with their song, it can also be another great tool for memorisation. With most sets of songs you learn there will always be that one section change that you miss every time. In these instances making a note on your chord chart of the lyrics that take place just before the change can help cue you as to where it is. This is particularly helpful for songs with an unusual structure or number of bars in a section.

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Video Breakdown:

00:00 - Introduction to Audition Preparation
01:05 - Importance of Being Fully Prepared
02:10 - Writing Charts to Learn Songs
03:25 - Analysing Harmony for Faster Memorisation
05:00 - Visual Benefits of Charts in Auditions
06:10 - Listening as a Memorisation Tool
07:20 - Using Lyrics to Support Memory
08:40 - Handling Tricky Section Changes
10:00 - Standing Up for Your Time as a Musician
11:30 - Managing Rejection and Learning from Failure
13:00 - Conclusion

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