College Auditions: Minor Scales?

Question:I will soon be embarking on a month of college auditions and am wondering- do the teachers routinely ask for minor scales at auditions? If so, natural, harmonic, or melodic most often? Or is it a mix of both?? (I play clarinet.)

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: I will soon be embarking on a month of college auditions and am wondering- do the teachers routinely ask for minor scales at auditions? If so, natural, harmonic, or melodic most often? Or is it a mix of both?? (I play clarinet.)

Yes, colleges expect them all - and they should be the *gimme* part of your audition - stare them down, musically, and sail thru. Go further - play scales in thirds, and patterns using scales. I teach my students Taffanel/Gaubert exercises for flute, which sail thru all kinds of scale patterns, all over the flute - then they are PREPARED!!

Knowing them all also shows that you are thorough, and not afraid of completing a long project. You will do all the grunt work to get to the glory. I have a diagram I call the COOKIE - it divides up an hour into segments, like taking bits of a cookie, and each represent an certain area of practice. Might sound corny, but it helps to make students laugh a little, and break the tension. With all the homework they have, sometimes they can do one cookie a night - sometimes 2 or 3 - but you have a plan, and you see growth.

I wish you all the luck in your auditions. My husband and I are both career music teachers who attended Hartt and Boston University; my son and his wife are both music teachers now, and they went to Temple University (PA), Villanova, and West Chester University. Life is good - and music makes it GREAT!

You should know your scales not only because they might ask for them but also because any solo repertoire you're playing probably makes use of those scales as well. You'll also find sight-reading a lot easier if you practice your scales (all of them, chromatics too!!). Good luck with your auditions, if you nail all your scales (good intonation, tone and rhythm) you will stick out in a good way!

I think (but I'm not sure) that the natural minor would be asked for the most, but you really need to know all of them. They are not that different from each other so learning them all is not that difficult.