The Wham Bam Big Band
The Wham Bam Big Band
  • About
  • Meet the Band
  • Little Band
  • Auditions
  • Media
    • Photos
    • Videos
    • Recordings
  • Contact Us
  • About
  • Meet the Band
  • Little Band
  • Auditions
  • Media
    • Photos
    • Videos
    • Recordings
  • Contact Us

Audition for the only student-run jazz ensemble at W&M!

Fall 2019
Auditions will be held on Friday 8/30, Saturday 8/31, and Sunday 9/1 from 9:00am to 5:00pm on all days. Each audition will be 15 minutes. Auditions will be held in the Music Building, Ewell Hall, in Room 207. That's the Band/Orchestra room upstairs; if you can't find it, text Bennett at 302-383-9168. If you'd like to audition and you cannot make either of those times, contact us and we'll work it out!
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Sign up for auditions at the Activities Fair in Kaplan Arena on Tuesday 8/27 from 7:00-9:00pm or Click here to go to our Google Doc and sign up!

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Wham Bam's top priorities this year are: Trumpet, Piano, Saxophone (Primarily tenor), Trombone, Guitar, and Electric Bass. However -  please come audition even if your instrument is not listed! We'd love to hear what you've got!

Our audition process differs depending on the instrument, but, as you would expect from a jazz ensemble, is centered around how good you are at your instrument. Acceptance to the group for horn players is based on tone quality, rhythm, technical ability, range, and sight-reading. For rhythm section players, acceptance is based on rhythm, style of playing, technical ability, and comping. If you know how to improvise, it will be a huge boost to your audition - but many of our current members did not improvise at their auditions - improvising is not required! If you plan to improvise, please bring your own Real Book or copy of a given piece. 

For those instruments not listed below, the auditions will vary, but will generally consist of a scale, sight-reading, a prepared piece (optional), and improvisation (from The Real Book).

Prepared pieces are in the PDFs below. Download it and print the page listed for your instrument: Bring a copy to your audition (we have extras, don't worry!)



Audition Pieces

Trumpet Audition Piece.pdf
File Size: 108 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

Alto Sax Audition Piece.pdf
File Size: 92 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

Tenor Sax Audition Piece.pdf
File Size: 96 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

Bari Sax Audition Piece.pdf
File Size: 68 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

Trombone Audition Piece.pdf
File Size: 50 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

Bass Audition Piece.pdf
File Size: 60 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

Guitar and Flute Audition Piece.pdf
File Size: 188 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

Horns

Saxophone
  • B Flat scale, 100 bpm, 2 octaves
  • Range test (chromatic: lowest - as high as you can)
  • Prepared piece
  • Sight-reading
  • Optional improvisation from any charts from The Real Book
Trombone
  • B Flat scale, 100 bpm, 2 octaves
  • Range test (chromatic: lowest - as high as you can)
  • Prepared piece
  • Sight-reading
  • Optional improvisation from any charts from The Real Book
Trumpet
  • B Flat scale, 100 bpm, 2 octaves
  • Range test (chromatic: lowest - as high as you can)
  • Prepared piece
  • Sight-reading
  • Optional improvisation from any                               charts from The Real Book

The Real Book Song list in the Vocals section ->



Rhythm

  • Guitar and Bass: Prepared piece
  • Piano and Drums: No prepared piece, just sight-reading and comping​
  • ​All sections: Comp 3 different styles (Swing, Straight 8, Bossa Nova) with other rhythm  section members

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Vocals

  • 2 songs from The Real Book in any key​ 
  • If you want to pick a different jazz vocal song, let us know ahead of time so we can get chord changes for it
  •  Song List
  • Our expectation is that you’ll be able to find your songs and learn them.
  • A copy of the real book can be borrowed from the Ewell Music library
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