Entrance Audition Guidelines - An Overview:

 Our applicants possess a wide variety of musical backgrounds, and we encourage all interested candidates to schedule an audition as we pride ourselves on providing a personalized, flexible, and excellent percussive arts education to highly motivated individuals regardless of your particular musical interests.

Auditions for Music Major Status:

Following admission to the university, each prospective student must demonstrate certain musical proficiency levels in a percussion audition for admittance to the Dana School of Music. An on-campus audition is preferred, but a pre-recorded audition is possible pending Dr. Schaft's approval.

Audition and Scholarship Deadlines:

Visit the YSU Office of Financial Aid and Scholarship’s website for academic scholarship deadlines. For music scholarship consideration, you must complete your audition by the last published Dana audition day. Additional entrance auditions may occur throughout the year pending studio vacancies. Current majors are automatically re-considered for scholarship renewal and any scholarships that become available.

• Auditions last 30 minutes and are held in Dr. Schaft’s studio - 2234 Bliss Hall.
• Each candidate is provided a 30-minute warm-up immediately before the audition. Please check in at Dr. Schaft's office 30 minutes before your audition, and our audition proctor will take you to the warm-up studio. Both the audition and warm-up rooms are similarly equipped with a Malletech 5-octave marimba, a Malletech xylophone, a Musser vibraphone, congas, a drumset, 4 timpani, and concert snare drums. Bring your own sticks/mallets and an extra copy of your music for the audition committee. Please-no hard plastic or acrylic mallets on the xylophone, medium or hard marimba mallets, wood mallets on timpani, or loud playing in the low register of the marimba.
• For directions to campus, parking information, and help locating Dr. Schaft’s office, visit Directions, Parking, Map on the percussion website, percussion.ysu.edu

Each undergraduate percussion candidate is allotted a 30-minute audition.

• Performance: Choose approximately 15 minutes of music representing your highest musical achievements. We are interested in your potential, intrinsic motivation, commitment to becoming your best, and your musical achievement — especially your concept of motion/sound production, awareness of rhythm and pitch, and a sustained habit of productive practice. Memorization of repertoire is left to your discretion. Typically, a candidate’s percussion teacher will make recommendations in her/his weekly private lessons as to audition repertoire suitable for your level of achievement and this repertoire will be prepared months before your college auditions. If your private lesson teacher has not made recommendations, some standard repertoire pieces and books are listed below in “Repertoire requirements.”

• Interview: Consists of a review of your résumé, a discussion of your university goals and degree plans, your career goals, and answering your questions. Your résumé should include your contact information, any school-related musical experience, any other musical experience, your academic and musical honors and awards, your private percussion teacher names and how long you studied with each, and the names of three references, including their title/position, phone, and email. Your résumé may be submitted in print at the audition or emailed in-advance to Dr. Schaft as a PDF attachment with the subject heading "Audition Files.”

• Please demonstrate whatever experience you possess on various instruments, such as the snare drum, keyboard percussion, timpani, and drumset.
• Your audition should be prepared with the most qualified college preparatory teacher(s) available. Please contact Dr. Schaft for private lessons or teacher referrals.
• Prospective music education majors (B.M.E.) should ideally demonstrate a balanced instrumental experience, including snare, keyboard, timpani, and drumset.
• Prospective performance majors (B.M.) should demonstrate instrumental versatility and substantial achievement on one instrument.
• Prospective majors in Jazz Studies (B.M.J.) or Music Recording (B.M.R.) repertoire: similar to above, with significant drumset emphasis.
• Prospective jazz vibraphone majors (B.M.J.) should play a solo or étude and improvise over a blues and/or standard song form.
• Prospective Composition majors (B.M.C.) will perform a percussion audition and submit a portfolio of scores and recordings of representative compositions (use CD format).

We also like to assess pitch-aural skills in the interview part of the process via:

• Pitch matching — hum pitches (use syllable “la”) played for you on vibraphone 
• Sing, (solfege, scale degree numbers, or syllable “la”) major or natural minor scale and arpeggio one octave up and down.

Suggested solo or étude repertoire: 

Snare drum

• Orchestral style solo or étude: such as M. Peters' Advanced Snare Drum Studies # 1, 3, 5 9, A. Cirone's Portraits in Rhythm # 3, 4, 14, 15
• Rudimental-style solo selected from sources such as NAfME State Class A Adjudicated Event Snare Solo, or similar level repertoire such as Abel's "2040's Sortie," Pratt's "Drum Corps On Parade," "My Friend Norman," "Conquering Legions of Rome," or "Cider Jug," Wanamaker's "Hurricane" or "Bridgemen," Wilcoxon's "Battin Em Out," or trad. "Downfall of Paris."

Keyboard - marimba, xylophone, or vibraphone, piano accompaniment is not required 

• Two octave scales — chromatic scales, 12 major scales and arpeggios, 12 natural minor scales and arpeggios - two octaves
• OMEA Class A or B solo or étude of your choice — two or four mallets. Memorization is left to your discretion

Drumset

• Demonstrate timekeeping and soloing in various styles: swing, jazz waltz, Brazilian-bossa nova or samba, Afro-Cuban-mambo or songo, rock, and funk. Play 8-measure cycles; 4-bar time-feel groove and 4-bar solo, repeating this form

Timpani

• Two, three, or four drum solo or étude from: Peters – Fundamental Method for Timpani or similar (i.e., Goodman, Friese/Lepak, Carroll, Hochrainer)

Hand drums

• A brief solo on congas, djembe, frame drum.

If you’re submitting a recorded audition in lieu of an on-campus audition, include a spoken introduction including your name and the pieces and respective composer names of your prepared repertoire.

• Auditions last 60 minutes and are held in Dr. Schaft’s studio - 2234 Bliss Hall. 
• Each candidate is provided a 30-minute warm-up immediately before the audition. Please check in at Dr. Schaft's office 30 minutes before your audition, and our audition proctor will take you to the warm-up studio. Both the audition and warm-up rooms are similarly equipped with a Malletech 5-octave marimba, a Malletech xylophone, a Musser vibraphone, congas, a drumset, 4 timpani, and concert snare drums. Bring your own sticks/mallets and an extra copy of your music for the audition committee. Please-no hard plastic or acrylic mallets on the xylophone, medium or hard marimba mallets, wood mallets on the timpani, or loud playing in the low register of the marimba.
• For directions to campus, parking information, and help locating Dr. Schaft’s office, visit Directions, Parking, Map on the percussion website, percussion.ysu.edu.

Each graduate percussion candidate is allotted a 60-minute audition.

Performance

Snare drum

• Two advanced solos or études of contrasting styles

Marimba

• Two-mallet solo and four-mallet solo

Orchestral excerpts

• Two selections each for snare drum, xylophone, glockenspiel, timpani

Drumset

• Groove styles

Additional repertoire options

• Vibraphone solo
• Multiple percussion solo (submit pre-recorded file)
• Hand drum solo

Interview

Consists of a review your résumé, a discussion of your university goals and degree plans, your career goals, and answering your questions. Your résumé should include your contact information, any school-related musical experience, any other musical experience, your academic and musical honors and awards, your private percussion teacher names and how long you studied with each, and the names of three references, including their title/position, phone, and email. Your résumé may be submitted in print at the audition or emailed in-advance to Dr. Schaft as a PDF attachment with the subject heading "Audition Files.”

If you’re submitting a recorded audition in lieu of an on-campus audition, include a spoken introduction including your name and the pieces and respective composer names of your prepared repertoire.