Auditions

Dear Future Legacy Band Members,

We are extremely excited that you will be joining us as a member of the Tyler Legacy High School Red Raider band next year!  We believe that we have the best band in East Texas and in order to continue that we need amazing students and musicians like yourself.

We know that many of you might feel a little anxious or uncertain about joining band in high school; however, we are here to help you.  We will work on the music with you until you understand it and will work with you on your marching until you are just as good as the seniors.  Our number one priority as band directors is to make you as successful as possible and have fun while doing it.

We treat this band like our own families.  We want you to feel safe and happy when you are with us and we know that our current students feel the same way.  Band is a great way to make new friends and since we start band in the summer, you will have over two hundred new friends on the first day of school.

When you audition for us, just do your absolute best.  We just want students who have great attitudes and are willing to try their best.  We just want students who have great attitudes and are willing to try their best.  If you are willing to do that, then we will teach you everything else that you need to know.

We hope to see you at auditions and again in the summer!

How to Prepare for your Audition for the Red Raider Band!

All 8th graders will be required to audition for a band at Tyler Legacy High School.  This audition will help us place you in the best band for your ability level.  No matter what, you will make a band as long as you have a great attitude and try your best!  We just want to make sure that we put you in the best band that will help you grow as a musician.

For your audition, you will be required to do three things:

You will play as many scales as you can.

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You will be asked to play an etude.
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You will be asked to sight read a small line of music.

Below we have given some strategies and recommendations so you can be prepared for that audition and feel successful!  Remember that your band director as well as all the directors at Tyler Legacy High School are available to you anytime you have questions or need help.

Scales

Scales are some of the most important things that you can learn while becoming a musician!  They are important because you will learn every note on your instrument and all music is based off of scales.  I bet that if you took out some music that you are learning in band right now, you could find a passage that is similar to these scales.

Some things to know before you start learning scale:

Look at your key signature!  Then go through and mark any of the flats or sharps.

All scales have the same rhythm.  So once you know the rhythm, all you have to play is the correct notes!

Learn as many scales as possible and start slowly.

For the chromatic scales, we’ve given you an exercise to help you learn some of the notes in small chunks.  The chromatic is extremely important and should be practice daily!  If you are a woodwind player, we’ve given you some tips on that page on how to play some of the notes!  Your goal should be to be able to play Chromatic Scale #3; however, it’s important that you learn at least one of them.

How to Sight-Read

Sight Reading is a crucial part of being a musician!  Your goal should be to be able to read a piece of music right when it is given to you.  Sight Reading will also be part of your audition for the High School Band!  Here are some tips for Sight Reading:

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Check your key signature first!
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Check your time signature!
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When studying the music, do the following things to help you with right notes and rhythms:

Tap you foot to make sure you keep a steady tempo.

Have your instrument up near playing position and finger along with the music to learn all the right notes.

Count the rhythms at a whisper!  This is very important to get the right rhythms.  Sizzling, humming, or just looking at the music will lead to mistakes.

Go through the entire line right away and if you have time leftover, find the most difficult parts and go over them until you run our of time.  YOu will have a total of 30 seconds to look at the line of music.

Preparing the Etude

An etude is a piece of music that allows us to test you on rhythmic understanding, note reading, dynamics, and understanding the style of the piece.  You will receive lots of help from your band director and the directors at Tyler Legacy HS will also come and work on the music with you.  Here are some tips to help you be prepared for this etude:

Practice everyday!  Even if you have other things to do, 10 mins is better than nothing.

Practice with a metronome.  One thing we will check for is your ability to stay in tempo.

Practice slowly!!!  If you practice too fast then you will learn wrong notes and develop bad habits.  If you practice slowly then you are only practicing the right things.

Play your etude for your friends and family!  Performing often will help you eliminate any nerves when it comes to the audition.

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Double check your key signature.
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Remember we want to see effort!  If we can see that you’re trying and working hard, you will be very successful.

You are required to play at least the theme and variation 1 in the etude; however, the more of it that you play well, the higher chance you will have of making a top band.