To: Class B Band Directors
From: John Furrow & Keith Byrkit
RE: Class B All State Audition Material

Click Here for An application

            Hello and welcome back to another school year!  I hope you and your programs have gotten off to a great start for this year.  After much talking and deliberation I have the audition material and procedures ready to go for the first annual class B All-State Band!  If at anytime you have questions, please feel free to contact me and I will do my best to help you out…remember this is my first time as well!

            For our first year we will be at University of Nebraska at Omaha.  We will have one concert band and one jazz band.  We hope in the future that we may have a concert band and a symphonic wind ensemble as well as the jazz band.  The date for this event is Saturday, March 17th, 2007.

            The clinicians for this year are, Dr. James Saker, who will work with the concert band and Dr. Randy Neuharth, who will work with the jazz band.

            The due date for the audition tapes will be postmark of Friday, December 1st.  This will allow us time to get them accurately and professionally judged.  A letter of who was accepted into the groups will be sent out no later than January 15th  so that you may make the necessary arrangements.  If an email is provided, you will receive a n email as well as a hard copy in the mail

            There will be a $1 audition fee per student.  The cost once a student has been accepted will be $20.  This fee includes music, clinician, and facility costs.

            Students that are in grades 10, 11, 12 may audition for Class B All State Band.  Students may also audition for both the concert band and jazz band, however, if they are selected to both bands, they may only play in one.  They must also pay $1 for each audition.  On the application is a place to mark the preference of the student.  We will be using the following books and materials for auditions:

Watkins-Farnum Performance Scale Form A
Audition Etudes by Garwood Whaley
Ballenger Etudes and Jazz Etudes from NMEA

Audition Procedure:
You should tape auditions with the same instruments on the same tape…All flutes on one tape, clarinets on another, etc.  Each school will be given a code number.  ALWAYS USE THE CODE NUMBER TO IDENTIFY STUDENTS AND YOUR SCHOOL…NEVER USE YOUR SCHOOL NAME!  This will help in keeping the judging bias to a minimum.  The audition procedure is as follows:
                       
State your schools code
1st audition J.D. (Jane Doe…use first and last initials) on flute
Then play through the required audition material IN ORDER.  Skipping part of the audition or recording audition material out of order will result in a major loss of points.
Then repeat the process for the next auditions

Your schools audition code is: ________________________

Concert Band Audition Materials

Flutes:
Major Scales Bb (2 octaves) D (2 octaves)
Chromatic Scale C-Ab (2 plus octaves)
Watkins-Farnum # 9 & 11

Oboe/Bassoon:
Major Scales Bb (2 octaves) D (2 octaves)
Chromatic Scale C-C (2 octaves)
Watkins-Farnum #9 & 11

Clarinet/Alto Clarinet/Bass Clarinet
Major Scales C (2 octaves only for Soprano Clarinet) E (2 octaves)
Chromatic Scale F-F (2 octaves, soprano clarinet go one more octave if possible)
Watkins-Farnum #9 & 11

Alto Sax/Bari Sax
Major Scales D (2 octaves) Eb (2 octaves)
Chromatic Scale C-F (2 ½ octaves)
Watkins-Farnum # 9 & 11

Tenor Sax
Major Scales C (2 octaves) E (2 octaves)
Chromatic Scale C-F (2 ½ octaves)
Watkins-Farnum #9 & 11

French Horn
Major Scales F (2 octaves) A (1 octave)
Chromatic Scale F-F (2 octaves)
Watkins-Farnum #9 & 11

Trumpet/Baritone T.C.
Major Scales Bb (2 octaves) A (2 octaves)
Chromatic Scale C-C (2 octaves)
Watkins-Farnum #9 & 11
Trombone/Baritone B.C./Tuba
Major Scales F (2 octaves) G (2 octaves)
Chromatic Scale F-F (2 octaves)
Watkins-Farnum #9 & 11

Mallett Percussion
Major Scales Eb (2 octaves) D (2 octaves)
Chromatic Scale F-F (2 octaves)
Audition Etudes # 4 & 6

Battery Percussion
5 stroke, 9 stroke, 17 stroke rolls (open-closed-open)
Flam Paradiddle (4) Single Dragadiddle (4)
Watkins-Farnum #10 & 11

Timpani
Tune to a G
Tune to a Eb
Audition Etudes #4 & 9

Jazz Band Audition Material

Alto Sax/Bari Sax
C Blues scale (swing the notes)
Ballenger Etudes Fast Blues in F Etude for even years

Tenor Sax/Trumpet
F Blues scale (swing the notes)
Ballenger Etudes Fast Blues in F Etude for even years

Trombone
Eb Blues scale (swing the notes)
Ballenger Etudes Fast Blues in F Etude for even years

Trap Set
Ballenger Etudes Jazz Drum Set beats, letters B, E, G, & H per instructions in the book

Bass Guitar
Ballenger Etudes Jazz Bass numbers 1 & 3

Keyboard
Ballenger Etudes Jazz Keyboard numbers 1 & 2

Guitar
Ballenger Etudes Jazz Guitar numbers 1 & 2

If you have any questions about the audition materials and process, feel free to call one of  us.  We will meet sometime during the actual festival day to discuss how we can improve upon what we have set up.  Please keep in mind that this is the very 1st year for this event and we want it to be very successful and with input from everyone, positive or negative, will help improve and make this event better for all students involved.  We wish you and your students good luck in your preparations for auditions!

Click Here for an Application.

Musically Yours

John Furrow                                                                   
Norfolk Catholic Schools                                               
2300 Madison Ave.                                                       
Norfolk NE 68701
johnfurrow@ncknights.org

Keith Byrkit 
David City Public Schools   
750 “D” Street
David City, NE 68632
kbyrkit@esu7.org