A Successful Guide for a Guitar Audition at the Worlds Best Music College - Matias T Rengel - Preview

Dedicated to my love, Lourdes

Table of Contents Acknowledgments Preface

8 9

Berklee College of Music What is Berklee? What it offers What you will find How to study at Berklee College of Music

11 12 13 14

Audition & Interview How it works Audition testimonies

22 24

Prepared Piece Style Structure Length of the piece The thing about Vai, Malmsteen, Satriani, etc songs Cultural pieces Arrange other Print your prepared piece Record your piece So, what should I play? Prepare a second piece About the audition Schedule

33 34 43 45 46 46 47 47 48 49 49 50

Ear Training Introduction Where do I start? Call & Response: How to prepare for it Practice time: Ear Master Pro Instrument Call & Response: How to practice it Practice time: Instrument Call & Response Solfege and Call & Response Practice time: Solfege Chords Practice time: Chords About the audition

51 51 53 57 58 60 60 62 62 63 63

Sight Reading Introduction Sight Reading: How to prepare for it What to read How to read Practice time: Melodic reading If you cannot find any book Chords Chords: How to practice them Practice Time: Chords About the audition

65 66 68 70 71 72 74 78 81 83

Improvisation Introduction Your Prepared Piece and Improvisation Section Improvisation: where to start And, how do I improvise? The Understanding section The Listening section The Practicing section Chords Practice time: Improvisation About the audition

86 86 87 91 92 94 94 96 96 97

The interview Preparing for the Interview

99

Preparation and Tips Mental Preparation Tips for the Big Day!

101 104

 About the Author

108

Acknowledgments I would like to thank the following people for making this book possible: 

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My parents who always supported me in every aspect of my musical career. Thank you Mom and Dad for making my Berklee dream come true. My girlfriend Lourdes Quinzano for her constant support, help and motivation during the book-writing process. Linda M. Hurst from Columbia, Tennessee for her neverending-help in the book and my Berklee Trip. Mauro José Vigliotti for the Cover Design, the book website design and his friendship. Alvaro Quinteros for sharing all his musical knowledge with me and preparing me for the Berklee Audition Sara Isabel López, who took the time to proofread the book. Gonzalo Herrera for the Cover Photo. Francisco Bulacio, the Cover Model. Jhonatan Szpekman, who lent me his guitar for the cover photo. My brothers, Gonzalo and Ramiro, and my sisters, Romina and Julieta, for all their support.

Preface I auditioned for Berklee on December 6, 2008. After exploring the magical city of Boston for a few days, I went to Columbia, Tennessee to visit an old friend of Mom. I found Tennessee to be a very nice place, calm and relaxing; I had a lot of decided to upload a new video to YouTube. I grabbed the camera, played the original song I chose for my Berklee Audition, and just a few days later I found myself answering questions about the audition process and helping people all over the internet get ready for it. I wonderful. By the end of April 2009, after I had received my acceptance letter from Berklee College of Music and my YouTube video had gotten very popular; I began receiving messages from people who wanted to know how I had prepared for the audition, what books I had used, etc. That is when I realized that many

Berklee audition experience, my musical training, all the questions and comments on my YouTube videos, and pulled them together in a book to help applicants around the world be ready for the audition; A Successful Guide for a Guitar Audition at the

This guide is the result of years of formal music training. It has been developed combining my formal studies, my study routine for the audition and my audition experience, with all the comments

and questions that people sent me and the audition guidelines from www.berklee.edu. This book attempts to guide the reader through the required steps to accomplish a guitar audition at Berklee College of Music. It must not be read in one sitting; during the study process, the reader should always carry the book.

About the Author Matias Rengel is a musician from Tucuman, Argentina. He has been accepted to Berklee College of Music and received a scholarship based on both the Audition & Interview process and the Berklee Writing and Composition Scholarship. He has been a Music Teacher since 2004, offering lessons on Guitar Techniques, Harmony, Arrangement, Composition, Ear training, Sight Reading, Solfege and Improvisation. He has recently become a World Teacher by accepting students from all over the world via webcam. As an accepted student to Berklee College of Music, he has offered Full Preparation for a Guitar Audition. He has toured and recorded with his own groups, where he enjoyed writing and performing his original compositions; ranging in style from Jazz, Funk, Blues, and Fusion, to Rock, Reggae, Progressive Rock, Latin Music and Electronic, among many others. Thanks to the Internet, and websites like YouTube and MySpace, he was able to share every detail of his Berklee Experience with the world; helping many other musicians by constantly answering questions about Berklee and the audition process. He has been a Full-Time Musician for a long time, available as a Teacher, Session Guitarist, Composer, Arranger and Band Member.