How to Ace Your Virtual College Auditions – The Best Tech Gear and Settings
If you’re applying to music school this year, it’s very likely you’ll go through a virtual college audition.
The past year has been like no other, and due to covid most music schools and conservatories are holding virtual college auditions this year, and you’ll need to either submit recordings or perform live over Zoom.
No matter what type of audition you complete, I’ll help you through it!
WATCH THE VIDEO HERE!
A few tips…
The general audition tips you’ve heard before still apply to virtual college auditions.
Get a good night’s sleep and eat some breakfast. You don’t need to eat something large, just get some food in you. Get warmed up and do whatever you need to do to get comfortable before your audition. Plan ahead and leave yourself enough time in case anything goes wrong.
Remember that while your college auditions are important, it’s much different from orchestra job auditions. The committee wants you to do well, and they want students to join their school! Your audition likely won’t be 100% perfect, and that’s okay. Try your best, and have fun making music!
Recorded Auditions
If you’re submitting recordings for your auditions, you want to be sure to use the best equipment you have, no matter what that is. You want to submit the highest quality video that you can.
Camera
Last year, I used my phone, a OnePlus 6, to record all of my Youtube videos, and the quality was really good. Most smartphones made within the last few years can recorded in 4k or 1080p, which are the best resolutions to choose from.
If you need to record with a laptop webcam, it’ll most likely record in 720p, but if that’s what you’re working with, that’s okay!
You can also use a tablet to record–the quality will most likely be somewhere between a phone and a laptop.
I just started filming with a Panasonic GH5, which is a great camera for video! If you have a DSLR camera that takes nice videos, that option is the best, however the audition committee won’t be expecting a professional quality production. Work with what you’ve got!
Microphone
If you don’t have access to a microphone, the built-in microphone of whatever camera you’re using will do the trick, however dynamics and fine details won’t come through as well.
For the last few years, I made recordings with my Samson Go Mic. It’s $49 on Amazon, and it’s great for the price! It’s a USB mic, so it plugs into and works with any laptop or tech with a USB port.
The best option is a high quality mic with an interface. I didn’t have one until last spring, and no one would expect a high school student to own a microphone of this caliber. However, if you have access to this equipment and know how to use it, this will give you the best result!
Background
For your college audition recording, it’s best to choose a plain wall as your background. As someone with a lot of decorations, I understand how difficult this can be. If you can’t find a plain background to record in front of, work with what you’ve got!
This is a weird time and most of us are stuck at home–the audition committee will understand that! Just make sure nothing in your background is embarrassing or too unprofessional.
Lighting
When choosing your recording location, do consider the lighting. I like to record with a window in front of me so I have mostly natural lighting in my video, since most cameras (especially phone cameras) pick up natural lighting a lot better than artificial lighting.
If the space isn’t bright enough, move around some lamps to add in some light! You want the video to be bright enough that the viewers can easily see what you’re doing.
Getting ready to record
To lessen the stress of recording, consider scheduling multiple recording sessions. Knowing that you have more than one shot to get it right can help you feel a lot more comfortable when you play, and it lowers the stakes. Having multiple sessions will also help you get more comfortable with your recording equipment so you can get the highest quality you’re capable of.
If you’re super nervous to record your audition, start recording your practice sessions regularly. This will get you more comfortable playing in front of the camera, and again it lowers the stakes of your final recording. I found that when I made my Reger practice vlogs, I had no trouble recording my recital video since I had recorded almost all of my practice sessions–it felt no different from any other time!
Editing Your Recording
It’s best practice to not edit your audition videos, even if the requirements don’t mention it. I have edited the beginnings and ends of my videos with a nice fade in/fade out, but if the audition committee is strict, you could risk being disqualified for making edits.
If you edit the beginning and the end, how will they know you haven’t edited anything else? It’s safest to just submit an unedited video that you’re happy with. The committee can always skip through you getting set up at the start!
Want to go above and beyond? Here are my best tips to make a great recording at home!
Live Virtual College Auditions on Zoom
If you’re auditioning live over Zoom, you’ll want to be sure you have the correct settings so the committee can experience your playing in the highest quality! It can help to have a webcam and an external microphone, so let’s talk about those first!
Webcam
I have a 2015 Macbook Pro with the Retina display, and there’s a bit of a problem with my screen where parts of the coating are wearing off. It recently started creeping onto the built-in camera, so in August I bought a webcam from Amazon. It was $30, and I’m happy with it! It’s 1080p and has a wide angle, so my teachers can see much more of me when I play than they could when I used my built-in camera. It easily sits on my laptop, and you can even set it up on a tripod! The quality is so much nicer than the built-in camera. Watch my video to see the comparison!
Video Settings
If you’re using a webcam, be sure that that is the camera selected in Zoom. For me, it looks like this:
Microphone
The same microphone tips I suggested for recorded auditions apply for Zoom auditions, too! For lessons, I use a Shure microphone with a Focusrite interface, which is pretty pricey. For teaching, I use my Samson Go Mic, which has a USB plug so it’s very easy to use!
Audio Settings
Always double check that Zoom is using your best mic! Go to the arrow by the Mute button to pull up the audio settings. Be sure that the Speaker is the correct output (I’ve had many problems with this!) and that the Microphone is the one you intend to use. You can adjust the gain with the “Input Volume” slider. Adjust it higher if you’re too quiet, and lower if you’re not loud enough.
Important audio settings for musicians!
For our instruments to sound good over Zoom, we want to be sure that we have a few key settings in place:
Make sure “Automatically adjust microphone volume” is unchecked. This setting levels out all sound (so say goodbye to any dynamics!) and sometimes it can entirely block out the sound of your instrument.
Suppress background noise should be set to low – again, if it’s set any higher certain notes (or even all of your playing) can be detected as “background noise” and Zoom will block it out!
Be sure “High Fidelity Music Mode” is checked. This setting was added in September, 2020, and helps boost the quality for musicians!
Internet Connection
You’ll want to use the best internet connection available to you. I (and most musicians) prefer to use an ethernet cable to access the fastest internet speeds we have. Wifi can be spotty, and an unstable connection can lower the sound quality of your performance and can slow down and speed up your playing.
My laptop doesn’t have an ethernet port, so I had to buy a dongle for it. What’s nice about the dongle is that its a USB plug but adds three USB ports, so I’m really gaining two, in addition to gaining the ethernet port.
I won’t link the one I have though, because it does slow down any USB tech that’s plugged into it. Because of my setup, I need to plug my webcam into this dongle, and it often freezes, whereas my webcam never freezes if it’s plugged into one of the native USB ports on my laptop.
How to prepare for your Zoom audition
A few people I follow on Instagram have created “Zoom practice rooms” where musicians meet on Zoom and practice with their cameras on but their mics muted. This provides a community and a way to feel like you’re practicing around others, similar to using a practice room at school!
While this is great for many reasons, if you’re not comfortable with Zoom, joining a practice room would help you learn the software and get accustomed to playing on camera with others up on the screen, similar to what you’ll see in your live audition!
You can also have mock auditions on Zoom! This would be very helpful because you can make this about as close to the real thing as you can, more so than you could for regular, in person auditions! Have anyone and everyone willing to listen to you do so, and it would be even more effective if you play for more than one person at a time, since the audition committee will likely be more than just one person. Getting used to playing over Zoom will help you feel a lot more comfortable at your audition, since you’ve done it so many times before!
How to dress for your Zoom audition
Even though your audition is over Zoom, it’s still a professional appointment and should be treated as such. I recommend dressing the same as you would for an in-person audition–performance/interview attire is best. Of course, be sure that whatever you choose to wear is comfortable to play in.
Want some personalized help?
I’m happy to share that I offer College Audition Check-ins! If you or your student would like extra support choosing audition repertoire, finding schools to consider, would like mock auditions, or just want to talk about the process as a whole, I would be happy to help! Check out my website for more details and to sign up.
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