Jazz Auditions

For All Auditions, Regardless of Ensemble

All-State Audition Requirements for 2025
2025 All-State Audition Video Tutorials (courtesy of MacPhail Center for Music). We are using ETUDE SET 1 for 2025 Auditions.

Each Jazz Audition Should Include:

Jazz Audition Registration Form (Student to fill out info for sponsoring teachers to enter into Opus)
Scales (single, continuous take)
- Saxophone Jazz Scales
- Trumpet Jazz Scales
- Trombone Jazz Scales
- Bass Trombone Jazz Scales
- Double Bass Jazz Scales
- Guitar and Vibes Jazz Scales
- Piano Jazz Scales
- No scales for Drumset
Jazz Etude (SET 1)
- Etudes for All Instruments
Improvisation
- For Saxes, Trombones and Trumpets, improvise with Blues in Bb or Blues in F. 4-5 choruses of soloing. May listen to one chorus before beginning.
- For Piano, Guitar and Vibes, using Blues in Bb or Blues in F, 4-5 choruses split evenly between comping and soloing. May listen to one chorus before beginning.
- For Bass, using Blues in Bb or Blues in F, 4-5 choruses split evenly between bass line and soloing. May listen to one chorus before beginning.
- Drumset improvisation should be in the following styles: swing, funk, rock and Latin with the emphasis on swing. Please demonstrate playing time in each style along with shorter and extended fills/solos in each style. Transitions should be seamless. Improvisation should have no background track and should be 1-2 minutes long.
Each recording above must be a separate file, and each file must be recorded in one continuous take. Your video file cannot be larger that 250 MB – if it is greater than 250 MB, you will need to compress it! See Guidance for Video File Auditions for more information.

Credits to Peter Schimke (Piano), Jay Young (Bass), Chris Olson (Guitar), Dave Schmalenberger (Drums) and Ricardo Ehramjian (Recording Engineer) for preparing the MMEA All-State Jazz audition improvisation tracks. (Nov. 2015)

Bb Blues Play Along