Time to prepare for auditions

[thunderbird13]

After taking a 3 month break, during which time I didn’t touch a bass once, I ‘m back on the look out for bands (yet again - I’ll never learn!) and have replied to a few adverts. One guy I came back to me yesterday afternoon and asked me to come down for an audition on Tuesday and sent me a list of about 8 songs to learn. Most of them are of the R& B and Blues variety but if I’m honest I ‘ve never heard of any of the songs before – apart from Mustang Sally. I’ve now decided that I don’t have enough time to learn them and rather then waste my time I’ve decided to cancel the audition. So out of curiosity what would other people consider a reasonable length of time to prepare for an audition, bearing it mind is playing cover versions rather than a free form jam and assuming that you work during the day (as apposed to being a professional player)

[Count Bassy]

I guess it depends how much you want the gig.

Giving an auditionee (?) a bit of prepartion work to do might be the band's way of eliminating those who aren't actually that interested, though that won't catch those who are not that bothered but happen to know the songs already.

[stevie]

If you can read at a reasonable level, you can pick the midi files off the internet, print out the bass lines and learn 8 songs of average difficulty in a couple of hours with the help of a midi player. You might not be able to memorize them in that time, but you can always take the dots with you to the audition.

This doesn't answer your question, but my answer to your actual question would be 'it depends'.

[chris_b]

If you're interested but can't learn the numbers in the time available just call and ask them to move the audition back.

[Hamster]

8 songs!!! Burger me! The last couple of bands I've auditioned for have given me their complete set-lists to learn (40 - 80 songs) and for one I was expected to know most of Quo's back catalogue!!! One of the auditions took place the day after my enquiry!

There are a few songs that any self-respecting "pub" player should have under their belts but there's just so much material to learn off pat, even if you do get more than a weeks notice.

What I do now is just browse the set-lists of local bands (Blues/R&B/Rock) and just try and learn everything that I don't know. It takes a long time if like me, you learn a lot of songs but don't play them everyday - you quickly forget them again!

As for what's a reasonable length of time? - I suppose if you read and have the sheet music, then 10 minutes; if you use the little boxes with dots in them, more than 10 minutes, and if you don't read at all and don't know the songs, then as much time as is possible!

[Adrenochrome]

Assuming that you're allowed some cheat sheets in the audition then I reckon you should be able to have a go at about that many songs in about a week. You could perhaps highlight the ones that you're most prepared for in advance to the band.

[thunderbird13]

[quote name='Hamster' post='954636' date='Sep 13 2010, 12:48 PM']What I do now is just browse the set-lists of local bands (Blues/R&B/Rock) and just try and learn everything that I don't know. It takes a long time if like me, you learn a lot of songs but don't play them everyday - you quickly forget them again![/quote]

I've got a similar thing where I have a playlist on spotify with all the covers I've learnt - sometimes when I'm bored I'll play a few at random

[quote name='Adrenochrome' post='954643' date='Sep 13 2010, 12:51 PM']Assuming that you're allowed some cheat sheets in the audition then I reckon you should be able to have a go at about that many songs in about a week. You could perhaps highlight the ones that you're most prepared for in advance to the band.[/quote]

Yeah I think a week is fair enough and anything less than that seems to me to be asking for a bit too much commitment if like me your only a part time player.

[SteveK]

"Time to prepare for auditions"
I've not done too many auditions (last one about 25 years ago) but I seem to remember a couple of days notice was the norm.
It's kind of ,"How long's a piece of string?" - There's no real answer.
If it's a band that you know and like, and you're desperate to join, then, you'll spend every available minute [i]familiarising yourself with/learning[/i] their songs.
Depends on the band of course, but if they have any sense they wouldn't expect you to know the songs by heart, they would be more interested in feels, timing, general vibe etc.