My weirdest audition experience of all time: I was the 3rd person in line to go in to the audition room. Number 1 went in and came out, then Number 2 went in. I heard a door shut, about a minute later I heard the judge ask for Number 3. I went in and did my audition, then as I was leaving, Number 2 came out of the closet door on the other side of the room, instrument and music in hand, head down, and rushed past me out of the door. Apparently he had forgotten which door was the way out of the audition room.

My weirdest moment was in 8th grade region and some kid during his audition just gave up and started playing chill bill on the marimba

“Ohhhhh, I don’t know what the heck I’m doing, I don’t know what the heck I’m doing, I don’t know what the heck I’m doing.”

your next video should be a "4 mallet" tenor solo

My worst audition experience was my first drum corps tryout with the Sacramento Mandarins. I was a sophomore in high school, about 5'3", trying out for quads, and the two other guys on the line were 6'1" and 6'3". We put the equipment on and were about to head to sectionals, but I had left my backpack on the ground. I tried to pop a squat to pick it up, but I wasn't accustomed to how STUPIDLY heavy Premier quads were (those of you that marched in the late 90s-early 00s know what I'm talking about). Needless to say, I completely fell over, dropped everything I was carrying, and the drums rolled off the J-bars and onto my face. Yes, this was my first impression. Before we even played a beat or marched any basics block. Somehow I was able to redeem myself in the rest of the audition and I made the line. :D

I cried in the middle of my audition lmao now all my friends give me tissues before I go in “just in case” :/

can we have a full "I don't know what the heck I'm doing" song? :D

6:55 me on my APUSH exams

Imagine being prepared for an audition, playing and breaking a stick with no decent replacement during the audition

“Notes go up so I go up” is the epitome of my mallet percussion skills

This video just gets better and better

Reminds me of the time that I was auditioning for All-State in 10th grade. I had just had indoor practice the night before the audition, and I forgot to get my mallets the night before. So, I’m driving to my school in the winter Georgia rain at 8 am on Saturday to grab my mallets, until I panicked when I realized that the band room door was always locked by the director after rehearsal. But the door was somehow open, because in the midst of a board meeting, someone forgot to lock the doors. In the end I lucked out, but don’t be the person that forgets to set phone reminders.

I couldn't handle it when you started flossing and shooting and singing 'I don't know what the heck I'm doing.' Too real.

I go up cause the notes go up. I go down cause the notes go down. I felt that so hard

Me freezing during my individual audition at the Bluecoats

15:55 Music appreciation when they see drum sticks and band director sees them

6:43 Me everyday in school

Unrelated to the video, but me and my friends discovered your channel a while ago and I'm loving the videos, you make me want to be good at tenors or just percussion in general (but preferably tenors). Just wanna say thanks.

I replayed the marimba sightreading portion way too many times 😂😂😂

not an audition but during a run through for our marching show my entire snare drum fell off and literally bounced

Dude you’re HILARIOUS I’ve watched almost all of your videos.

My old high school band director was Phantom’s drum major in 89, and he told us a story about how one of the other dm candidates was a really good conductor, but when he actually got in front of the core for the first time he froze and was immediately cut.

I’m a junior in high school this year. Xylophone was the first percussion instrument I learned. I’ve now had 7 years of mallet experience, and I’m still not great at sight reading. I’m decent enough though. I’m really good at jazz improv, and improvisation in general.

I play French Horn so my experience is a lot more different and I was a passionate 6th grader being the most confident player but I had to sight read so I did not know how to play the music so I just started playing Megalovania

i woke up at 4:30 because i have a camp for a drum corps.... maybe watching this isn’t a good idea EDIT: got contracted lmao

I live in South Jersey and I can confirm they haven't changed their audition for percussion

yep that's my entire mallet sightreading experience right there. Very accurate!

6:54 me when i dont do my assigned reading and the teacher assigns a pop quiz.

Crazy enough, I had my high school 9th grade All State audition yesterday. Everything was going great, until I had to sight read mallets. My friends told me to just pull through. When it came to the mallet reading, I just went note by note, very slowly. Took forever, but I did it! Just wanted to thank you for reminding me it's not just me man.

All South Jersey percussion 😂😂 what a meme

Why do your airpods have wires?

6:42 This is high school marching band for me. I'm a rookie this year. OOOOOH it was (and still is) rough

I did the whole sight reading on marimba yesterday, and did even worse than you did. Would you be willing to do a video instructing sight reading techniques? It would be very helpful

I cried laughting with the i dont know what the heck im doing. And the notes go up so i go up, the notes go down so i go down. Reminds me of my first year of marching band so much!! 😂

I did District honor band the past 5 years. During the sight reading part this year, I did absolutely terrible. Still was 2nd part for Trombone. I did just fine on everything else.

I didnt know the knicks and giants had drum lines

Good morning? It’s nearly 12 in the morning 😂. Nah but seriously, good video

“Close enough!” Hilarious...

It’s 2017, I didn’t know what drum corps was at all, I auditioned for the Crossmen on bari. I go into the solo music audition, with my trombone and marching baritone (that I barely knew how to play), and did my audition on trombone. I played the lyrical etude and technical etude alright, then the brass caption head said “alright let’s hear some baritone.” I had no idea how to play, so I attempted to sight read the technical etude on baritone, playing all the wrong notes (this was sophomore year of hs btw). Needless to say, I got hard cut. Ended up marching soundsport that year though.

Here's a disaster for you: I was auditioning for Pulse Percussion on Tenors, and we were doing marching drills in groups and then handing off the drums from group to group. I was in the 2nd group. The person from the 1st group who handed me the drum had the harness set extremely low, and my knees kept hitting the harness...PLUS, they gave us NO time to adjust heights! When we got to the 4 count 360 degree spin at 190 bpm, my knee slammed into the Yamaha harness, and I stumbled for about 4 feet, and flew like a ninja star for about 5 feet...falling face first onto the pavement. I hopped up immediately and played it off like I was fine. It was an audition after all. The instructors told me to go to the side, and even after I had explained to them why it happened, and showed my resilience, as well as nailing the rest of the audition, they cut me that day. (btw adding insult to injury...the guy that handed me the Tenors made the group.)

My worst audition was when I was auditioning for the drum set in the Kings island band. I was going for the part in the Halloween show which is rock based, but they held Christmas show auditions the same day which I did not know. Everyone before me was auditioning for the Christmas show which is a jazz band, so I go into a rock audition and panic and I start playing a horrible jazz part and jazz solo. After I stopped they said, "can you play us a rock beat?" And then I just played a basic ACDC style rock drum beat. And they just said, "alright, that's all we need." I did not get the part.

How *do* you get better at sight reading melodic mallet music? How did you improve and what was your practice for it like?

“Good Morning” It was 1 am when this was posted

Pro-tip: if you forget mallets you can throw a couple harder cymbal felts on the butts of your sticks to make makeshift mallets :) (obviously not ideal but better than drumsticks!!)

How'd you improve melodic instrument sight reading?

Nice touch with the Saint-Saens compilation music 😂😂. In 2017 I played Aquarium in part 2 of our drumlines show on marimba hahaha

I just died😂😂 “Notes go up, so I go up”, “ Notes go down, so I go down”.

I was at a blue devils/pacific crest combined audition when i was a freshman in highschool. As they usually do, we were assessed first as a large group and then put into about 3 groups to do down the lines and such. Being a freshman, i was immediately put in group 3. Then came the down the line. We were to play an entire shopping spree. I had never even played a flam before. They just looked at me when it came my turn and i did my best to fake it. It was SOOOOOO bad. I sat down and asked my friend if it was obvious i wasnt playing any flams, and hes just like "yeah dude duh" and i decided at that point maybe the individual audition was a lost cause. 😂

ok I screwed up my freshman audition really bad lmao. I felt pretty confident going in and I screwed my chromatic and Clarke studies beyond belief, and my etude was no better. I had to literally sight read through my tears cause I knew I was doing awful lmao. I only had 9 months on my trumpet by then. Hopefully I’ll do better next audition

I auditioned for my middle school jazz band in 7th grade, so I was a while behind and got my audition music 2 weeks before the due date for the audition and practices the music twice. Now my friend got it 2 DAYS before and practiced it once. We both got in. I had 1 and a half years more experience than he did but I got a higher part.

On my worst audition the judges kinda forgot what my score was sooooooooooo yeeeeaaaaahhhh

I have a fun story. I was audition for honor band on the bass trombone. I chose a solo that reguored the trigger from the bass trombone to play the solo. I forgot my bass trombone st school and the only other horn I had was a no trigger horn. So I improved the whole solo. To say the least I didn’t make it

I feel on never really playing mallets and every time I had to sight-read at Allstate I did the exact samething 😂😂

>2nd audition at Spirit of Atlanta in 2018 >finishes individual audition >caption head says "you've much improved since I last heard you, I'm impressed." >cries and has to leave the room because I couldnt functionally formulate any sort of reply

love your videos dude

I played French Horn in high school, and the judge for All-County was always this one band director for another school and he always put his horn players first chair. Like it didn't matter if I played perfectly I always got 2nd chair. I still ended up playing the solos bc the 1st chair never felt confident enough to do it and we played the same parts anyway so I wasn't too mad about it

This guy needs more subs

im a threatre kid and not band but 6:55 is me when the director asks me to improv a whole different tone on my monologues

Ok during the marimba sight reading part I felt that. I'm in a high school front ensemble, and we can't sight read either lol. Also the music during that 30 seconds was our ballad during a show. It was very, VERY painful.

One time I tried to audition for honors band and I practiced the wrong piece. Same name, same composer, from the same book, wrong song. Somehow sight reading got me into it so happy ending!

Glad to see some rep from south jersey, just had the all south concert today lol

#5 Did u ever get the music in the mail after it was faxed?

6:55 Turn this into a song

What cadence is playing in the background

If i had the dedication as you back when i was in 4th grade i would not have worried about being a good drummer

Oh man I remember auditioning for Junior All State in high school... I got second seat and the first seat gets to choose to be in the Band vs. the Orchestra, so naturally he took band, and they alternate down from there. So I ended up in orchestra and had to play like 5 bass drum notes and one suspended cymbal roll for the entire concert. It was such a buzzkill.

Good video man!

Hey, what's the song in the background at 12:28 during your mallet sight reading breakdown? I've had it on the tip of my tongue for years and can never place it! Also, great stories. Pretty hard to listen to a few of these, but that's just fantastic storytelling! Thanks!

Can you please make a "I don't know what the heck I'm doing" music video?

Ur foreal the coolest drum person on KZfaq keep it up

7:14 the GREATEST reference of all time

Wow! BUT YOU KEPT GOING!!!!! That’s amazing!!

I’m from Carteret Nj and our high school drum line needs a drum tech. Our old tech is moving to Spain

Here in Texas I auditioned for all state band for tuba every year I could, and iirc I got in most of the time. The problem is that my last name starts with 'Ba' so I always ended up being the first on the list to audition, and that was so incredibly nerve-racking because the audition rooms always just ended up being regular classrooms while everyone was waiting to audition in the next room over, so they could hear everything

the song that played during his thirty seconds of marimba sight reading is what my movement four was for marching band

"Notes go up...so I go up. Notes go down... so I go down." LMAO!!!!!

My 9th grade year I wasn’t very well versed in traditional grip, and I was trying out for marching snare for that year. I ended up as cymbals because of my horrible technique.

Lmao how you used Bach's Partita in E Major Preludio for the sight reading sheet music

I had private lessons from a mallet audition judge in an all district setting, and he said out of the 15 points, it’s like 5 rhythms, 5 for notes, and 5 for other (dynamic shaping, tempo, etc)

I just had region band auditions today and I did great on solos but bombed the sight reading and rudiments 😔

I actually sang the " I don't know what the heck im doing song while I was playing something in band that I had no idea how to play🤣

I don’t play the drums, but your videos are very interesting 😂

My first ever audition was for stampede showband and in the middle of the easiest exercise my lips decide to think now is the time to die (it never happened to me before at so random) and i fluffed the entire exercise but i did okay on the hardest piece and the only comments were more air, bigger phrasing, more consistent double tounging and the only positive ones i could tell they were scraping it was i "knew all the fingerings" and that i was "comfortable in the high register" but i kind of expected to not make it and almost no trumpet made it in the trumpet section 2 made it in that played trumpet 4 or 5 mellos made it in on trumpet

Is it just me or do tenors sound so frickin awesome

mom: you should play with the neighbor's kid The neighbor's kid: 6:55

Why is everytime that he did a idk what the heck im doing skit it sounds so catchy

One time 7 different guys on my percussion charter bus went in the bathroom at once xD

Oh man... I remember auditioning for the 2018 troopers. It was their last camp (held in April) and there was ONE MORE snare spot open. Now, here’s a few things you ought to know, dear readers: 1.) Firstly, i had gone to this camp thinking I could just sit back and watch, and not even audition. which leads to my next point: 2.) I had gone to this camp with the wrong intentions. While I wanted to expose myself to DCI more, I hadn’t thought they’d require me to actively participate. 3.) I had only went to this camp BECAUSE it was held In the same general area where I live; I cannot go beyond Casper, and all battery auditions are (mostly) held in Texas, so there’s that. 4.) And finally, I had signed up only 3 days before it began, and I had only been introduced to drum corps for a few weeks at this point. So did I know anything going to this camp? No. I had even continued to screw up playing 8’s fellas... EIGHTS. My only experience that I had was marching with a high school band that probably nobody who reads this has ever heard of. (Based in Cheyenne.) of course, I got cut, but it only made me more hungry to march with this specific group. I got cut again this year, but hopefully I can actually make it to an earlier camp in person for their 2020 season, eh? I don’t know. Moral of the story? Know what you’re doing before you jump into something! Haha!

I'm 6 minutes and 12 seconds in and I've already cried laughing. (Should have waited to comment towards end. Best video you've ever made. Well..... 2nd best behind "FAILURE." ;)

Stan Moore is my indoor percussion ensemble director!

6:55 my brain during my math test yesterday

I always hated auditions. I would nail everything but shit the bed on sightreading. I've always been a play by ear musician. I made all-state concert band once and did well enough to get a decent scholarship to a university, but I was always embarrassed by my poor sight reading and it kept me from doing music professionally.

My valve stuck in the middle of an etude and I had to stop playing and unstick it.

I missed out on dci... I went to a community college and was completely isolated from any marching band, and now I’m 22. Oh if I could go back in time...

My worst was also my first, literally a couple weeks ago. I felt so stupid. So it was auditions for a thing called the ILMEA and there were about 5 instrument parts to learn, one of which being the marimba. I was very prepared for all of it, and it all fell out the window when I walked into the room and the guy handed me a sheet of music and said "start with prep music then look at the sight reading for a minute and play it. Well, I'm actually a complete idiot and didnt notice that he meant "prepared music" and that it was the same sheet of music I had just learned entirely the week before. I sight read halfway through then realized how stupid I was. I did well in everything else, but I got cut.

My worst audition, I left my Clarinet at home for All-State callbacks...

I remember sophomore year I auditioned for mallet percussion in select band and the marimba looked like a toy xylophone. I didn’t make it into that band, but at least I played what was there.

This happened to me at Madison scouts camp. I never got MYNWA and we had to play and memorize it and I was so nervous

Mine was when I auditioned for the Air Force and the guy told me to my face that I ducked and wasted his valuable time by auditioning. Took an audition for the Army a week later, got accepted and a 21 year career began. I will never say anything good about the Air Force.

Oh dang man! I live like an hour outside of Allentown!