My Top 5 Tips On Auditioning

1 Preparation Is Key
“Preparation on the people you’re auditioning with, studying the environment, what kind of room is it, what’s going on in that room? What equipment is in the room? What does the room look like, how does it sound? How is a person supposed to sound like Portnoy, if a person isn’t hitting things Portnoy hit? You have to try to sound right.”

2 Control Your Nerves
“Adrenaline and alertness. You can funnel those nerves into making your heart be more open and your brain more alert. If you don’t, you might as well call it cancer. Those nerves used in the wrong direction are so cancerous that they can take a prepared person and decimate them in an instant. You either take nerves and take them in the right direction or you allow them to control you.”

3 Learn The Tunes
“Is it pre-existing material or is it new material? If it is pre-existing, learn it! Make sure you learn it. If it is new material then you need to research the kind of people you’re practising with and think about what it is they might ask you to play.”

4 Improvise Only When Asked
“If you show up unprepared to do what you are asked it is a fail. You’re auditioning for a band so learn the drum parts exactly the way they are, don’t interpret anything. If you’re asked to do your own thing, be ready. But if you turn up only ready to play your own thing and they ask you to play how it is on the record, you’re screwed.”

5 Bounce Back
“There are a lot of things that are out of our control and we have to see them as that or they will ruin our lives. If a person doesn’t get a gig because they didn’t prepare properly, that can affect someone and rightfully so because they were lazy and they need to learn from it. If a band wants a person that doesn’t look like you, you might not like it but it is out of your control. If a band wants someone that plays differently to you it is out of your control but you can learn how to play that way.”