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Worship Chapel

Piano Audition Guidelines

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Piano auditions must include all the components described below:

  1. Audition Repertoire
    • Consult with a qualified teacher as you prepare your audition. Ideally, you should work with a teacher who has prior experience preparing students for college-level auditions.
    • Prepare music of contrasting styles totaling 15 minutes or more (not including any repeats).
    • At least one piece must be performed from memory.
    • Audition pieces must be college level in terms of difficulty.
  2. Musicianship Test
    • Scales and Arpeggios
      - Scales – Hands together, four octaves, ascending and descending, in 16th notes at a tempo where quarter note equals 100 beats per minute, from memory. Minor scales will be in the harmonic form.
      - Arpeggios – also in 16th notes (not triplets) at the same tempo, from memory.
      - Two explanatory documents: The first shows a good way to practice scales and arpeggios in rhythm. The second gives a chart that explains fingerings for all 24 keys, scales and arpeggios, both hands.
    • Sight-reading
      - The student will be given a short sight-reading test.
  3. Interview
    • You will be asked about your career goals, performance experience, and other related questions that will help us guide you in our program.
  4. Supporting Materials
    • The student should provide a written music resume that includes a list of all significant repertoire studied during high school, performance experience (church, school, contests, recitals, etc), and a brief statement of the student's musical goals for college and beyond.

Recorded Audition Instructions:

On-campus auditions are preferred and required for applicants living within 300 miles. If a recorded audition is necessary, please upload a video to a video hosting platform like YouTube or Vimeo using the same guidelines for on-campus auditions. You will find the required arpeggios and/or scales here.

  1. Please announce each piece before it is performed.
  2. Most phones will provide good video quality. Phone microphones, however, may distort when recording music. Test your recording before sending it in.
  3. Each piece must be recorded without editing.

Links to your videos should be sent via email to the Cedarville University Music and Worship Department at musicandworship@cedarville.edu. Deadline for recorded auditions is on or before the last scheduled audition date.