Top 5 Horrifying Audition Experiences

[@SuperMarioJnB]

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.

[@jackhwthorne]

😂

[@Anna-kz3wi]

LEGENDARY

[@Crlbt.]

🤣🤣

[@ahayes9945]

Well, my Lord! 😂😂😂

[@jasonmartinez7667]

Was this 7th grade?

[@thatboymonts1827]

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

[@monkeyman7048]

that boy monts. Ima do that next year

[@Mmx5472]

“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.”

[@mylesragas5150]

Hunters are gay

[@dillonstephenson1539]

Notes go up i go up

[@lifeontheledgerlines8394]

Well, that's the story of my life when it comes to homework.

[@Anthony-mu1kt]

Me and the boys doing Crota raid for the first time

[@DavidThePercussionist]

CLOSE ENOUGH!!

[@gabe_8997]

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

[@jonathanrichardson9791]

gabe rcc 2017?

[@gabe_8997]

EMCproductions that would work too...

[@bledsoee_]

8 mallet tenor solo

[@DrumlineArchives]

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

[@0Aquamelon]

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

[@thezencaliff8891]

with an epic quad solo!

[@lifeontheledgerlines8394]

I second this.

[@FlashDrive356]

I third this

[@ericsonbruh]

i forth this.

[@marthadraws4154]

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

[@CDCGaming]

This video just gets better and better

[@bobbybombastic5766]

It seems we meet again

[@CDCGaming]

Bobby Bombastic Wtf how

[@bobbybombastic5766]

You cant hide my friend

[@RishiJalukar]

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

[@sebastianalmanza4756]

6:55 me on my APUSH exams

[@lifeontheledgerlines8394]

Yes!

[@3rian]

Sebastián Alesandro 🤣

[@Aaron-py7ul]

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

[@Cashimat]

Not a percussionist, also not during an audition, but at my highschool the band concerts feature all 3 schools, the grade school, middle school, and high school. The highschool goes last so the band director has us sit down in an area in the auditorium every time, and watch the younger students perform before we go up. But those seats are so cramped with our instruments. And since we are already at the concert, and the band room is locked, the instrument and music you have with you is all. So the worst thing as a saxophone player is when your saxophone neck hits the side of a seat, and chips your reed, right before you go up to perform. Nowadays I always have an extra reed in my tuxedo, and no I didn’t have a mouthpiece cap or this wouldn’t be a problem.

[@MusicalMixStudios]

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.)

[@lifeontheledgerlines8394]

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.

[@theblackwidow3401]

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.

[@bennygeniv]

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.

[@silenttitan2532]

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

[@vidego]

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.

[@kevinnelson1540]

6:43 Me everyday in school

[@topgear2283]

Or the first full performance of a song in a Hs marching band.

[@TimZilarMusic]

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

[@antfratto]

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

[@calebbenton367]

Me freezing during my individual audition at the Bluecoats

[@tazzmain8924]

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

[@lifeontheledgerlines8394]

Respect.

[@lunarbutterfly3394]

That's a very bold move. Jood gob.

[@adastrapgh]

This is the most middle school band thing I’ve ever read

[@ElectricHamSteak]

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

[@josephmchenry9898]

Relent ayeeeeeeeee. Good job man. What corp?

[@ElectricHamSteak]

joe McHenry White Sabers. it’s DCA, not DCI

[@Anna-kz3wi]

Congrats!

[@scsi2707]

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

[@BenjiMarin04]

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

[@lena8260]

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

[@aaronh8095]

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.

[@anthonyotlowski1978]

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

[@danielbrown3355]

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

[@jabelsjabels]

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

[@Zathas]

Why do your airpods have wires?

[@gamernationwill1717]

Dante Gijanto you’re just mad because you can’t afford the wires

[@telecomandtechtips9078]

i had to buy them with a charging cable

[@i_love_soup]

I was gonna like but it was at 69.

[@elijahrivers777]

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.

[@todrissmiller9473]

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!! 😂

[@matthewjreynolds1048]

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.

[@djcollin5095]

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

[@marlamc]

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!

[@numsy8886]

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.

[@cj_ssfsm]

I didnt know the knicks and giants had drum lines

[@cj_ssfsm]

EMCproductions cool 🙄

[@elijahroth6066]

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

[@josiahm9090]

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

[@demarcus1802]

Im literally watching this 10 minutes after i auditioned for all county 😭😭😭

[@emerald2700]

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.

[@dannymcgowan6164]

All South Jersey percussion 😂😂 what a meme

[@Bobobo-bo-bo-bobobo]

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

[@aviatr9542]

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.

[@aviatr9542]

@@EMCproductions Oh wow. Hey at least it's wind ensemble and not orchestra though, haha.

[@michaelandcolinspop]

“Close enough!” Hilarious...

[@ryandrums2112]

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!!)

[@TheDullDiamond]

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

[@CoolWall01]

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.

[@gradyking4739]

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.

[@joelchea4997]

Grady King cymbals are fun tho cause you know the flips

[@joshuango4493]

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

[@JulianKlimczyk]

How'd you improve melodic instrument sight reading?

[@bledsoee_]

EMCproductions thank you

[@walruscrazy4390]

Honestly.... you don’t...

[@frogstereighteeng5499]

A few things, try to read a few bars ahead (it's weird and is takes some time to get used to, but your brain can hold a decent amount of info). Also, try to transpose some stuff (basically bring everything down however many semitones you need), like go from Cmaj/Amin to Fmaj/Dmin and bring everything up 2 semitones. Lastly, just practice to even just 5 min a day for sight reading will help greatly.

[@Z6D4C4]

Don't bother. It's a useless skill.

[@irstaxcollector]

@@Z6D4C4 every professional will disagree with you there.

[@reddingjenkins7461]

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.

[@jramusic6280]

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

[@blair5062]

This guy needs more subs

[@soapk5245]

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

[@sneakymango7397]

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

[@idkhow]

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

[@elisabethmiranda7802]

>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

[@elisabethmiranda7802]

@@EMCproductions thanks man! ended up contracted 2 days before moveins, marching again in '19, so i guess it all worked out haha

[@tacocraft604]

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

[@josephrivera8507]

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

[@jeremygalsim2484]

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

[@D2Rides]

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

[@yeshuali]

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

[@lifeontheledgerlines8394]

I've played it on violin, but playing it on marimba would be a nightmare lol

[@wummer9030]

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

[@cxzmyc]

7:14 the GREATEST reference of all time

[@professorfinesser6181]

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

[@tydude136]

6:55 Turn this into a song

[@lukerogers7126]

Is it just me or do tenors sound so frickin awesome

[@joeysmith04622]

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

[@Christopher-nn7ui]

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

[@ringmasterblaze]

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.

[@PuffyOne1898]

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...

[@andrewmelita400]

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

[@rhett_s]

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

[@victordoradea2729]

What cadence is playing in the background

[@lifeontheledgerlines8394]

Two. Intro is called False Hype and the one in the background is called White Boy Smooth. Both by Eric Carr.

[@ddsvelder9866]

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

[@awesomeboxlord]

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

[@kylefrench6009]

6:55 my brain during my math test yesterday

[@nintendobeatz6409]

love your videos dude

[@Jschad]

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

[@carmenfalzone3458]

Stan Moore is my indoor percussion ensemble director!

[@merxydw8952]

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!

[@aprilmoore2917]

No way - juries are by far, painfully worse than any audition I ever had (whether I was concert band auditioning or drumset for some local bar band...) it struck me as so UNFAIR to put us through all that pressure, all semester long - and what with finals in your other classes, frankly you've gotten no sleep either! It could go SO wrong... PS - I have this theory: maybe they deliberately give you the junkiest, out of tune (how about BARELY stable, propped on some old table or something? Lol!) equipment ON PURPOSE! PPS yeah - you got in state, and nobody cares about chair... it's still a valid notch on the old drum stick.

[@hectorsaucedo4465]

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

[@BBrown52791]

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.

[@bb5bucks]

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)

[@owendahlke6666]

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🤣

[@benjaminmcclatchey9814]

You should do a reaction video about marching band/drum corps fails.

[@cosmoreed3461]

I had an audition for swiba and I just as unapologetically as possible I played the études and everything and the entire time the proctor was staring at me like “seriously dude? Why are you here?”

[@VinnieMatkovich]

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

[@brianjungen4059]

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.

[@MichaelMyers6789]

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

[@Followthevoid]

I don’t even play drums, I’m a saxophonist but I like all the districts and army stuff you talk about so yeah let’s get this bread also I’m auditioning for state and district

[@pbgubby5318]

Good video man!

[@jayprivacy1900]

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." ;)

[@midgawidrums6047]

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.

[@UnfortunateDrummer]

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

[@JustinBerke]

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!

[@royrinehart6845]

Darude-Sandstorm

[@karstenmacpherson6125]

For the last one he seriously called a marimba a xylophone

[@lifeontheledgerlines8394]

He doesn't have access to a xylo, so he just uses a marimba.