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I go to Ithaca College for Composition in Ithaca, NY. For my "audition" I had an interview with the composition staff. It had a few different parts to it. Here's what it was: They want to see what kind of person you are. How passionate you are. Your reasons for wanting to become a composer. Your musical influences. Your personality. (Tip here: Humility is a wonderful thing for composers to have. There are some composers here on YC–won't say who, but if you hang out here enough, it's obvious–who are–I'm just gonna say it–very pretentious. Don't let them give you the idea that that's normal. You should be proud of your work, and you shouldn't be so self-deprecating that you lose all self-confidence. But being pretentious or arrogant about your work or your knowledge or anything is NOT GOOD! Especially in a business that is so built on connections and being kind. When people see you being humble and kind, they will often think to themselves, "Wow, he's so humble and kind!" :D ) What do you like to compose? What got you started in composing? Other things like this. [*]They will want to see what work you've done thus far. For my interview, they asked for two contrasting pieces that I had composed of any length and for any instrumentation. They asked for the scores of each and recordings if available. (Tip here: Recordings go a long way, especially in vocal music. They're sometimes difficult to arrange logistically, but recording your pieces will make them sound a LOT better. I, however, just had MIDIs of mine, which were ok. But it would've been a lot better if I'd had legit recordings. At least bring some decent MIDIs. At the very least, some crappy ones.) They will listen to recordings of the pieces then ask you questions about them, usually listening to one and then talking about it before proceeding to the next. Examples of things they might ask include:[*]They will want to know what your musical background is as far as knowledge is. E.g.: How's your theory? (Tip Here: They may ask you to take a theory exam when you audition. This is not part of the interview, but may be administered the same day. For me, I only took a theory placement exam at my orientation once I had been accepted. You shouldn't have to worry though. Those are usually pretty easy. By "pretty easy" I mean "Identify if the passage written is a major or minor scale," or "Identify the tonic of this melodic passage." These are things you can learn on the wonderful musictheory.net if your theory ain't great. Can you play any instruments? Do you sing? How's your sight reading? (Tip here: There may also be a sight singing exam, but these are often optional. Still, if it is required, dont worry about it too much. They don't expect you to do amazing. This will also most likely not be administered during the interview. [*]How do you normally do academically? Can you handle the non-music portion of your education?[*]Piano improv. Sit at the piano and make up a melody. (Tip here: You don't have to be a Kyle Landry here. They basically ask you to sit at the piano and play around. I'd prepare for this portion of the "audition" by doing just that: sit at the piano for a good hour and just play around. Often times our fingers can fall into certain patterns that make everything we do sound the same. That's okay. It's normal. Just be aware of it and try to spin things in different directions as you practice. Maybe try a deceptive cadence this time–if you don't know what that is, check out musictheory.net. Maybe add a seventh or a ninth to your chord and see how it sounds. Try to figure out how to play the melody of your favorite song, or maybe the theme to your favorite movie or video game. Then try to figure out the chords. One tip my comp interviewer gave me after I was done was to sit at the piano, and just put my hands down anywhere, and then try to build something out of that. These are all great ways to practice piano improv. Oh! And play in different keys, too. You dont have to be fluent in B-major or anything, but if your interviewer says, "Ok, now play something in F-minor,"–as he did to me–then you should be able to know that F-minor has four flats and that it's dominant chord is C-Major/Minor–again, check out musictheory.net if you didn't get that. You don't need to be a wonderful pianist though. At Ithaca, you DO need to pass a rigorous piano exam in order to get your Comp degree. But that's at the end of your junior year, after three years of piano lessons. Usually, THEY are expected to teach YOU piano. Still, as I said, it's really good to know the basics.) That's pretty much it. That was my "audition" for Ithaca, so yours will probably be a bit different. I mean who knows, you may not even talk about any of those things. You and your interviewer may go off on a tangent talking about soccer or geology or ceiling fans. For me, we talked for a good ten minutes on the power of harmony and how great IV chords and v chords sound. (I think we actually went a little over our allotted time because of that, lol) But that's good if that happens, because it shows you really click with the people and the professors there, which is really really important if you intend on studying something as personal as writing your music with them. So anyway, hopefully this has helped you out. Good luck! Let me know if you have any more questions. :D --Miggy Torres What would you have done differently? (Tip here: This is a GREAT one to think about as a composer. It really caught me off guard when I was asked, and I really had to think. As I said before, humility is really important, especially in a question like this. Maybe you would've liked to improve a transition in a certain area to connect some ideas better. Maybe you'd liked to have orchestrated a section better if only you knew how. Maybe you would've reworked an entire section! Who knows? The point is "if you can already compose a perfect song, then why do you need our school for?") What is your favorite part? Line? Melody? Harmony? They may offer constructive criticism about the piece. (Tip here: If they criticize your piece and ask you what you think of the criticism, really think about it. Don't take offense to the criticism, but more importantly, really think about it. They're just composition teachers who are looking at your piece for the first time. They don't know everything about the piece. If they suggest something and there's a good reason for you to disagree with them, don't just roll over and say, "Sure," because you wanna score points with them. Being humble doesn't mean agreeing with everyone and not being confident. Confidently and respectfully disagreeing–if it's about something you're sure about, or even pretty sure about—can show them that you've put real thought into the piece you've written.) What inspired the piece? Which part was the most difficult to write? Which part was the easiest? Other more specific questions about the choices you made in the piece.