College guitar assessment

guitarboy2828

A few years ago I was VERY close to going to the UK to study guitar at "The Guitar Institute" and one of the things they required is a video interview/assessment. Usually they'd do it face to face, but because I was an international student, they get you to do it via video. So, I thought I'd post this up and see how you guys would fair on this assessment.

Here are the questions:

1. Play the following notes in 4 different places on your guitar; A, Eb and F#

2. Play the following triads; G major, C minor, D diminished and A augmented

3. Play the following scales in two octaves; A minor pentatonic, D major pentatonic, G major scale,
B natural minor and C Dorian

4. Answer the following questions verbally;
I. Name the notes in a Bb major scale.
II. Name the triads in the harmonised C major scale,
III. Name the 7th chords in the harmonised C major scale.
IV. Name the intervals from the root in the G Mixolydian mode,
V. Name the intervals from the root in the Bb Phrygian mode.

5. Play the following chords anywhere on the guitar; Gm7, D13, B7b5, C6, Em7b5, Bbdim

6. Using an A note [5th fret on 6th string], play continuous 1/16th notes at a suitable tempo to show your alternate picking ability. Play firmly and loudly so we can assess your skill level.

7. Play a small chord passage that shows any finger picking ability you have. You can use “pick and fingers” or “all fingers”.

8. Play a 12 bar blues in A minor and show us a) some rhythm guitar playing and b) some lead guitar playing using blues guitar licks. Take two chorus’s for each section. You can use a backing track or just play free over a drum groove or a metronome.

9. Finally, play two selections in different styles of your choice against a metronome click, or a backing track. This can be a small section of a solo or a chord passage or a bit of rock rhythm guitar etc, etc. Please make sure that the backing is not too loud as we need to hear your playing clearly. Use two contrasting selections so we can fully appreciate your abilities.

So, how would you do?

Squonk

Might just wing it!

Could use the Internet to answer all the Theory Questions ?

giggsy

Fail ☹

FruitarGeek

Wow Great thanks guitarboy

I could do quite a few of those actualy, what throws me off is the harmonised scale. Thats just another name for the diatonic scale right? And you really have to know your theory, I'd brush up on that if I were doing this.

Malkav

That's really not that bad, I wonder what the requirements would look like for "Juliard" or "Berklee" though...They seem quite scary on the theory side.

arjunmenon

Chad Adam Browne wrote: That's really not that bad, I wonder what the requirements would look like for "Juliard" or "Berklee" though...They seem quite scary on the theory side.

AFAIK, Berklee do test you on your sight reading as well.

IceCreamMan

me dead in the water ...looks like i wont be getting that bursary i was hoping for

Warren

FruitarGeek wrote:
I could do quite a few of those actualy, what throws me off is the harmonised scale. Thats just another name for the diatonic scale right?

Not quite FG.

Harmonising a scale simply means making chords out of it.

So the C Major scale is

C D E F G A B

The harmonised scale (chords for the scale) would be

C

Dm

Em

F

G

Am

Bdim

...if we were using triads, or...

CMaj7

Dm7

Em7

FMaj7

G7

Am7

Bm7b5

...for 4 note 7th chords.

Check this page out:

http://www.zentao.com/guitar/theory/chord-scale.html

@OP
Those requirements are not bad at all.

Malkav

Arjun Menon wrote:
Chad Adam Browne wrote: That's really not that bad, I wonder what the requirements would look like for "Juliard" or "Berklee" though...They seem quite scary on the theory side.
AFAIK, Berklee do test you on your sight reading as well.

>☹ My biggest weakness...well besides just being generally crap...

guitarboy2828

Chad Adam Browne wrote: That's really not that bad, I wonder what the requirements would look like for "Juliard" or "Berklee" though...They seem quite scary on the theory side.

I think they're really different in their approach. I checked out Berklee. They are a lot more into music theory and musicianship rather than focusing on guitar. I found "Guitar Institute" to focus on electric guitar very well.

So, I think the assessments would be completely different. As far as I know Juliard is only classical? So, that would be COMPLETELY different.

Kalcium

How are you supposed to know all that? Theory scares me, i want to know it, but its like studying a full time degree, how do i remember all that as well as all my chemical engineering stuff im studying at varsity? Meh, guess im just gonna have to work harder... ☹

Warren

Kalcium wrote: How are you supposed to know all that? Theory scares me, i want to know it, but its like studying a full time degree, how do i remember all that as well as all my chemical engineering stuff im studying at varsity? Meh, guess im just gonna have to work harder... ☹

The trick is very much to learn the fundamentals. Just like you don't try to learn the chemical composition of different compounds by heart: you learn the rules for combining them and then apply those to a problem. That way, there is a lot less to have to actually retain in your memory.

FruitarGeek

Warren wrote:
Kalcium wrote: How are you supposed to know all that? Theory scares me, i want to know it, but its like studying a full time degree, how do i remember all that as well as all my chemical engineering stuff im studying at varsity? Meh, guess im just gonna have to work harder... ☹
The trick is very much to learn the fundamentals. Just like you don't try to learn the chemical composition of different compounds by heart: you learn the rules for combining them and then apply those to a problem. That way, there is a lot less to have to actually retain in your memory.

True. But there are some parts of music theory you have to learn by memory. The Bb Major scale being one of them I would think.

Warren

FruitarGeek wrote:
True. But there are some parts of music theory you have to learn by memory. The Bb Major scale being one of them I would think.

Nope. All major scales have the intervals T - T - s - T - T - T - s.

So I can work out that the Bb major scale is:

Bb
C
D
Eb
F
G
A

As long as I know that there are no semi-tones between B/C and E/F. So all I really need to parrot-learn is the scale step pattern.

Of course, having the above in your immediate recall memory requires that you memorise it. However, there are tools like the "circle of fifths" which help you to memorise this stuff a bit more easily. Plus, the more you play in certain keys, the easier it becomes to remember what the notes are. Bb, as an example, is one that I hardly ever play in.