Orangutang Music

The Auditioning Process (Part 1)

Auditioning new members? Here comes the fun part.

In my post “Ok, So You Want To Start A Band” I mapped out the three questions you need to ask yourself in order to get your band going. In regards to finding new members there were three choices.

1. Asking family and friends
2. Using your music industry network
3. Posting an advertisement

Let’s say you’ve filled the other positions through your network but you’re missing a bass player. You’ve posted ads in your local music shop and street press.

Now the waiting game starts. The auditioning process has begun.

The auditioning process has three parts to it.

1. Preperation
2. Initial Phone Call
3. Face To Face Contact

In this post I’ll be dealing with the first two parts.

1. Preperation
In between putting up the advertisement and getting the first phone call some preperation is in order.

• What questions are you going to ask at the phone call?
• What questions are you going to ask at the face to face meeting?
• Where are you going to have the face to face meeting?
• How long is the face to face meetings going to take?
• What songs are you going to get the applicant to play?
• Are you going to provide a tape of the songs? Or,
• Are you going to leave it up to the applicant to learn the songs?

These questions need to be asked to make sure that you look and sound as professional as possible. Once you have these questions answered you can then move onto the next stage.

2. Initial Phone Call
Here is a possible scenario. You and the other band members are hanging out jamming on some songs when the phone rings. You look at the others, take a deep breath and answer the phone.

It’s your Mum (PHEW!).

An hour later the phone rings again. You take another deep breath and answer the phone. It’s your first applicant…

Lets stop here. Hopefully you have done your preperation and are ready to tackle your first of many phone calls. The initial phone call is an opportunity to sort out the wheat from the chaff.

The serious applicants from the “time wasters”

Make sure you have your ad in front of you and highlight the information that you want to gain from this applicant.

As a reminder here is the posted ad again:

BASS PLAYER WANTED
To join folk/rock band
Influences include
Ben Harper, Jack Johnson, Counting Crows
Some experience preferred
Own gear and trasport essential
Interested?? Give me a call
Corey – 555 555 555

From the ad, the questions you want to be asking the applicant are

• Name and age?
• What suburb do you live in?
• What gear do you have?
• Do you have own transport?
• How long have you been playing?
• What’s your favourite music?
• Why do you want to join?

If these essential questions are answered favourably then, have a short but general chat just to get the feel of what they’re like. How you do this is up to you.

If you are satisfied that this person is keen and worth meeting face to face then you give them a task.

Schedule a meeting at a neutral location, like a rehearsal room at a time say, a week from the call.

(NB: Remember, the neutral meeting location and pre-determined time should’ve been worked out already in the preparation phase of the auditioning process)

After that, give the applicant the names of two cover songs that you and your bandmates know and tell the applicant that they need to learn these songs by the time set.

After that, ask if there are any other questions. If not, end the call on a positive note.

Hopefully the ad will generate a steady flow of phone calls. If at anytime you dont feel that the person you are talking to is right for the job please, end the conversation quickly and politely.

Have a pre-determined number in your head of the amount of applicants that you want to try out and slot them into your diary.

Imagine you’re a manager of a business and you are looking for more staff. What would they do? Do you realise that you are in the same boat? Think about it.

The next post will be all about the face to face meeting. Watch this space!

Until next time,

Corey Stewart
Orangutang Music

Keywords: indie music, independent music, music industry, music business, music marketing, music promotion, orangutang music, corey stewart

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