I recently had the pleasure of spending an afternoon talking with Allen Carter. Allen is a top professional drummer whose credits include the Les Brown Orchestra, The Captain & Tenille and The Kansas City Philharmonic. Currently he plays professionally in the L. A. area and teaches at several local colleges. We happened to get on the subject of auditions. Over the years, Allen and I have both had to audition for school bands, commercial groups and jobs of various kinds. Being in educational situations, we have both had to conduct auditions for young drummers. We made up a list of observations that we felt might help young drummers handle this difficult situation. School Auditions An audition for the college jazz/rock ensemble (big band) is, in some ways, the toughest of all auditions because many facets of playing will be required. For example, you will be asked to read music fairly […]

March 1984 Issue