Video auditions

Your video application should include a spoken English introduction PLUS your performance.

Please note, recordings uploaded without the spoken English introduction will not be processed.

Your spoken English introduction (all candidates, except for Musical Theatre department)

Your spoken introduction must be presented in English. First tell us your name, and then say something about your musical background and the training you’ve had, your musical ambitions and your reasons for applying for your chosen course at the Academy. This should be a separate video recording, between 3 and 5 minutes long, and should not be part of your audition performance.

Your performance

Please look in the 'Audition Requirements' section on your department’s page of the website for details of the audition requirements (see https://www.ram.ac.uk/study/departments). That will also tell you if you must submit a single recording of all your audition items (a single 'take'), or if you can submit a separate recording of each piece.

You should follow the published repertoire requirements. However, sight-reading, scales and arpeggios are not needed in the recording. A 'piece' can be a movement rather than a complete work (for example, one movement from a sonata).

Accompanied pieces should be performed with an accompaniment, this can be a "minus-one track" if you are unable to get an accompanist.

Please read through our advice (the 'Easy Guide') below for preparing and uploading your video recordings. The spoken introduction should be recorded separately.

Organ candidates

Please point the camera at your side so the assessment panel can see you play at the console, and (if possible) place the microphone some distance away from the instrument.

Timpani & Percussion candidates

Please perform every item on the relevant repertoire list (undergraduate or postgraduate).

Jazz candidates

For the 2023 repertoire items, please refer to the Jazz Audition Requirements

1. When you complete your UCAS Conservatoires application, select Recording as the audition method. Application details can be found on the How to Apply page.
2. We use Acceptd as our portal for uploading media and documents. There is useful guidance on the Acceptd help page including maximum file sizes, and registration for an Acceptd account is free
3. Please make sure you input your name in exactly the same format as your UCAS Conservatoires application, using Roman letters (please do not use other systems such as Greek, Cyrillic, Mandarin etc).
4. In 'Select Program Group', choose Undergraduate Applications or Postgraduate Applications for our main auditions. Research candidates should select Doctoral Studies.
5. Remember to check our audition requirements page for your specialism, to ensure you have included all the necessary items. You should upload video files, we do not accept links to YouTube, Dropbox or other external sites.
6. In Acceptd, do not press 'Submit' until you have uploaded all your files and previewed the application, to make sure you have included everything. Postgraduate candidates - remember the items of written work if those are required for your course.

We may use the Acceptd message service to contact, you, so please remember to add getacceptd.com as a safe sender in your email settings, and look in your junk mailbox in case messages are caught by your spam filter.

You will receive the decision through UCAS Track as soon as possible after your application assessment has been completed, this normally will be no later than Christmas for most studies.

A smartphone, tablet or similar device is perfect for recording your audition. The video quality is better than most camcorders, provided the device is placed at an appropriate distance from the performer – around two to three metres is ideal. Ensure that the lighting is sufficient as poor lighting and unsuitable placement of the camera/microphone are the two most common problems when filming an audition. Prop your device up on a music stand or book, or get a cheap tripod and an iPhone clip. Always record with the device in a horizontal position ('landscape' format).

The audio quality is more important than the video quality for your audition recording. If you are making a long recording, mp4 format will have a smaller file size so it is easier to upload, or you can use a compression software like HandBrake.

It is good to record in a large room, if possible, without too much reverberation (echo), and find as quiet an environment as possible. Turn the TV off, turn off computer notifications, silence your phone (use airplane mode), close all the apps that are running at the background, and shut the windows. Nothing kills a self-tape more than car alarms or sirens!

Try some test recordings first, to see if it is better to have the phone in a different place in the room.

Usually the microphone is on the back of the phone, point that towards you for the recording. You can check this in the phone’s user guide, normally this is available online. An external microphone for your recording, if you have one, will help improve the quality of the audio.

Make sure you have plenty of space on your phone, for example you may need to download photos and videos onto a computer or into cloud storage: remember that for most auditions the audition video has to be a single ‘take’ – straight through with no cuts or edits. Please check the ‘Courses’ section on your department’s page of the website, as this will tell you if you can record your items separately. You can find this by going to Study > Departments > *your department* (e.g. Brass) > Courses

The performance element of your video submission must be in one take i.e. not edited and with no breaks between items. However, individual items (pieces/movements) can be recorded separately if the possibility of recording the audition in one take is affected by circumstances beyond your control - such as availability of an accompanist - unless the department audition guidance specifies that you have to submit a one-take recording. All recordings must be recent/current. All accompanied works should have the appropriate accompaniment in your recording. This can be a “minus one” track, you do not need to hire an accompanist for your audition recording.

Watch your recording before uploading to be sure there were no technical problems. Whether using a backing track or a live accompanist, please ensure it looks and sounds good and that the balance is right.

But most importantly please remember that the audition panel are not assessing the quality of your recording, only the quality of your performance.