Rubric - Piano (Jazz) Audition Rubric

A traditional 4-level, 100-point jazz piano audition rubric scoring touch and voicing, harmonic accuracy and reharmonization, swing feel and comping, texture and dynamics, and improvisation.
4 - Exceeds Expectation 3 - Meets Expectation 2 - Approaching Expectation 1 - Below Expectation
Standards, Blues, Comping & Solo
100%
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Touch, Voicing & Tone
20%
20 Points
Beautiful jazz touch with rich, well-balanced voicings; inner voices and top notes are shaped deliberately....
15 Points
Good touch and idiomatic voicings; balance between hands is solid with occasional lapses....
10 Points
Touch is heavy or uneven and voicings are muddy or poorly balanced....
0 Points
Touch and voicing are not established; the sound is uncontrolled....
Harmonic Accuracy & Reharmonization
20%
20 Points
Complete command of extensions, alterations, substitutions and reharmonization; every choice is deliberate and idiomatic....
15 Points
Correct, idiomatic harmony with some reharmonization; choices are solid if conventional....
10 Points
Harmony is basic or misapplied; altered chords produce wrong notes....
0 Points
Cannot realize the changes; harmonic content is incorrect throughout....
Swing Feel, Time & Comping Rhythm
20%
20 Points
Irresistible swing with rhythmically inventive comping that breathes with the soloist; time is impeccable at every tempo....
15 Points
Convincing swing and steady time; comping rhythm is solid but somewhat repetitive....
10 Points
Swing feel is stiff, comping is metronomic or intrusive, and time drifts....
0 Points
No swing feel and comping cannot function within the ensemble....
Dynamics, Register Use & Texture
20%
20 Points
Wide dynamic range and highly varied texture; register choices create genuine contrast between chorus and section....
15 Points
Clear dynamic contrast and some textural variety; register use is effective....
10 Points
Dynamics stay flat and texture is uniform; register use is limited....
0 Points
No dynamic, textural, or registral variety....
Improvisation, Vocabulary & Style
20%
20 Points
Solos are melodic, harmonically sophisticated and form-aware, with a deep and personal jazz vocabulary....
15 Points
Competent, musical solos with clear form awareness and idiomatic vocabulary....
10 Points
Solos are scalar or pattern-based and lose the form....
0 Points
No usable improvisation or jazz vocabulary....