Audition Ready Part 1: THE BOOK

Many of my "single" vocal coaching sessions are what people think of as "audition prep" -- sometimes a fine-tuning of a song someone knows well, but more often I find myself faced with a person with an "I have an audition next week (or tomorrow!), can you help me find a song?

This is problematic for a number of reasons.  
 First, once adrenaline hits (and you can plan on that in an audition room!), our brains naturally turn off recent learning and we are left with our habits.  Things we have learned within a day or a week will be very difficult to use at this point!  
Second, it takes time to really get inside a song.  I promise, a music director will always know if you are "fishing a bit" for notes, and a casting director will know if you put in the emotional and background work or if you are just singing the words.  You start with two strikes against you if the song is new.  
(Some of you may be saying at this point "but I can learn a song in a week!" Maybe you can, and that's great, you'll be amazing in the callback room -- but I challenge you, how much better could that same song be if you spent a month or a year crafting it?) 

The answer:  If you plan to audition for anything in the next year, professional or community theater, start developing your book NOW.

So, what goes in my book?
Plan on a minimum of 12 complete songs, with well-prepared 16 and 32 bar cuts of each as well.  (Preparing this music for an accompanist will be in a later post.)
These songs should show your best work.  In other words, if you nail that belted C nine times out of ten, don't include it in your book yet, keep working on it, keep working on your vocal technique.  Everything in this book should be consistent. 
Think about what your "type" will be auditioning for and choose songs accordingly from the following list of suggestions.  There used to be a saying that "if Barbra Streisand sang it, don't unless you can do it better."  The same is probably true today for Sutton Foster or Idina Menzel songs.  Be yourself, don't try to be someone else! 

2 traditional musical theater uptempos
2 traditional musical theater ballads
Rodgers and Hammerstein Song
Sondheim ballad
Sondheim patter
Pop/rock uptempo from a musical
Pop/rock uptempo not from a musical
Pop/rock ballad from a musical
Pop/rock ballad not from a musical
2 contrasting 50s-60s pop songs
Comic song
Contemporary musical theater uptempo
Contemporary musical theater ballad
Operetta/art song/aria (if and only if you have classical training)
Country/western song
Jazz standard
Belt (this is probably not your first go-to.  Casting directors are tired of being "yelled at" -- but they may ask for it after your initial song.)
"Novelty" song -- one that is uniquely you or a strong character song.  Comic or not.

There are many resources on the internet for help choosing and finding songs.  
Here are three of my favorites:  
New Musical Theatre (A website dedicated to new MT composers.)
Musical Theatre Resources (Great blog by Kevin Michael Jones with lots of rep)
Musical Theater Songs (A subscription database with weekly freebies. An AMAZING resource!)

Click for printable audition book worksheet in Word:  AUDITION BOOK WORKSHEET