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
 

Fresno Grand Opera Christmas on Van Ness -- AKA Reaping the Rewards of Teaching Sight-Singing

Waiting to sing in the balcony of "The Big Red Church" in Fresno

My rants about singers needing to learn to sight-read are probably almost become legendary...but my reasons are good and this week the hard work of my students really has paid off! 




Every kid (except one who is a piano student and learning to read music that way!) from age 9-18 pictured above has been making their way through my sight-singing course.  Some are in their third year and can read almost anything in a major key, given a starting pitch.  


This week was an opportunity to test their skills in a real-life situation -- TAA was scheduled to have a group of kids perform at the Fresno Grand Opera Christmas Concert one week after Thanksgiving AND the Nutcracker!  One week of rehearsals only!  


Cannot express how nice it was to say things in rehearsal like "almost perfect, but that's a 6-1, not 5-1, see?" and to turn these kids loose on two 4-part a cappella pieces with almost no note-hashing at all.  

Four rehearsals plus one run-through at the performance site the day before, and here are the results!  



Riu Riu Chiu  

Other two pieces are also on my YouTube, but this is definitely my favorite!
They're proud of their work and were kind of surprised even at themselves and what they could accomplish in very little time!  Really that time is the result of years of hard work -- but SO WORTH IT!

TAA Youth Ensemble:Emma Newcomb
Elise Newcomb
Megan Forgey
Cameron Forgey
Erin Forgey
Samuel Walls
Trent Andrews
Elizabeth Hampton
Kylie Gardner
Autum Monty
Caroline Cantelmi
Josh Peters
Jessica Peters
Katie Peters
Madison Soltesz
Brenna Goodin