So sometimes we have heaps of time to prepare for an audition. Sometimes we hear about it a week in advance – if that! That can make our time to prepare very very small. Is there a way we can make ourselves more ready for a quick work up of a song? I think so. Here are some ideas that might work for you.
There’s nothing worse than looking through your repertoire and realising you don’t have anything you need. Like those days you just have nothing to wear right? You want to have a great repertoire available to you for auditions and performances but you just don’t know where to start. There are so many options out there and so much you can work through – its a matter of knowing where to look. Here are some good places to look for new songs.
Picking a song for an audition can be the most difficult step of your preparation, and since you can’t do much until you have one you can lose a lot of time trying to decide. Ultimately, this song choice can be a huge part of how you are viewed in the room so you want to make sure you make a good decision. This choice should be about displaying your ability and that you can do the job you are applying for. Choosing an audition song is a different game to choosing a performance song for a concert or cabaret. So for me, I like to check that the song I am choosing will give me the best shot at showing what I’ve got to offer. I’ve picked up some tips over the years from experience in auditioning and from courses and workshops I’ve been involved with and I’ve compiled them below into a checklist of things I look for in a song before taking it to an audition.
For a more in depth breakdown of selection from an audition brief feel free to check out my previous post on Choosing An Audition Song.
Okay here we go:
So you know there’s a show coming up you want to be involved with. And in the style of many audition briefs have been told to choose two songs. Maybe they’ve thrown in some words like ‘contrasting’ or phrases like in the “style of the show.” But where do you go from there?
Staring at that brief with absolutely no idea what to pick can be incredibly daunting but it doesn’t have to be. So I thought I’d help you all out by taking you through my process when it comes to audition song selection. It’s not the only process and by no means would I claim it is for every situation but its a good starting point for sure.
So you have the brief. Lets say it says something like this:
Thank you for your interest in My Fair Lady. Singing auditions will be assigned individual 15 minute appointment times. Please prepare two contrasting songs of no more than 32 bars each in the style of the show.
So lets walk you through how I would break that down.
I was looking over some old photos today and came across this great shot I took of some grapes. I remember at the time – before I realised the two bunches were tangled – how enamoured I was at this single red grape that I thought had appeared amongst my green seedless bunch. I should point out to you all that green seedless grapes are certainly my favourite. Had you asked me what I was heading to the table to get – it would not be the red grapes…. and yet it is this red grape that I certainly was not looking for that inspired me to take this photograph.
So often we walk into an audition room with this great worry about what we think the director is looking for: Do I look the part? Do they want someone taller? Should I portray my character a certain way? Does the director already know what they want? Do I even have a chance at this part?
Amy Winner 