La! A note to follow so...

In the blog “You begin with Do Re Mi…” I found that picking a song to use for an audition is a completely subjective decision. The concrete things I could offered were:

1.) Know what product you’re selling

2.) Pay attention to the audition notices

3.) Find music similar in style to the show you’re auditioning for

4.) Singing from the show is alright if you are comfortable doing so

5.) Know what you sound like singing the song

6.) Leave a positive message about yourself through the song

7.) Avoid iconic songs and the singers who sing them

8.) Target a specific role or show

9.) When in doubt, ask!

I’d like to add one more thing to the list:

10.) Avoid songs heard on reality TV and current TV shows. In fact as a performer you should be avoiding    watching reality shows in general. They cause you to lose jobs (more about that in another blog).

In today’s market it’s no longer acceptable to sing whatever you sing best, unless that’s what the people behind the table specifically are asking. Practically every call for singers, principal and chorus call alike, lists a type of music the people behind the table wish to hear.

I recently went to an Equity Chorus Call that asked for a “standard musical theatre song”. The music in the show isn’t really standard nor is it contemporary and it definitely isn’t Sondheim or pop or rock. I was undecided right up until getting in line. I had contemplated singing one of my “songs du jour” because it seemed to fit the bill of not really being standard or contemporary. Ultimately I had decided against it. The guy directly ahead of me sang it. As I walked into the room the people behind the table were discussing the previous auditioner. They were commenting on how the song he sang (my song du jour) wasn’t an appropriate choice for this call.

After I had scrapped the idea of singing that song du jour, I had narrowed my choices down to two other possibilities, one very standard and one more contemporary standard. Since I was still torn over which to sing, I asked the people behind the table which they would like to hear. The man leading the audition replied “We want you to choose.” I chose the uber-standard song. Considering I had to wait four hours before actually getting in the room to sing it went well. The man behind the table did comment on the song. He said “that was a good choice.”

Fats Waller was right. “Find out what they like and how they like it and give it to them just that way”. This means you as the performer need to be prepared with basically every possible style of music that may be requested at any audition…and probably some you wouldn’t normally sing.

Jamibeth Margolis is a New York based Director and Casting Director. She believes in empowering actors through knowledge and teaches a class called Musical Scene Study Class. It’s the only one of its kind that I know of in the city.  In class she pairs you with a partner. She then picks a scene with a song from the musical theatre cannon for the two of you to work. This scene with song fits your specific product. At the end of the several week session, the scene with song is then presented to industry professionals. When I took this class with Jamibeth we met and performed for an agent and a composer.

The Musical Scene Study Class is wonderful for many reasons. There are three that are highly valuable in today’s market:

The class gives you a direct link, backed up by actual vocal material, to what a casting director perceives your product to be.

The class presents you with a unique opportunity to gain insight from industry professionals on brand new work, without them actually seeing your learning process.

And specific to the topic at hand,

Jamibeth has compiled a list of the types of music that every actor should have in his or her “book” and shares this list with her students to assist them in choosing new audition music.

What to do after you choose a new song is pretty standard. In this, part two of “You begin with Do Re Mi…” I’m going to cover the more practical hands on things about the prep for a vocal audition.

Once songs are chosen, the sheet music should be put into a binder. This binder containing your collection of audition music is referred to as your “book”. Do not bring in actual books, scores, vocal selections, vocal scores or compilations for the accompanist to play from. In this day and age of technological advances it screams lazy and unprofessional. Besides do you want an accompanist using one hand to play while the other hand holds an actual book in place?

The look of your book should be professional and polished but still represent the best of your unique personality. A colleague of mine, Louise, loves the color pink. It makes her happy. The binder she chooses to keep her music in is pink.

A lot of singers have several different “books”, one for each type of music. They have a book for pop repertoire, one for contemporary musical theatre repertoire, one for standard musical theatre repertoire and so on. The audition they’re attending dictates which book they bring. If the show is asking for a “pop contemporary musical theatre” song, that is the repertoire book they bring. This can become a bit of a challenge when at the audition the people behind the table seem to suddenly change their minds on what they want to hear. This happens a lot. And it usually happens right as the first group is being lined up to go into the audition room. For just this reason I keep two books: a mega book and a working book.

The mega book is the entire collection of music that I can sing. The working book is all my songs du jour, the standard things that I sing at auditions, and all the songs that are tried and true and cross over into more than a few musical categories. When targeting an audition, I add specific songs from the mega book to the working book. For example when I audition for The Drowsy Chaperone, I take music appropriate to this call from the mega book and put it into the working book. I bring the working book to the audition. The things I sing for The Drowsy Chaperone are targeted specifically for the role of “Aldolpho” and aren’t necessarily wise choices for much else. At that call, I have my audition specific songs and a whole host of often used music in one book…with me. When that audition is over the sheet music that had been added is taken out to be replaced by the next set of audition specific songs.

If you remember from “You begin with Do Re Mi…” targeting specific roles and shows in a season’s audition, will be helpful to the people behind the table in casting you and thus beneficial to you.

Each piece of music in both books needs to be marked for easy access. Some actors keep a table of contents at the beginning of their book. Some put tabs on each individual piece. Some do both. You have to do something that makes it easy for you to find a song and find it quickly while under pressure while in the audition room. Eddie Schnecker (the Doctor from part one) says that actors who were asked to sing a second piece sometimes had that privilege revoked because they couldn’t quickly find appropriate music. Having the people behind that table change their mind has little to do with the actors themselves and more to do with time. Time is quite often a huge factor in the way auditions are run and how much you actually get to sing while in the room.

When picking songs for your mega book you need to be constantly asking yourself “Do I like the song?” and “Do I enjoy singing it?” Nothing will sabotage your audition quicker than singing a song simply because your voice teacher said you should or you learned in a class or a blog somewhere that you need this particular type of song. Your joy in singing the song should radiate throughout your entire being. That’s attracting. That will get you noticed.

If you’ve found a song that you enjoy singing the next thing to consider is whether it’s a good first piece or second piece. The piece you begin with has got to show your “star quality” straight away. Think of it as a vocal first impression. The people behind the table need to hear why you’re special and why they should hire your voice for their show. Once you’ve done this, if asked for a second piece, you can move on to other aspects of your talent.

You’ve picked a song you like. It fills a niche in your book. You’ve decided whether it’s a good first or second piece. Now you have to learn it. This may sound elementary but it’s really not. At the summer season auditions Dr. Eddie played for, he was literally astonished at how many performers, good talented performers, who didn’t know the introduction to their song. It resulted in a lot of false starts, which immediately highlights a performer’s potential weak point: homework.

Dr. Eddie advises in having some sort of introduction with either the piano starting or the vocalist starting. Having both starting at the same time could result in one trying to catch up to the other. Again this is a less than strong, confident polished and professional first impression. Set an intro and learn it.

Once your song starts, the music pages in your book should continually move forward. The accompanist should never have to flip backwards, even one page, to search for a repeat. The more accomplished accompanists will deal well with these types of musical markings. Whether you actually get to sing with an accomplished and competent accompanist is anyone’s guess. You could hire the same accompanist for every vocal audition you ever attend. For some auditions, particularly those asking for more complicated music like Sondheim’s, this is the best course of action. Incurring this expense on a regular basis isn’t a realistic option for most performers.

Take the time to write out all of the music. By “writing out the music” I mean take out repeat signs and codas. If the song layout is verse then ending one, go back for a repeat of the verse then ending two, and then the chorus, the music in your book should be laid out as such: verse one, verse two, and chorus. There should be no backward page turning. Why take the chance on the agility and adeptness of an accompanist you just met 10 seconds ago.

With that concept of keep your music straight forward and simple in mind, any measures that are not needed for your rendition of the song should be completely exorcised from your copy of the sheet music.

The sheet music in your book should be in non-glare sheet protectors. Putting the music in non-glare sleeves gives the accompanist a fighting chance to read the music under the glare of those wonderful fluorescent audition room lights. It helps save your music from wear and tear. It also helps save your music from accidentally being ripped out of your book by overzealous pianists and thus helps save a tree.

Every single piece of music in your book needs to be marked for a 16 bar cut and a 32 bar cut. Because of the current climate in auditions, I would say it’s not necessary to have much more than approximately a 32 bar cut of most of your songs. I know this goes against what everyone has been taught, including me. But today, even at Equity Principal Calls and invited agent calls, actors are being asked for “short” or “brief” songs. I was at an Equity Principal Audition recently that asked for a “brief contemporary pop musical theatre song”. The guy before me basically sang an aria, in style and length. Again I was torn between two songs. I offered both pieces to the woman behind the table. Because both are very long pieces, in offering I add that both have been extremely cut down. Her response was “That’s the right answer!” That casting director was now in my corner more than she normally would have been.

As an actor, you want to leave the people behind the table wanting more, not wishing there was less. This opens the opportunity to be asked for a second piece…which you already have, already prepared and easily accessible in your working book.

Please note that if you are asked for an “audition cut” or an “appointment cut” of a song, you are specifically being asked for 32 bars.

The exception to having only 32-ish bars of a song would be if you’re singing from the show for the show. In this circumstance you should be prepared with a cut version and be able to perform the entire song. In my book I have entire songs arranged for me to sing, no repeats and extra measures deleted. I make two copies of the pages that will be marked for a 16 bar cut or a 32 bar cut. I put the page with the demarcations in red in the sheet protector behind the unmarked copy. I have at the ready in my book the full song, a 32 bar cut and a 16 bar cut.

There is a lot of talent coming through those audition doors. It’s no longer enough to just sound good. When choosing a 16 bar or 32 bar cut, Dr. Eddie says it’s important to consider several things. The performer has to choose a cut that has a complete thought. This is quite easy in 32 bars. It can be challenging in a 16 bars. All it really takes is just one well written sentence. That sentence should start and finish within the 16 bars.

Another thing to consider is whether there is a build in the 16 or 32 bars. Does the snippet of music you’ve chosen start off at one level and stay there? If it’s all quiet, it can tend to not pop out and grab the attention of the people behind the table. Or if it’s all loud it just “blows their hair back”. In a word it’s called “dynamics”. Dynamics should be present in everything you sing, even a 16 bar cut.

As for the dreaded 8 bar audition…I wish you all the best.

The most important thing to consider while singing actually applies to all performing auditions. You have to be a living breathing whole person while in the room. The people behind the table are casting human beings. Because of the inundation of reality TV, a majority of casting people want the bona fide real deal. If they’re casting a rock musical the trend is to look for rock singers as opposed to musical theatre people who can sing rock. You have to know who you are, target auditions and bring the whole “you” into the room.

It all continually circles back to this one premise: You are ultimately the product you are selling.

There are so many variables in the process of auditions. You as the performer, as the sales person of your product, need to be in control of every aspect of the audition that is in your power to control. Properly preparing your sheet music for the accompanist, organizing your “book”, and having an array of different types of music at the ready are some of the simplest and most effective ways to exercise that power. It shows you’re serious about what you do. It shows you’re ready and willing to do all the homework necessary when you actually book the job.

It shows you’re a professional.