Student Blog: How to Prep for an Audition at Home

It is now crunch time; I go back to school on Friday and have an audition on Monday. Obviously, I haven't been in school so I couldn't take advantage of the resources that I normally have there. I have my own process for learning songs at home and I think it is important for everyone to have their own as well. The first step is choosing your audition song.

For me, the audition is for a production of Legally Blonde and the announcement said to sing 16-32 bars of contemporary musical theatre in the style of the show. The most important part is that it also said you could sing from the show. I suggest you take that and run with it because, in professional auditions, especially appointments, you will be singing material from the show you are auditioning for. Fortunately, I had helped backstage with a previous production of Legally Blonde. However, if you don't know the show then I suggest doing a simple YouTube search and listen to the cast album to familiarize yourself with the sound of it.

Then comes what I think is the hard part; casting yourself in the show. Look at the characters and descriptions and see who fits you the most. Then, pick your favorite song that the character sings. For me, it was a little tough because I don't usually sing that style of musical theatre. Therefore, I just picked my favorite song. After that, print out the sheet music; I recommend going to MusicNotes. Also, make sure you print it out double-sided with all piano and voice parts seen on the page.

Next, you have to create a cut of the song since most auditions will only want 16-32 bars. In my opinion, the best way to do this would be to listen to the song again and count 16-32 starting from the beginning, middle, and end. Try to pick a section that has range and changing tempos/dynamics. To create the cut put a line and write Start and the beginning of your cut, or if the cut starts at the beginning don't worry about this. Then, put a line and write End when you want to finish your cut.

The final step, PRACTICE! To start out I recommend listening to just the melody line. If you can plunk out those notes on a piano, great! If not, another app I use is Appcompanist; this is great because it allows you to change keys, tempos, and blending between the voice line and piano line. After you feel you have successfully learned the notes, slowly blend the two parts until you can practice the song fully with accompaniment. That's it! By completing these steps, I firmly believe that you will be prepared for any audition that comes your way.

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