Photo Credit: adapted from Gage Skidmore via cc
What song should I choose for an audition?
Sometimes you shouldn’t just be thinking what song should I choose for auditioning for whatever role? Why not think about what styles of song you should choose for your audition.
When you are building a your repertoire of audition songs, it is good to think about the ‘kinds of songs’ you have in your collection.
Yes, you must have an up-tempo and a ballad and also songs from contrasting genres and periods of time but it’s useful to look at some other factors in addition.
Here are five ‘families of songs’ that are valuable to have in your audition collection:
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A song that shows rangeYou’ll frequently see some variation of this phrase in casting breakdowns. A common mistake actors make when interpreting this phrase is thinking it means “sing as high and as low as you can.” There are some characters and roles when singing well at the extremes of your range will be essential, but quite often, that isn’t essential.If you have an amazing high C, then of course you can show it off. But there are many other ways to show range. Think about: dynamics,(loud/soft), or spoken vs. sung sounds, consider vocal textures and colours, or the emotional arc.Range is not necessarily about highs and lows in just the notes. -
A Simple SongA simple song is a song where the musical shaping and melody is simple enough so that you can show yourself as an actor without all the bells and whistles of a lot of the big musical theatre numbers. This is a great song to keep in your back pocket as a second number when you have done your big show-off number first.A simple song lets you show that you can also do small, measured, considered, stillness and poise.
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A Happy SongOn a long day of auditions it can often be a real breath of fresh air when someone comes in and sings a song of hope or joy or optimism and brightens the atmosphere.An audition is a job interview and the song you choose will show off your personality. If you express a genuinely happy feeling when you sing your song you will be remembered as someone who it will be great to have around and to work with.
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A song which touches youIt is really important that you have at least one song in your repertoire which you have chosen yourself because you really feel it in your guts. Search and explore until you find something which really connects with you on a deep emotional level – don’t simply choose a song because your singing teacher or a friend has told you it will be perfect for you.Find something you feel passionately about and your connection with the material will show in bucketloads at any casting.
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A song for your dream roleThere must be a role which you have always dreamt of playing, well choose a song which you would use to audition for that role. It can be a song that character sings or just a song which feels right for that character.Sing it as if you are playing that dream role. Put it out into the universe and you never know what will happen.
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