Singing Auditions - How To Get Into A Music School

I have a confession to make: The first time I auditioned for the music program at my university it was a disaster.

I’d never taken so much as a single lesson and had no clue what I was doing.

I was uninformed and unprepared.

But I was stubborn, and so I immediately went off to find a voice teacher.

I’m sorry to say that my first voice teacher taught me some very bad singing habits that took me a while to unlearn.

But just from constantly singing exercises and practicing my audition songs with piano accompaniment, my ear got better and my muscle memory kicked in just enough so that when I went to audition, even though I was nervous, I was still prepared.

So, about 6 months after bombing first audition, I went back to try again.

And although I sounded pretty awful, the music director was impressed with my hard work and the progress I’d made in so short a time and let me in on a probational basis.

From the day I was accepted into the music program, I worked my butt off! Looking back, I think I may have worked too hard! Since then, I’ve sung in competitions and had many successful auditions.

What changed between that atrocious first audition and my triumphant second audition?

And what did I continue to do to successfully get every job and role that I auditioned for?

I’m going to share that information with you now.

There are essentially 3 elements to an operatic technique and a successful audition:

1. Musicianship

2. Singing Technique

3. Preparation

Musicianship

Musicianship includes your ability to actively listen and accurately reproduce music.

It includes that ability to read and write music and identify musical patterns and structures.

You’ll learn all of this stuff (and more than you ever probably wanted to know about music!) once you get into a music school.

But your chances of getting accepted drop dramatically if you can’t do one very important thing: Sing in tune.

Arguably the most important thing to making your audition a slam dunk is being able to sing in tune.

To sing in tune you have to handle 2 things.

First, your larynx must be low and the sound in your mask . This is so important that I really can’t emphasize it enough. It is the hallmark of operatic technique. I've written extensively on operatic technique. There's a lot to it! But the low larynx is THE number 1 thing.

Second, you have to have the major scale “in your ear”.

The vast majority of music is based on the major scale.

Ask your teacher to help you learn it and sing it ascending and descending at some point in every lesson.

This will teach you to begin paying attention to how precisely “on the note” you are.

Listen carefully and match the pitches as accurately as you can.

This will be frustrating at first but you will improve dramatically if you just keep at it and pay close attention.

As you read in the previous section, correct technique is necessary to sing in tune consistently.

When I say “correct technique”, what I’m really saying is “freedom”. It's also the basis for how to sing opera.

If you don’t learn proper singing technique, you’ll be straining and tensing your way through music and it’ll sound and feel bad. Period.

Preparation

I won’t tell you to NOT be nervous at your first audition.

The important thing is not whether you get nervous but how well prepared you are.

If you’ve practiced your music and really worked hard at getting it to sound as good as possible, your muscle memory will do the rest!

If you have any doubt about any part of your music, ask your teacher to help you and go practice it!

You’re not after confidence, because there’s really no such thing.

You’re looking for competence , which is knowing what to do even when you’re nervous.

It’s important that you and your piano player agree on the way you’ll be performing a piece.

It’s OK to compromise the interpretation of a piece of music to suit your skill level.

You’ll get better and perform the piece as it’s meant when you’re capable. But for now, focus on a successful audition.

The rest will follow.

Find out if you can use your own pianist for your audition.

Many schools provide a pianist already and if you’re obligated to sing with him/her, absolutely insist on meeting at least once to run through your music and work out any kinks.

Different accompanists will play things VERY differently and the last thing you want is to go into an audition and stand there confused because the pianist is playing the piece twice as fast as you practiced it with your teacher . . . it happens!

When you’re preparing your audition pieces, it’s very important that you practice your body language.

This includes standing still and confidently, gesturing and facial expressions.

Videotape yourself and go back and take notes on what you can do better.

Do this a few times and you’ll see a tremendous improvement.

Another really important thing is that you keep things in perspective.

Most people have way too much at stake in their daily lives.

Whether you're interacting with other human beings, interviewing for a new job (which is not unlike an audition!) or talking to a member of the opposite sex.

And it really isn't your fault that you feel like everything's on the line or that it's a big deal because it's something we're taught by society.

In our culture we're taught to constantly strive, push, achieve, compete, win, and so on and so forth, because that's what WINNERS do, right?

The problem with this is that we become TOO ATTACHED TO OUTCOMES.

We think that if we don't get this one thing to go down as planned, it's the end of the world.

Maybe this is why so many people experience test anxiety in school.

They know that if they get a bad grade, their teacher will be displeased, their parents will be displeased and then they'll have to deal with feeling inadequate because they're not living up to other peoples' standards.

It's a ridiculous, vicious cycle and nothing brings it out like a stressful situation.

Well, the fact is that an audition CAN be just such a stressful event but it certainly doesn't have to be.

Again, I want to just emphasize preparedness and intimate knowledge of your music but there's a deeper level still that will prepare you for every audition, both actual and proverbial in your life.

It all starts with letting go of the outcome.

I want you to think about how it will be, how it will feel if you don't do well on this audition and as a result don't get into the school/get the part, whatever.

So you might be upset and feel like you stink for a bit but what will happen then?

You'll move on and either a) go and improve until you can do the audition better next time or b) give up.

There's nothing wrong with giving up, by the way. Don't let anybody call you a quitter if you feel like your time would be better spent playing to your strengths instead of endlessly trying to compensate for weaknesses that may or may not be inborn anyway.

But let's go back to the feeling upset and down part.

The truth is that most people live in the Matrix and react to things very predictably.

Western society teaches you that you are what you do.

That your worth is related to and even determined by how well you do this that or the other thing.

For example, do you think the majority of people would feel as much self-worth if they were garbagemen instead of investment bankers? Or if they married a trailer trash girl instead of a finely educated young lady from a well to do family?

Probably not, because everybody wants to try to tell you what your experiences and actions mean and the simple truth is that they only mean what you think they mean.

And what you think they mean is something you're in control of.

When I go to an audition I can step in there and be completely care free because I don't let anybody or anything determine my self-worth as a human being (as opposed to, say, an aardvark).

Humans have FUNDAMENTAL value.

I'm not saying that if you go around and act like a jerk that you should expect everybody to love you anyway, but I am saying that YOU should love you anyway.

So I know I've led you down a rabbit hole here but I've been on both sides and I can tell you that being carefree, indifferent to outcomes is actually the path to success.

Imagine going into a job interview or on a date and thinking: "Oh man, this has GOT to work out".

You'll be putting out vibes of insecurity and desperation and act like you have nothing else going on in your life and you need this SO BAD.

This is not an attractive quality in business, dating, and especially not auditions.

Remember that the people auditioning you are going to be seeing you every day for hours on end.

They want to surround themselves with good vibes not needy, insecure vibes.

So coming full circle, just give up wanting an outcome. Stop wanting it. It doesn't matter and 20 years from now, nobody's going to care about how you did on some stupid little audition. NOBODY.

This philosophy of non attachment is ancient and in fact a part of what is known as Taoism. I encourage you to check it out and do some more research.

Typically, an audition is held before 1 to 3 faculty members either in a closed room or on a stage.

It might seem intimidating but just remember that these people were once in your shoes.

They’re human beings and understand that you’re auditioning for a music school to learn how to sing. If you already knew how, you wouldn’t be there in the first place! Being polite, humble and giving off a positive energy is the best approach by far.

You’ll do great!

Yours In Song, Vic Dorfman