Part of being a singer will involve taking part in auditions. Knowing what not to do in an audition can help you pass more of them, so here are some common audition mistakes that you should avoid at all costs.
Don’t choose a song that’s too popular.
There are songs out there which everyone wants to sing and it’s only natural that you would too – it shows you as being versatile, modern, or ‘with the times’. However, they’re not necessarily the best ones to choose for auditions for a number of reasons.
- If the judging panel hears the same song all day, they will get bored of hearing it and this could harm your chances of success.
- By choosing a song that’s very popular, you open yourself up to being compared to somebody else.
- If you choose a different song they won’t be able to compare you like for like and you will therefore be judged purely on your own merits.
Imagine being the judge – if you have five people singing the same song, you’re then able to whittle that down by deciding who sang that song best – and that might put you at a great disadvantage in an audition.
Don’t forget to research the judges.
People will often turn up without even knowing who the judges are. Researching this information, you can really hone in which song you want to sing because everybody likes different types of music. If you know that they work with certain types of artists, you can actually choose the sort of song which is most likely to resonate with the majority of the panel.
If they like the song and they like your voice, then you are in the best position for success.
Practise the talking part too!
It’s nerve wracking but speaking to people during an audition is just as important as singing because it makes the first impression.
- Are you going to stand there and wait to sing your song? Or are you going to say something?
- Are you going to talk to the audience if there’s an audience there or not?
- If you want to speak at an audition, you should practice what you’re going to say because when nerves take over it’s a good idea to have something in the bag that you can just pull out.
Show your personality.
Even the most extroverted artist can come on stage and look like they’re really shy. It’s important to try and work through nerves and find a way to bring out your natural personality.
Equally the opposite applies- don’t go out there being all extrovert if that’s not you. Be Authentic.
Give Eye Contact!
We use eye contact in order to keep people’s attention and focus on us, or to show that we are paying attention to them. This is equally important at an audition.
Keep it natural – you don’t want to be staring the judges out because that’s very uncomfortable.
But you do want to make a regular eye contact if they’re looking up at you, because that will keep them connected with you and make them feel that this is a real person with real feelings doing this audition. It’ll be harder to say no to you!
Don’t miss out on all the networking.
The music industry is about who you know and there are many connections that can be made at auditions. Before you enter the audition room you will be in a waiting area and so many times, singers will sit in their own, or with their family group and they don’t even speak to anybody else in the room.
Well, how do you know who else is sat in that room? The next number one star might be there and if you were to make a connection with them, you might one day collaborate with them. That might then lift your career (or vice versa) because it’s about helping each other out.
So if you’re going to an audition network, network, network. Get people’s details, hand out your own cards and be there in the moment.
Ask for feedback
You might fail an audition, you might get the news that “Sorry on this occasion you haven’t been successful”. How often have you been followed up with them? Said, “thank you very much for that. Could you please give me feedback on what I could do better?”
So simple. They can turn around and say “I’m sorry, we don’t give feedback”. But what if they do? What if they could tell you what it is that you did wrong or what you could do better? That’s gold, because you can then take that information and know how to do a great audition, then use it to hopefully be successful in the next one.
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