The last 15 years, I’ve helped prepared lots of students* for auditions. The ones that made it were good singers but not only. It takes so much more than a capable voice to get noticed by the judging panel. In this article, I’m giving you 4 Tips to Impress at Any Audition.

 

 


4 Tips to Impress at Any Audition

1. Be Smart

My 1st tip for you is: Be Smart!

You’ve gotta be smart, you’ve gotta think.

Be Smart with your purpose

So ask yourself these questions:

  • why do you want to audition for this particular audition?
  • is it part of your plan?
  • is it to have fun? (hint: wrong answer)
  • is it to test your abilities (hint: wrong answer)

If you know why you are auditioning, keep your goal in mind the whole time you are preparing for the audition. It helps a lot!

Be Smart when choosing your song

In my opinion, too many singers don’t think enough about the song choice. I don’t think the song has to showcase your whole vocal technique. An “easy” song, sung beautifully with the right emotion and an original flavor (your flavor) is much more efficient than any “big” song sung only to showcase vocal technique.

I do some kind of audition for the new students that want me to coach them because my time is limited. When a new student comes in my studio and sing trying to demonstrate only vocally his singing knowledge, my reaction is: “Well done but what was it about?”.

So don’t choose your song only to showcase your technique. Choose your song with your heart and give it your own style. You must love it. If you don’t, the audience is not going to believe you and you will not impress them.

2. Be Fierce

Now you know why you are auditioning and the song you are going to perform, you need to have the right audition mindset. What is it? You’ve gotta be fierce and you’ve gotta be proud.

I don’t mean you should be so self-sufficient that you think you don’t even need to prepare the song. But being proud is the way to be. Because if you don’t believe in yourself, who is?

Remember when you signed up for the audition, you were excited, happy, impatient. Keep this feeling but add control to it and you’ll do great! When we sing, we sing for others. When you’ll be auditioning, you will be singing for others too, for the judges, the directors or the band members.

If you are proud and NOT hiding behind the microphone, behind your outfit, too much makeup or bad excuses (“I’m sorry I have a cold”), this is going to impress the jury.

3. Be Ready

My 3rd tip is obvious but I’ve met quite a lot of singers that were NOT ready when they auditioned.

In fact, it happened to me.

It was in the old days (1991) and I wanted to audition for a musical.

The song I had chosen was “Fame”. For the audition, we had to provide an instrumental so I ordered a karaoke CD with “Fame” instrumental. The order took 1 week to get delivered. It arrived on the morning of the audition!

Of course, I had practiced but only on the original song and never on the instrumental.

I think you guess what happened? The instrumental had not exactly the same structure as the original. The number of bars before the verses was different and I ended up starting at the wrong time. Bye, bye, I just want to hide…

Do you see how important it is to get ready?

What do you need to be ready? Know the song by heart, have your voice ready, have the right mindset!

If you’re ready, you will look professional and you will impress the audience!

4. Be Amazing

OK, my 4th tip is Be Amazing.

To be amazing, you need to be YOURSELF!

Don’t compare yourself to others

“Compare is despair.” Comparing yourself to others is only going to diminish your self-confidence (hence you’re not going to be fierce and proud anymore…).

Don’t pretend to be someone else

It is perfectly normal to get inspired by artists but if YOU want to make it, you need to step back from them. Stop mimicking, stop dressing like them. Instead, develop your own vocal and artist identity.

We are all different. It is that little something special about you that will get you noticed and remembered.


4 Tips to Impress at Any Audition

When auditioning, what YOU want is to impress and it takes more than singing.

Now, each time you have to prepare for an audition, remember to be smart, to be fierce, to be ready and to be amazing. I know you are so now go and break a leg!

Vahn

*CLIC HERE to watch one of my student Liza at The Voice blind auditions
About the Author Vahn Petit

HI, I'M VAHN.
I am a voice teacher and a vocal coach. I help contemporary singers use their voice more efficiently, in a safe and funky way!

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