By Amanda Cornaglia

Give auditionees a date, time, and location, and tell them anything they may need to prepare for the audition.

You'll probably want them to come prepared to perform a song for you, and you may even go as far as sending them some music in advance. Again, setting expectations is key!

The audition itself should reflect the nature of the group and should be equal parts professional and fun.

Collect contact info, relevant experience, and anything else you want to know.

If you're seeing a large number of candidates, take a quick photo to help you remember each one!

Take notes on each auditionee during each step of the process so it doesn't become a blur.

Videotaping each person's solo can be very useful when remembering people and making decisions.

There is no worse feeling than finishing several hours of auditions, only to not remember who you heard or liked the most. 

Here is how I usually break down a first audition:

Talk

It's never easy to sing in a cold room.

Break the ice -- have them introduce themselves. Tell them a little about the group. Tell a funny story. Remember they are auditioning you, too.

Staying engaged and offering a smile will go a long way. No need to let this go on forever -- just a few minutes is enough.

Warmup

A quick warmup not only gives you an idea of a singer's voice, but it also gives a nervous auditionee a chance to catch his or her breath and relax. Scales, diction exercises, or patterns will give you a sense of their tone, range, and pitch matching.

Don't make them do this all alone -- warm up with them. Make some jokes.

Solo

Have the person sing the song completely a cappella and alone, using no instrumental accompaniment and no other singers.

This will be more telling than any other element of the audition -- assess vocal quality, interpretation, tuning, rhythm, and performance ability.

Encourage an actual performance, so you don't just get boring vocal precision.

If you're not looking for all soloists, don't dismiss someone who lacks dynamic solo ability but could be a great background singer.

Pause.

If you're not at all interested in an individual at this stage, now is a good time to thank and dismiss the person.

Have a pre-established signal to make a group decision, as there is no need to go through additional steps with someone you know isn't right. 

For the ones moving on, try a few more exercises before letting them go.

Vocal Ability, Tuning, and Precision

Depending on the skill level and size of your group, you might need to check if a candidate can handle complex passages in tune and stand on their own without being thrown off by other singers.

Some good tests are: 

• Play complex patterns or intervals and have them sing them back to you 
• Repeating difficult rhythms 
• Matching vowel sounds and vocal patterns 
• Sing the same musical phrase starting on different pitches 

Their Ear

You've established that they can sing patterns or intervals alone, but can they effectively listen to other singers and blend?

Try:

• Play three notes on a keyboard (start with simple chords, and work your way to more complex combinations of notes), or hold the keys down indefinitely, and have them listen and sing the middle one to you
• Sing various chords with members of the group and give them different notes in the chord to sing. Can they hold their pitch alone?
  
  

Blending

Once good pitch is established, dig a little deeper to check their ability to blend.

They should be able to compensate pitch, timbre, and volume to match what they hear.

This can be done with the same chord exercises on a variety of vowels.

Some of you may be looking for sightreading tests.

Unless the group relies on sightreading as a rule, I leave this out.

Realistically, your members have time to learn the music. You should evaluate their method and speed of learning music (something I usually do with callbacks), and if that's a fit, there is no need to test sightreading skills.

This is where you should end round one and decide on a callback.

With a little practice, all of this can be done in about 20 minutes.

If you have the luxury of extra time, take it! You'll never regret not skimping on audition times with good candidates.

That's it for Part 3! Next up: Callbacks!

How To Host Effective Auditions:

Part 1: Where To Announce
Part 2: Attracting Appropriate Members

--

FloVoice's best content, delivered directly to your inbox!

Don't miss exclusive videos, feature stories, event updates, and more. 

Sign up for the FloVoice Newsletter and never miss a beat.