End of the Road Trip!

Today was the last day of the 31-Day Building a Better Blog Challenge which I started last month and would highly recommend to anyone needing some help with ideas and tasks that take your blog to the next level.   This Challenge came at just the right time, shortly after I launched the site and was really looking for help.  Last time that I checked, 10,000 people registered to participate in the challenge.  ProBloggeris a great resource for all things blog and website-related – go take a look!

Why I like Behind the Scenes – Day 7 of the Road Trip

Today, we had a great task from 31 days to building a better blog about linking to other posts/blogs that we find to be helpful.  See how I already did that here? 

The types of blogs that I gravitate to are the behind the scenes blogs that take you a bit of a different look at the performer while still immersing you in the art form.   One particular blog from a bassist in an orchestra that I’ve sung with, does this in his Bass Blog.   He has a way of showing you the everyday but in a way that you come away learning something of interest.  In my research, I am surprised to find out that there are either not a lot of singer blogs out there along the same vein or I’m just not aware if them yet.  If you know of any, please let me know. 

Maren is one of the few singer bloggers that I read on a regular basis and is also in my blog roll.  I just finished listening to a great podcastshe posted of her work with the truly extraordinary group, the Crossing.

In other news, I start a series of rehearsals that have me working on three concerts simultaneously.    At the same time, I am working on an important audition opportunity that presented itself suddenly!  Isn’t that always the way?

Day 4 of the “Road Trip” and finger news.

First off – I wanted to thank Eric, Maren, Heidi and Laurissa for their useful feedback on my List Post Assignment as part of the 31-Days to a Better Blog “Road Trip”.  I have some great things to add to my own checklist for creating a great audition songbook.

We are on Day 4 and todays assignment is interesting in that we have to go out and find, and observe, with some helpful questions, a blog that we find to be particularly captivating and great – and answer questions as to why.  I’d like to know some of your absolute favorite blogs and why you think they are great.  I’m formulating some of my own for the assignment!

Lastly, have you heard about Skype?  For singers that travel a lot, which a lot of my singer collegues do, Skype is a great way to stay connected.  I love the video phone feature.

Update on the finger:  I went to the Ortho last night, I’ve got 2 more weeks to go before I can take off the buddy tape and start doing the oh-so-painful therapy!  The X-RAY showed about 2/3 bone growth – almost there!  I’m glad my left hand is my mic hand!

Top 10 Tuesdays – Your Songbook

I’m bringing back the Top 10 Tuesdays, people!  Partially because it is kind of cool, but also because, coincidentally, our Day #2 Task to the “31-Days to a Better Blog was to create a list post.  How convenient for me!

Top 10 tips when creating your audition songbook.  I got a lot of these great ideas through either courses that I took or personal trial and error.  Please feel free to comment and share some of your best ideas!

1.  Cut and Paste vs. Markups.  Unless it’s a really short cut, I tend to pull out the scissors and cut and paste parts of songs together when creating the 32-bar and 16-bar cuts.  My goal is to make it easy on the pianist. 

2.  Include all cuts from smallest to largest.  When creating my songbook, I included each cut as a stand-alone piece of the same song.  The 16-bar and the 32-bar versions are included.  As you know, audition notices can come up so quickly, leaving you little time to prepare the cuts you need.  It’s great to be able to pull out what you need.

3.  After the cut versions – include the song in its entirety.  Have you gone in to an audition yet and have been asked to, “what the hell – why don’t we hear the whole song instead of the cut since we have some time.” ? – If it hasn’t happened yet – don’t worry – it will.  Be prepared for anything to happen.  They might want to hear the whole song, so have it on hand – just in case.

4.  Create a Table of Contents with corresponding tabs.  You are nervous in an audition.  The last thing you want is your nervous and shaky fingers flipping, flipping, flipping through your song book to try and find the song.  In my songbook, I have a TOC in the very front with numbers (for each cut version and full songs) and tabs within the book so I can flip right to what I want.

5.  Another note on tabs.  Be sure that the tabs (after music is inserted into the slip sheets (See #6) can be seen when you close the book.  If you can’t see them sticking out - they are of no use to you.  I discovered this HALF way through my book and I almost cried.  I ended up having to change all of the tabs to the top of each song instead of to the side.  From the top, I could easily see the tabs.

6.  Music slip sheets.  I use no-glare slipsheets to keep the music from getting scuffed, to make it easier for the pianist to navigate (i.e. flip) and to see with the no glare factor.  Your Pianist is your friend.

7.  Duplex vs. One side – the jury is still out on this one for me.  For instance, if your song is only 2 pages long – do you just duplex it in one sheet (the pianist will have to flip it) – or do 2 facing pages so the pianist doesn’t have to flip.  I guess the objective is that you want the pianist’s fingers on the keys as much as possible.  What are your thoughts on this one?

8.  This is corny, but I don’t care.  I put a smiley face and a “Thank You” at the end of every piece.  A lot of times, the person playing the piano for you is the music director.  Kindess goes a long way.

9.  Group songs together – I group songs from the same production together.  This is probably a no-brainer for most people, but at first, I wasn’t doing this.  This, of course, works wonders when you are going in for a role and you have them all together and can act like a waiter, “well, we have the “If I Were a Bell, or the “I’ll Know” or cuts from “Marry the Man Today”, which looks good today…

10.  Put contact information inside if the songbook.  Do most people do this and I was just late to the party?  I was leaving a Bucks County Playhouse Audition and drove a few hundred feet before I realized my songbook was on the top of my car.  I had only brought enough resumes and headshots for this audition and had nothing inside that would have clued anyone in as to who I was.

31 day “road trip”

UPDATED:  Due to technical difficulties, the Road Trip starts April 6!

I have decided to subject myself to what is known in the blogger world as the  ”31 Days to Build a Better Blog Challenge”.  A journey over the next month that will lead to better websites, better blogging, etc.  Read more about it here.  The “Challenge” starts tomorrow and will include “homework” and other projects to help us to improve our websites in terms of design, content, traffic; the whole nine yards!  I’m doing this for YOU, people!  Stay tuned as I will be keeping you posted here, and maybe you’ll start to see some of the improvements when you drop by to visit.