Keep on going…

After the audition.

I’ve been listening to some great podcasts lately and one thing that I keep hearing over and over again is how your auditions are your job.  The end result (getting the role) is only part of it and that you must love the process as well.  When I think of it, I know that it is true and I simply have to keep going.  My auditions used to be frustrating as, although I had the voice, I didn’t have any of the skills that went with it – the acting piece of it, for instance or the other countless things that I’ve been learning lately.  The feeling I got going in was one of “flying by the seat of my pants” and that just won’t cut it in this business.  My auditions now are different.  They are getting better and better and I’m having more and more fun with them.  The attitude (finally) is changing a lot on my end.  So, the part of the audition that I CAN control is getting better.  The other part – kind of still gets frustrating.  I get good feedback, calls from the directors saying how great I was, etc., but I still don’t get cast.  I know, then, that it was down to things out of my control.  A good number of times, I’ve been turned down because I was too tall.  One of my favorite ones was an audition for Guys and Dolls where they kept me until Midnight standing next to different guys one after the other to see who I fit best with.  They asked  me to take my hair down, then put it back up again.  I’m finding that I’m too tall a LOT, which is surprising because I’m really not THAT tall, am I?  So, it’s a bittersweetness that I’m feeling.  I want the roles and I’m not getting them (so far) because of other things.  I just have to keep going and eventually, I will solve the problem that a director has and will be the one that they hire.  Old news, right?  I’m a little late to the party, I know.  But, I guess all I’m trying to say is that I won’t quit.  I just simply won’t.  I love it too much.  I’m made for this.  And the fact that if my granny were alive today, she’d kick my ass if I ever quit.  I’m out there and I’m trying.  And that’s better than sitting in the corner and being afraid.  I heard a quote yesterday that sums it up quite perfectly.  “The same walls you put up because you are afraid of disappointment will be the same ones that keep you from happiness.”   I have to be happy.

Spotlights and Link-love

A few months ago, we Philadelphia Singers were asked to answer some survey questions about our experiences with the group in order for them to use to drum up interest in the Singers and the Subscription Series, etc.  I’ll admit it.  I like talking about myself and about how much I love what I do.  So, I was happy to do the survey.  I had no idea it would lead to being their first singer spotlight in their subscription blast email!  I was thrilled because I’m a narcissist.  What?  Before I launch some shamefull self-promotion, please take a moment to go to the Philadelphia Singers Website to read more about this wonderful group and Subscribe to the concert series.

Fellow singing collegue and blogger Maren (who may be the only one reading my blog - for which I’m grateful) sings with the core group on a more regular basis than I and is fabulous and would want you to go and subscribe!

Here are my answers that were published.

What do you usually do during rehearsal breaks?
Tweet, text, and talk.

What is your most memorable concert or musical experience with The Philadelphia Singers?
My all-time favorite piece (besides Verdi’s Requiem which I haven’t done with The Singers yet but in which they were glorious) is the Carmina Burana. I never get tired of it. The piece shows off The Singers’ musicality, endurance, utter expanse of sound, and the ability to sing in 90 degree heat without missing a beat.   One of my best memories was being contracted for my first concert at Carnegie Hall. I was new to the group and didn’t know that The Singers regularly perform at Carnegie Hall.  I opened up the contract offer and saw that and thought it was a typo.  That was an exciting moment for me. 

What was your most enjoyable concert experience of the 2008-2009 season?
I really enjoyed working on the three pieces for our June concert in Verizon Hall (Bruckner’s Mass in E Minor, Loeffler’s By the Rivers of Babylon and Martino’s Seven Pious Pieces). It’s the most challenging music I’ve sung with The Singers so far and the best way to describe the experience is, “big risk, big reward.”

Do you have any hobbies? if so, what are they?
If I had unlimited amounts of money at my disposal, I would split my vacations between skiing and going to the beach. 

What WASN’T published was a question where the answer involved a person I just adore and at first sort of feared (but in a good way) when I worked with him first here and then here and who made me a better singer forever and who conducts this fabulous group and also conducts the chorus here and who is so bad-a that he has his own Wikipedia entry!  Oh, and also my one reader, Maren sings with his Crossings group currently and I’m sort of jealous (but in a good way).

The question was about my first embarrassing audition moment in Philadelphia.  Besides the normal audition snafus that may occur vocally, I never have had an huge embarrassing audition moment.  BUT I did have a funny/awkward audition moment.  I was new to Philadelphia and was starting the audition process, which included the Choral Arts Society and the Opera Company of Philadelphia within a day of each other, if I remember correctly.  What I didn’t know was that Donald Nally (linked above) was conducting both groups at the time.  Since I was doing two separate groups, I, naturally, used the same music.  I walked in to the first one and did my audition for Donald and then went to the other audition a day later and, “oh, hi!” – it’s the same person I saw yesterday.  I blushed and just said, “oh, so…you can probably guess what I’ll be singing for you today.”

When to say “no thanks”

Mic table backstage at Pops concert.

It is Monday, isn’t it?  I had a great weekend, but ended up NOT doing an audition this weekend because my voice was fried from a long run of rehearsals culminating in a fulfilling if not exhausting concert that would fatigue my voice a bit and, timing was 2 days before an audition and I just couldn’t get the voice back in time.  Years ago, this would have been a huge upsetting thing for me.  Cancel an audition?  What, am I crazy?  What is crazier is going to one and then hacking your way through it when you really should be resting.  First impressions are so important people!  If your voice is down for the count, cancel.  Really, it is the best thing.  Many a career, I’m sure has been, and can be, run off the rails from singing one concert or long role on a soar throat.  Head colds are one thing, but soar throat, hoarseness?  Is it worth it?

Surf’s up – catching the wave

Is this not the best picture ever? It describes where I would like to be. Right. About. Now.

Beach!

Well, this entry isn’t just about longing for a beach vacation, which I am very much doing, but about timing.

Unfortunately, even after an incredible audition for the lead in Guys and Dolls, and an even encouraging follow up voice mail from the director (which I will save to replay later when I need a boost), I still didn’t get cast. I got the call in a grocery store where it suddenly occurred to me why people break up with another in public places. I was really disappointed but I was surprised that I wasn’t more upset and I think I know why.

The not so good news is that this is typical. At the call-back and final stages of selection, the elements they are using are usually out of your control, such as how tall you are (I’m too tall a lot, which surprises me), your physical build, and other factors. The good news is that these ARE things that are out of your control, meaning that there is little that you can do at that point and, if you had a solid audition, has little do with your preparation. The great news is that you can control your audition in terms of your singing and acting skills, attitude, etc.

The best news is that you don’t give up, keep auditioning well and statistically (one would hope), you will catch the wave – where great timing comes in to play and you are exactly what they are looking for.

Three words – don’t give up.

Luck favors the prepared

I was watching The Incredibles this weekend, which is a great movie with a solid philosophical premise.  I remembered that quote from the movie and, wow, it is so very true.  I was going to write a post about not waiting to go after what you wanted, but this quote reminded me, instead of how it is not about fate, but about the path you choose to make for yourself.  The waiting post was going to be written for the fact that a phone call I have been waiting for for over a week has not come although I was told I would be called.  I have the habit of waiting for the outcome of one audition before going on to the next thing and letting the last thing go.  I’m trying to change this habit and remember to KEEP GOING and to not break the momentum.  This quote, though is also good.  Luck implies a hand of fate in our lives, when in fact it is that we have prepared ourselves.  It took me 2 or 3 years to finally get into the Voices of the Pops.  I had to just keep at it and keep working.  Keep going to auditions and then making the huge leap to clear my schedule so that I could be available for the Pops schedule when the time came.  And it did, and it was so very worth it.  Don’t wait and be prepared to take the ring when it comes around. 

Rehearsing

Friday Fermata – How Sarah Brown introduced me to my life

There is this one particular musical (and role) that I love more than all of the others.  Guys and Dolls and the role of Sarah Brown.  Partly because I love musicals written in a very positive and optimistic time period (40’s and 50’s) but probably mostly due to the fact that Sarah was the first role I ever did.  Sarah clued me in on the fact that I wanted to do this for the rest of my life.  I was a junior in high school and had been in choirs since 6th grade but had never done any solo work of any kind.  It was only after I was putting the key in the door of my car in the high school parking lot that a Senior, Kelly Wade (Kelly – if you are out there, and Ive been trying to find you because you changed my life forever that afternoon) came out to “remind” me that there was an audition that afternoon for the musical and it would behoove me to try out for the lead.  I looked at her like she was crazy.  I was the new girl in town and hardly (or so I thought) up to the task of doing that.  She dragged me back in where I proceeded to experience the scariest and most exhilarating 4 hours of my life.  We were called back again and again – I, being matched up with different Skys for the duets, lurching across the stage pretending I was drunk (because at that time, I did NOT know what that was like so I’m sure I over dramatized it).  It was only after hour 3 or 4 that I was stunned to realize that I was actually in the running.  When I was cast as Sarah Brown, I spent the next several months getting to know her and, in my excitement, memorizing her words in a weekend.  I was just excited about it but mostly scared.  I had no experience so I was going on the gut.  When we finally opened, and I sang my first “I’ll know” in front of the audience, I realized, quite poignantly, that there was nothing else in the world that I could possibly do that would be better than this.  I was made for it.

Now that I’m re-introducing myself to musical theatre (and the audition process in this genre), I had the opportunity to audition for Sarah again last week.  I have all of her songs in my songbook because she is good to me and good to my voice.  It was like seeing an old friend.  The audition went well and I think I’m in the running once again.  It’s been so long and all of my fingers and toes are crossed.   Feels kind of full circle.

Top 10 Tuesdays

Top 10 things to to say (or not to say) in an audition.

1.  DON’T say you’re sorry.  At the most frustrating of auditions, this can almost seem unbearable to not do, but don’t do it!  Most of the things you thought were issues or mistakes may not even have been picked up.

2.  DO say “thank you” – You can say this no matter how unhappy you were with the audition.  I say, “Thank you for hearing me”

3.  DON’T make excuses - Walking in to an audition and starting with, “Wow, I’m really tired right now or ”I’ve got a cold” - is not the way to go.  As hard as this may be, this is not a good idea.  Don’t make excuses for your performance before you even have begun.

4.  DON’T break focus – you’ve all seen it in open auditions where someone forgets the words and they roll their eyes – my heart breaks for them when I see this in the audience and I’m instantly uncomfortable.  Just keep going.  I remember a departmental I did in school where I was singing Caro mio ben and forgot the words half way through.  I sang gibberish until I got back on track.  I actually received a comment from another coach.  Don’t lose your cool.

5.  DON’T shake hands! – don’t make them feel uncomfortable by walking right up and shaking hands with everyone UNLESS they are standing up and approaching you first which, if they are that happy to see you – that would be so cool!!

6.  DON’T look them in the eye when you are singing.  Ever.  That is all.

7. DO thank your pianist.  I can’t say this enough.  Here is a little something I do.  I put a smiley face and a “thank you” in the music at the end of my song cut.  In the audition I just had last week, the pianist stopped me as I was leaving and thanked me for that notation.  Know that in auditions, the person playing piano could be the music director.  This has happened many times with me.

Judges want you to do well…

Are you sick of my mentioning the Susan Boyle video?  I did have one final thing to say about it.  I use it because with the popularity of the American Idol and Got Talent… shows, people not in the business of singing, get to see what happens (and what really doesn’t happen) in an audition.   I could get into a huge diatribe about the accuracy of it all, but I only wanted to focus on what aspect:  The people on the panel listening to you.  I recently took a course in audition technique where I heard something encouraging from a person whose job is to audition singers.  She said that the people listening to you reallywant you to do well.  They want you to do as well as you want to do well.  I guess I sort of knew this in the back of mind but never really thought too much about it until I heard it from this person.  It makes perfect sense, of course.  They not only may be emphathizing with you (singing is not easy!), but they also want to find good singers, and the right singers for their production.  They want you to be “the one” – as much as you want to be “the one” for them – they are rooting for you – it’s a win/win.  I knew she was right because looking back over my many, many auditions, I can’t remember an unpleasant experience in that regard.  The only thing close to that was at the Metropolitan Opera Auditions where I was a finalist – one of the judges told me that I shouldn’t wear black.  Too many people wear black in auditions, he said.  Looking back, he actually had a point.  On the contrary, most wore nice and supportive.  I’ve been to open auditions where the singer was really struggling, and they were equally supportive of that person too.

I mention this because this can be a huge source of anxiety for singers who may be going in thinking it’s me against them when it’s typically the contrary. 

I also mention this because of the Susan Boyle video and American Idol videos you have seen.  Simon’s attitude IS NOT TYPICAL and is MADE FOR TELEVISION.  However, the lady on the panel in the Susan Boyle video (Her name escapes me) IS typical.  Did you see her face when Susan walked out?  Open and supportive.  Because you never know.  She even admitted that she was cynical but you wouldn’t have guessed it on her face.  Although cynical, she was supportive.  They are on your side.

Top 10 Tuesdays – Physical Preparations for an Audition

I’ve always read that the most successful athletics have a ritual that they follow to the letter before every competition.  A ritual that ever changes.  I’ve actually watched Tiger Woods do this when preparing for a put.  One of my goals this year is to develop one of my own rituals before every audition, and in general.  After reading this, I would love  your feedback on what you do!  Today I’m focusing on the physical aspects of preparation.  This is still a work in my process, but I give you my:

Top 10 things (Physical) to do in general and before an audition:

1.  Hydrate.  I am guilty of this myself because I also suffer “nervous bladder,” but it is important to hydrate.  What you are feeling right now as you read this post is a result of what you drank 24 hours ago.  If you start to hydrate a few hours before an audition – that’s great, but you won’t feel the full affects until much too late.  So – 24 hours before an audition, kick up the fluids and cut back on (gulp! ) the coffee.  I KNOW!  Hydration not only helps the vocal folds but the entire body.

2.  Decaf Tea with Lemon and Honey – this works for me, especially during allergy season when my vocal chords are thick.  It also helps break up the phlegm.  Medications for allergies are very drying so use with care.

3.  Here was a big shocker for me – working out the day of the audition.  Working out, for me, actually helped warm up my chords simply because of the increase blood flow, which was a suprise to me.  A light workout will also helpful in releasing body tension and reduce stress.

4.  The breathing exercise that I mention here.  Personally, I’m going to try this throughout the day of the audition and again right before.

5.  Don’t eat spicy foods! – Keep spicey foods out for the 4 hours before an audition if not the whole day.  It increases acid reflux, which can reek havoc on your entire system.

6.  No spirits.  I’m sure we have all heard stories of singers that may have a little something before a performance.  Alcohol is dehydrating, and – just don’t do it.  Now afterwards!….

7.  You may not want to talk too much just before.  For me, I’m a nervous chatter just before an audition and I need to stop doing that.  After you have warmed up, it’s good to give it a rest.  Also, along those lines, whispering, which a lot of people might be doing while they wait for an audition, is like screaming to your chords.

8.  Don’t be afraid of the dumbells.  Contrary to what people might say, singing is athletic.  In more demanding performances, I’ve lost several pounds from not only the running around, which is part of it, but the singing itself.  As you know, it is important to be strong and have a strong core for breathing and holding your body in place for the practice of singing.

9.  Visualize – this is a new thing that I’ve been experimenting with that I never did before.  I will actually sit and visualize the entire audition from start to finish; not only the words and notes but every focal point and acting transition that I will be using, physical gestures, everything.

10.  Don’t be afraid – and go for it!  OK, this isn’t an actual physical item but I’ll hark on attitude until I’m blue in the face.

I would love to hear some of the things you do!

YouTube, Susan Boyle, and Square One

If you read no other post but this one, you’ll get the gist of what this blog is all about for me.  Finding your voice in the singing business, or finding your voice in whatever it is you want to do in your life (no matter what others say or think), is what life is about.  It is about your happiness, living your dreams and not being afraid.  When I saw this video on youTube today I thought this pretty much summed it up.  See for yourself and please comment and tell me what you thought and what this video meant for you.  Before the songbooks and auditions, the studying and practicing, the hours of research and lessons, you must have this.