College Auditions - Picking Material - Songs

I could probably spend a full 24-hours talking about how to go about picking your college audition songs, but I’ll spare you from my TedTalk and just give you the highlights. Below is a guide to picking your material for your college auditions. Please keep in mind that everyone has a different idea of how to do this and each program may be looking for different things. This is meant to help and hopefully ease your process at least a little bit.

First, you want to make sure you have a wide variety of songs. I tell my students to have a minimum of 6 songs (full songs in addition to cuts of the songs). This way you can be sure to have something contemporary, something legit, a Golden Age, a song that may be totally not your type but that you sound amazing singing, etc. Be sure to cover a ballad and an uptempo, as well as contemporary and Golden Age (in any amalgamation of the categories - uptempo Golden Age and a contemporary ballad, a ballad Golden Age, etc.). This way, when a school asks for something else, you actually WILL have something else.

When choosing your songs, be sure to pick songs you enjoy singing. This is key! You will be singing these songs at who knows how many auditions, over and over, be directed on them, etc. so you must enjoy them or you will go crazy! Plus, schools want people who bring joy and light to a program, picking songs you truly love to sing will highlight the joy you get from performing and make the auditors enjoy your performance more. In addition, they want to get to know who you are during your audition, so pick songs that show them just that.

Please, do not pick songs that go to the very far reaches of your range. It is good to show off, but you don’t want to risk waking up with a cold and screlting out your top notes. This will make everyone uncomfortable. Pick songs you can do all day, every day, no matter what.

Avoid over-done songs. There is always wonderful, obscure music, you just have to do the work to find it. Of course, take this with a grain of salt. If you can sing Vanilla Ice Cream better than anyone in history, by all means do it! But if there is a possibility that there is another song in existence that shows the same skills as Vanilla Ice Cream, please, for everyone’s sake, do that one. I know for a fact that directors and program heads LOVE when people bring in music they’ve never heard or at least haven’t heard that day, especially if it is done well. They can’t compare you to the last 6 men they saw if they have never heard your song before!

Breathe. Your songs are not the be-all, end-all. Trust me. I sang Vanilla Ice Cream! LOL! I still went to one of the best programs in the country. Pick your songs with care, but don’t worry that if you don’t pick exactly what a program wants to hear that all hope of a career is lost. You got this. Feel free to ask your coach or voice teacher. I’m sure they will have plenty of suggestions.

There you have if folks; a basic outline guide of how to pick your songs. You need to dig in, get to work, and find some amazing material. Myself and your coaches are here to help! You’re not alone. If I can do it, so can you! Please leave any extra tips in the comments!