A cappella Audition Songs
In lots of auditions, particularly in TV talent show ones, you will be asked to perform an A cappella song. That means singing a song with no accompaniment. This is harder than it sounds!
For the purposes of this Blog we are going to limit our A cappella song to a 60 second version.
What is expected from your A cappella song performance?
Firstly, your song needs to prove that you can sing.
It needs to make a good first impression. The audition panel may not know anything about you at this point and they only have this to go on. It may be their first impression of you.
It needs to give a sense of who you are as an artist. You need to consider style, genre, dynamics, stylistics, emotion and expression and how your interpretation of the song shows your artistry off.
Your song needs to make an impact. You need to create an atmosphere in the room. It needs to move people in some way.
Here are some points to consider when choosing a song to perform.
Some songs don’t work very well A cappella. The sung lyrics may be spaced out in between several bars of accompaniment which means that you are actually only singing for 30 seconds of the 60 because there are so many silences. The silences can become awkward and make it difficult for you to maintain a regular tempo and it becomes uncomfortable. Make sure a song works A cappella.
Choose the best bits of the song for your voice. You don't necessarily have to start at the beginning. You could start half way through if that part shows you off better. You need to practise and time it to make sure you fit the best bits in that 60 seconds. You don't want to be leading up to your big 'money' note and the 60 seconds finishes!
Sing for the whole 60 seconds if you can. If you've made the effort to get to the audition and gone to the trouble of preparing for it you might as well use the time. If you only sing 15-20 seconds of that 60 you are denying yourself 40/45 seconds worth of singing and it may be something they hear in that time that clinches the deal.
Start making a list of possible options that you think could fit this brief. Time 60 second cuts of the songs that show off the best bits for your voice. If you need a reminder of which sections from an original track you prefer then note down the start and end timecodes to your list.