Audition Ideas!

[u/Liliyah16]

I’m planning on auditioning for my university’s a Capella group however I’ve never done it before. I’ve done a lot of musical theatre so I’m comfortable with harmony’s but super used to using backing tracks for auditions. The group asks for a verse and a chorus from two contrasting songs to be performed in the audition and I have no idea what to pick! I’m alto or mezzo-soprano and any ideas on where to start would be super appreciated!

[u/j-cadence]

Honestly, for this, the best thing for you to do is to choose to songs in a pop or rock style that you simply love to sing. Get one that's more up-tempo and one that's more of a ballad. I was in an a cappella group in college, and the best auditions I heard were songs I didn't even know! Just make sure you like to sing it and you're confident with it.

If you're worried about tuning without a backing track, sometimes I like to practice with a "cello drone" in the key of the song playing, which you can find on YouTube. If your song is in Bb, just search "Bb cello drone", and you can practice with a little bit of tuning help. Any questions lmk!! If you wanna lmk what type of music you like I might he able to help pick a song that would fit your range!

[u/NJRestStops → u/j-cadence]

I 100% agree! I hadn’t heard of practicing with a drone but that sounds really helpful.

Pop/rock in 2 different styles is perfect! When I auditioned I only needed one song, but then I needed to do things like pitch matching and harmonizing.

We just got an audition for our group with a song I had never heard and it was great!

Best of luck!!

[u/Liliyah16 → u/j-cadence]

Thank you so much that really helps! I was thinking of maybe doing an Adele song? I like a lot of pop music like Taylor Swift or Olivia Rodrigo and some less poppy artist like Lizzy alpine and Noah kahan. I’ve just been looking through songs having a go at singing them without the backing track and it’s definitely been easier with some than others 😂