LET. IT. GO. Out into the universe. You’ve prepared, you’ve practiced, you’ve done your best work at that time, in that place.

Opinion is NOT fact.

Facts in singing: correct pitches, lyrics, rests, musical notations, intonation.

But everything else, EVERYTHING ELSE is opinion. Beautiful voice? Opinion. Flawless technique? Opinion. Horrible singer? Opinion. But far too often in the arts, people in positions of power often mistake their opinions for facts and the artist on the receiving end does too. And that can be terribly destructive, both emotionally and psychologically.

Auditioning is probably one of the most stressful things anyone can put themselves through.  The scheme of stressful events should be amended to death, taxes, moving…and auditioning! Besides wanting to perform well, your only other desire is to be able to read the minds of the auditioners. What are they thinking?

I’m glad to know all those years watching The Wizard of Oz paid off.  Thank you Billie Burke! You were right there with me, whispering inspiration into my ear with your sweet, trilly voice. “Are you a good witch or a bad witch? Which?”  I am honored to follow in your footsteps. 

So, how does one choose the right repertoire?

1. You do NOT get points for trying, meaning: Always choose a song completely within your ability level.

There were two basic problems with 99% of the singers’ song choices:

They almost all sang inappropriate repertoire for their youthful ages.

The difficulty level of their songs was generally just beyond their abilities.

the multi-layered topic of choosing repertoire, for young singers in particular. This is a subject near and dear to my heart as both a singer and a teacher because I know first-hand how incredibly important it is; song choice can make or break an audition or a performance, or a voice for that matter.