<p>I am another member who has been lurking for awhile and have found this site so helpful and informative. I can't imagine having gone into auditions without having found this forum. Up to now, I have had all my questions and concerns addressed by reading others' posts. But I think I have a new question. My son will be a senior and we have been using the summer preparing for auditions; me getting the organizational things done and the scheduling, him reading plays in search of monologues, preparing applications/essays, searching for songs, etc. He has a pretty good idea of the songs he wants to use but came across a potential problem this week while visiting a MT BFA school on his list. We were given a brochure with their 07-08 performances. They are doing the show that my son's uptempo song is from. Not only that, lyrics from that song are quoted in the brochure. They are doing the show about 2 months before auditions. He thought he had found a perfect song choice, not overdone and that he does very well. Should he still do the song for that audition? Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated.</p>
<p>Will you be able to go see that school's performance of the play? If so, and the actor who sings the song really nails it, I would not do it at the audition for that school unless your son is positive he can do better. The amazing performance would still be on the minds of the auditors and they couldn't help but compare. That's not to say he couldn't do it for auditions at other schools. If you will not be able to see their performance, maybe you can find reviews or talk to students you might know who go there. If the actor doesn't do such a great job, then I say it's ok to show him up! I'm sure someone else will have better advice, but that's my two-cents.</p>
<p>Hi..I'm new too! We're doing the college earch too. I would say that it shouldn't matter if the school your son is interested in is doing the show. If he sings it and sings it well, then that's all that should matter!</p>
<p>Hi, new moms! Welcome to the fun.
My opinion is that I don't understand why your son can't have a 2nd uptempo song, one which he can use as a first choice at this school. My daughter had to prepare different songs for different schools, to a small extent. Therefore, she had at least 5 songs she used for auditions. Wouldn't he want to have a couple backup songs, anyway, in case a school asks for something else? I don't think this is a big deal--maybe it's even good that he knows in July that he ought to have more songs ready. I agree with Musicmom's advice, also.</p>
<p>MTmommy is right -- Your son should have several songs he can choose from in each category, for several reasons. If his first choice turns out to be a popular audition song among other students, he will at least have an alternate selection. In addition, after having just completed the show, the audition committee at that particular school will be thoroughly tired of hearing that uptempo song, no matter how well he performs it. It will be very fresh in their minds -- why take the risk of boring them?</p>
<p>My son probably went overboard, but after reading this site, he did not want to take any chances. He probably had about 10 songs prepared, up tempo, ballads, pre 1960's (both ballads and up tempos) and art songs. He felt that he was prepared for what ever they wanted. Many schools will ask you to have xxx prepared then have you choose one and the auditioners will choose one. My son felt that having a well prepared rep book could only make him look good. One important key to this process is to be VERY prepared, the competition is so stiff you want to make sure that you are going in with all contingencies covered. I will always remember a discussion of what to take and the importance of having extra clothes, and the one girl who when packing up the car had a skunk spray her clothes! I think it would be a huge mistake to go in with only one song in each catagory, what if the 5 guys preceeding your son were singing the same song, it has happned.
Good Luck!</p>
<p>Also -- some schools may ask to hear something else after your initial audition pieces.... this is a good thing, because it means they are interested. So having additional material prepared is a great idea.</p>
<p>I wouldn't, under these circumstances, recommend that he sing that song, regardless of how well he sings it. It's just not worth taking the chance. As others have said, a well-prepared auditionee will have more than one song of each required type prepared and ready to go for auditions.</p>
<p>I agree with alwaysamom. Too great a risk that he will be compared to who they cast in the role or that the way the cast member sings it is the way the auditors think it should be sung. Also, there could be a risk that the auditors could think that your son couldn't come up with his own idea for a song. It just doesn't feel right to me. There's no reason that it couldn't be used as his backup song of that genre. In general, each student should have 2 songs of each type the school wants in case that the auditors ask to hear something else. Also, no reason that the song couldn't be a primary song for another school's audition.</p>