<p>I know at on-campus auditions it is not uncommon for a student to be asked by the auditors to present an a piece in addition to that which was prepared whether it's a song or monologue. My question comes in with the Unified and Regional audition process because at least from my prospective it seems to be on more of a time crunch so I was wondering how likely would additional audition material be requested at off-campus audition sites? Of course I know I should have additional material prepared no matter what but I guess I was more wondering the time restraints of the unified process.</p>
<p>It is harder at Unifieds to have back up because you need to typically supply your own recordings, but it never hurts to bring YOUR BOOK as sometimes they ask to look at it. You could certainly have an additional momologue prepared in case you are asked since that requires no pre-recording. Additionally, sometimes schools ask for one monologue and say you chose something serious, they may ask you for something comedic. Having options just makes you appear better prepared and IMHO makes you appear more professional.</p>
<p>At Chicago Unifieds, my D was asked to sing an additional song from her book based on what she’d written on her resume. This was the ONLY school, on-campus or at Unifieds, that asked for this. The school was University of Wisconsin, Stevens-Point. </p>
<p>My girl had extra accompaniment tracks (a separate playlist on her iPod called “extras”), extra sheet music, and extra monologues. We come from a long line of Girl Scouts evidently. ;0)</p>
<p>Best post ever kksmom5. We too were Girl Scouts : )</p>
<p>This is a real dilemma, in my mind. My D’s voice teacher tells us to never, ever bring material in your book to a college audition that you have not worked on recently and that is not polished. And while my D does remember all her songs from all the shows she has done (she could sing the entire Les Mis as a one-woman show, for example), she certainly has not worked on the majority of them recently enough to feel comfortable singing them in an audition. My D has 4 songs that she has prepared for various college auditions (schools are asking for different things), and that is ALL she is bringing with her. How reasonable is it to expect these kids to have more than that? I guess I feel like for a college audition, you bring what you have prepared. </p>
<p>I don’t know…I’m all for being prepared, but to me, bringing a song in a book implies that you know it cold and are prepared to perform it then and there. How many of these songs do your kids really have THAT ready? Or is my D (and her voice teacher) just perfectionists who are wrong?</p>
<p>monkey, the four songs likely have her covered. But when people say “bring your book” it doesn’t mean your full book of all the songs you know…but a reduced version of several songs covering each type of song…so it may have more than four songs in it, but not their entire repertoire. (for example, there will be ballad, uptempo, pre-1960 traditional, legit, belt, contemporary/rock/pop)</p>
<p>I would not worry too much about this since she has four songs ready. I don’t recall my D bringing any extras. HOWEVER, perhaps she should have because two schools ended up vocalizing her as they wanted to see if she could sing more of the soprano range that she didn’t show as much in her chosen songs. One school asked her to sing Somewhere Over the Rainbow (which she obviously knew having once played Dorothy but it was not in her book). To be exact, Penn State vocalized her and accepted her. CMU vocalized her and asked to hear her sing Over the Rainbow (and also had her do FOUR monologues which she did have prepared due to needing four given her various requirements) and this school Priority Waitlisted her. When she didn’t get into UMich, she was told that they did not hear enough of her legit singing voice, and unfortunately she did not show that in her chosen songs and the school did not choose to vocalize her or ask for a song that would show that as PSU and CMU did. Just one story.</p>
<p>Speaking strictly for us. We like to see the book. And since we bring an accompanist, it isn’t unusual for us to ask to hear a different song. Barring that, we might vocalize you. But we are not in the majority in terms of having an accompanist and trying to take enough time to work people. We also do callbacks in Chicago. So, bring a book, make sure you have a handful of songs you know pretty well. But don’t stress too much about “the book.”</p>
<p>Can somebody explain to me what vocalizing someone means?</p>
<p>Basically, it’s singing scales.</p>
<p>Thanks for the clarification</p>
<p>Haha MrsDrz! :0)</p>
<p>Monkey, I should have explained more perhaps . . . my D had worked on her additional material and it was polished. :0) The songs that she had in her book included her cuts for each of her audition schools, plus three additional songs (I think it was just three . . . you would think I would never forget that stuff!). One song was a song from the most recent show she had been in, and that was the song Stevens-Point had asked for. It seems reasonable for a school to ask for a song from a recently performed show. Another “extra” song was a song from my D’s next previous show, and the third song was a song that a particular school sometimes asked the kids to sing. </p>
<p>Like soozievt stated . . . just one story.</p>
<p>Was anyone asked to do additional material or improv in anyone at NYC Unifieds or Regional Auditions in NYC, specifically Carnegie Mellon?</p>
<p>Viva - My daughter is a senior MT at Carnegie Mellon. Her CMU audition (wow - already four years ago!) had lots of extras. For the singing part she did her first song and only about eight bars of her second song. At that point she was cut off and asked if she knew “All That Jazz.” She had never worked on or performed that song, but knew the melody. She stood behind the pianist to see the words and went at it. I guess they liked what they had heard so far but wanted to hear something different than what she had prepared. I think they know pretty quickly if they are interested, so be prepared for anything. Now, her monologue part at the CMU … that had all kinds of interesting things in it!</p>
<p>Now was your daughter’s audition on-campus or a Unified type audition? Any more recent experiences?</p>
<p>Viva - My daughter’s CMU audition was in NYC at the same time as Unifieds.</p>
<p>I saw a lot of books at Unifieds this weekend, I am assuming the only pieces in them were ones the kids were comfortable with. Almost every audionee had one…</p>
<p>That can be deceiving, photomom5! My D had her book, but with a 16-bar cut, 32-bar cut, and full song for EACH of her songs, that makes for a thicker looking book than you would expect. And BTW, we have done 10 auditions so far, and not one school has asked for more than 3 songs.</p>
<p>I was unfamiliar with the term “vocalizing”…thanks for explaining why, while waiting in the hall at NYC Unifieds, I kept hearing scales being sung behind closed doors.</p>
<p>I recommend students shoot to go in as prepared as possible to their auditions, and whether that means having 2-4 solid cuts in their book and 1 solid monologue or 8+ cuts and 5+ monologues all depends on the kid. Ideally, I would hope to send a kid with 1 contemporary and 1 classical ballad, and 1 contemporary and 1 classical uptempo along with 2 monologues at minimum. I spoke with a student at Carnegie that mentioned doing SEVEN different monologues during her audition, and this has caused me to try to push kids to have a bit extra prepared just to err on the side of caution-- however, I certainly think that is the exception, not the rule. Monkey13, I also completely agree that a student should not attempt a song that they are unfamiliar with, but I do believe if they (for example) list that they played “Millie” on their r</p>