<p>I am looking to transfer and I'm going to be auditioning at four schools.</p>
<p>I'm pretty much prepared, my only problem is I'm not sure how to practice my audition songs. This sounds stupid, because obviously I know the songs and words and tune, but what I mean is with the specific sheet music I have. I can generally find notes on a keyboard but thats about it and I can't play music. Also I don't have many people available to me at school to help. I don't have the money to hire a teacher or anything, trust me if I did I would already know how to play piano.</p>
<p>I'm obviously going to try to find people who can play it for me to practice with but I just don't know how realistic that is. </p>
<p>Does anyone know if at the audition I could ask the accompianist to play a bit first to see how they will be playing the song beforehand? I feel like this might be a major no-no so I'm asking for any advice on the matter.</p>
<p>Do you mean that you haven’t practiced at all with an accompanist? </p>
<p>With regard to practicing before the audition, there are schools that provide practice time with the audition. Sometimes, you are able to sing through your rep completely. Sometimes, you just have time to go over pace. If you are lucky, you will get true collaborative musicians who take their clue from and adjust to your timing. My D had one accompanist who got completely lost on one of her pieces. She just kept singing at her pace. They did not finish together but she didn’t waiver.</p>
<p>Yes thats what I mean. I have never practiced with an accompianist. My family could never afford a voice or piano teacher so I don’t have anyone I can really call upon to help. My high school choral teacher is no longer with the school and so I can’t go to her.</p>
<p>I guess I will just have to do my best and take your advice to keep my own pace and hope the accompianist keeps up.</p>
<p>Does your school have an orchestra or band? (if so, someone plays piano in it) An instrumental music teacher? Who accompanies the school musicals? Do any of your classmates play piano well? Any of these folks should be able to do a practice session with you so you get used to singing with accompaniment and they can help you mark your music for your audition accompanist.</p>
<p>I made the mistake of answering this as if it were on the music major forum rather than musical theater so I have no idea whether any MT auditions allow time to practice with the accompanist. That is the case for voice auditions. There are others here - pretty much everyone - who know more about MT auditions than I, so heed their advice.</p>
<p>Nire – you didn’t mention at which schools you will be auditioning; no schools that I am familiar with will give you enough time to practice with the accompanist. It is EXTREMELY important that you find a way to go over your music prior to your audition. Printed music can vary a great deal; it may be a different arrangement or even a different key than you are used to. There must be a teacher or student at your school that you can ask; don’t take a risk of having problems at your audition.</p>
<p>Nire – I was about to post the same thing as onstage when I saw her post. </p>
<p>Some schools may schedule a quick meeting (3 - 5 minutes) with the accompanist before your audition, but at most you will go in and have 15-seconds at the piano right before you start singing to set tempo and point out any specific markings. Regardless of how much time the expectation is that you will arrive at the audition already having worked/ sung through your material with an accompanist at home. </p>
<p>I have seen auditionees really thrown by not working with an accompanist before the audition. Singing with the cast recording, an accompaniment CD, or acappella is VERY different that singing with the piano accompaniment. </p>
<p>If there is no music department or choir at your school, what about a local church or synagogue? Local piano or voice teachers in the area. You will most likely have to pay someone to play for you, but you may need only 30 minutes… bring a tape recorder (or some other sort of recording device) with you so you can tape the accompaniment to practice with. Depending on your area you may be able to find someone to play for you for 30-minutes for $10 - $20.</p>
<p>Dear Nire, we used a service called [My</a> Rehearsal Pianist](<a href=“http://www.myrehearsalpianist.com%5DMy”>http://www.myrehearsalpianist.com) for my daughter, who just switched audition songs last week. It was too late to find anyone local to make her practice tapes. You’ll need to either fax or email the sheet music to him, with the cuts marked,unless you want the entire song done. Within a day or two he’ll email you the songs back in mp3 format. He’s very good and nice to work with too, and cost is so reasonable. He’ll also transpose if needed. I HIGHLY recommend him to anyone who doesn’t have a local pianist to make them practice tapes. It was a lifesaver for us.</p>
<p>Sometime outside links that could be construed as advertising are taken down by the moderators on CC… generally if you type out the information without the link, people can search for it themselves… so, just in case…</p>
<p>The site mentioned above is my rehearsal pianist.</p>
<p>Thanks KatMT for letting me know that. Sorry if I posted that incorrectly. I appreciate this forum so much and want to follow their guidelines, thanks.</p>
<p>My D uses Brandon Sturiale. Search his name. Wonderful person (so NICE!). Quick turn around. You can scan/email or fax him the music (he might even have it already… you’d just need to tell him the cuts). If you have an example of someone singing it at the tempo you want on youtube, include that link. He’ll send you the mp3. His rates are very reasonable. You can see from his website that he’s an accomplished pianist, composer and musical director. D has used him for audition cuts and full song practice mp3’s, her upcoming audition cuts for unifieds and even for coaching for auditions. Good luck!</p>
<p>Thank you everyone for the help, and I am currently at a college and I will try to get in touch with professors who may be willing to help, I’m certainly not giving up but with my current situation it is impossible to do anything that requires money, even the slightest bit. Which is why I asked this question. I know some musical professors at college who are very busy but may be willing to help if they can. Thank you everyone</p>
<p>Maybe if the music professor is too busy, he/she can recommend a student in the department who is accomplished on the piano. I know part of my D’s piano training at college was accompanying another instrumentalist, so maybe you could be of help to the piano student by helping them practice accompanying a singer. It’s a win-win for both!</p>