Audition

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DipityEnigma

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Hi

I need some advice on my vocals. On Tuesday I have an audition with a band that is pretty much open to anything and have stated "sing what you want" so I'm doing just that.

Problem is, like most people, I don't think highly of my voice. Don't get me wrong, I like it and it has certainly improved over the years but I don't want to go to the audition without any confidence and having a thought in the back of my head that when I start singing, they'll start making the "omg, shut up" face.

I would ask my friends but you know what it's like; you can't ask them because if they say you sound good, you're always doubtful due them being your friends.

Right now, this is really all I can think about. I was last in a band 4 years ago and we only practised together so it wasn't like a really serious band such as this one.

Thanks for taking the time to check this out.
 

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Your voice sounds fine. Can you sing for a couple of hours? If you want to do live work, you need to get your voice into shape. I think that is going to be your biggest challenge.
 
If you can expand on the "into shape" part it would help a lot. I've never had lessons before and I'm a bit nervous as the neighbours downstairs are in. Haha. Confidence isn't something I naturally have any more unfortunately but I'm working on it. ;)

Edit: here's one that I personally like (attached MP3)
 

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Into shape, I mean being able to sing for long periods and probably loud. What I hear in the recording, you can use your voice at a very low volume. When you sing louder, your voice becomes strained. When you sing or talk for that matter, for long periods of time, your voice is strained. It will need to be trained to do this over a long period of time.

I would also add, the samples you gave, while they were good, I didn't hear any "action" or emotion. Live shows are all about the band bringing it to the audience. That usually means putting some emotion into a song, which usually requires the voice to get pushed. The push is going to strain the vocals.

You could practice this by singing all the time. Get your vocal volume set and try to stick with that. When the band mixes, try to get them to mix the volume to your sustainable vocal level. Live work is not as easy as people think. Even doing vocals takes rehearsal, practice (not always with the band) and getting your instrument into shape. When doing live work you will want to avoid, alcohol, smoking (take your pick), stay hydrated, etc.

You voice is fine, but don't think that is all there is to it. You have to get your voice ready for some hard work.
 
I think I just shouldn't sing then. Both songs were actually sung with all of my emotion and obviously it's not come out enough. My voice is naturally low, it can't go any higher than that which is why I chose songs sung by males. In reality, when I talk most people mistake me for a 13 year old boy when I'm actually a 21 year old woman.

I don't smoke, drink or do drugs at all so that's not a problem anyway.

I do nothing but sing actually so it's more than obvious I'm not meant to sing. I'll just stick to listening to songs.

Thanks for your comments.
 
I would give it a try. I was just pointing out it may take some work. Nothing ventured nothing gained as they say.

You should go for it (no regrets) and let what happens, happen. Just a little work will be required.
 
A lot of being "Front" is having the attitude, drive and "charisma" to pull it off. I smoked, drank too much and ended up screaming by the end of the night most of the time when we did more than three sets...most of the bars we played in the 80s wanted 9-2. But I want to tell you, it was some of the best fun I had in the world. Now my voice is pretty beat, although I still get compliments (like you, I can't see why, but we're always tough on our own voices). I learned a lot of jokes to fill in the time while guitarists tuned and it saved some of my voice.
I will say this. My biggest fears in life is face to face conversation with people I don't know, and being in large crowds...but strap a bass on my back and put a mike in front of my face and I could come alive! Everything else just sort of fades away and when you play in front of 200-500 people (a few times quite a bit bigger) it is one of the coolest feelings in the world!
So, like David said, Go for it. Especially if it's a passion you have. You'll never know how well you can do until you do it!
 
Yeah, you're right. I've always wanted to sing and even although my voice has gotten better, my emotions have gotten worse.

A lot has happened over the last few years and about 4 years ago, I started to unknowingly protect myself by not allowing myself to feel emotion despite the fact that I convince myself I do.

It explains why around about that time, I wasn't able to write songs any more.

Here's the song "when you're gone" by Avril Lavigne which I tried singing earlier and even I think it's better. I'm sorry for the cut off at the end. After what you said about emotions and such, it got me thinking and as I was singing it, I kept bursting into tears. Aha. Can't sing a song if I'm crying, right? XD

So yeah, after 7 tries this is the best I can do for now. Still trying to stop crying right now so think I'm going to have a cup of tea.
 

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Don't give up on singing. These comments are based on the Linkin Park cover. First of all, if you recorded that acappella, that's pretty good. It was on pitch for the most part, which for many of us is difficult if not impossible without a backing track. Also, your voice is pleasant to listen to. If you can sing to pitch and sound good doing it, you can be a vocalist. The rest is about developing your voice.

By all means go to your audition, but don't worry too much about the results. If the band told you "sing whatever you want," I'm thinking they are not very far along themselves. Unless they know every song you might bring, you're probably going to find yourself and them scratching your heads looking for a song that you know how to sing and that they know how to play... It might have been more productive if you could have agreed in advance on a few songs to work on. But who knows, it might be fine.

In the long run, you'll need to work on developing the expressiveness of your voice, your accuracy in hitting the notes, and singing out more. You don't have to belt it out or scream. There are tons of singers with soft voices that sound good. I know you are a young person, but you should listen to Stevie Nicks. She has approximately your vocal range and sings very softly. She learned to control that voice incredibly well. I can see you singing a song like "Landslide."

Good luck.
 
Maybe don't sing without accompaniemant if you can help it. If they are a "Band" they should play while you sing to be sure you fit in. They may say "sing what you want", but I would show them that I want to sing what they play! Find out what songs they do that need the famale vocal you are offering, then practice those songs so you show your interest in whay THEY like. And as mentioned by others, put some emotion into it. My $.02
 
Maybe I should clarify on the "play what you want" part. They were doing gigs previously as a blues/jazz type band but about a few months ago, their lead singer left the band and ever since he left, they've been looking to get gigging again but take the band in a different direction and they're not sure what to take it in. They do all have different variations of the music that they like and they said they're not looking to replace their previous singer but simply want to take the band in a different direction

I've attached a song which I've been working on. It's not very long at the moment but I fairly enjoy singing it and it reminds me of a Christmas song. Can't remember which. That's going to drive me nuts now. Anyway, I much prefer singing my own (which is great cause this band is open to that) but I can sing others. I just need to find someone that I sound like and if I can remember the female from that video who's sort of tom-boy like and with a guy playing the piano and singing along with her, then I'll certainly check out her songs.

The hardest part about being a singer is finding those who match your voice. Aha. Or even doing covers that actually sound nice. I've heard some awful covers that just murder the original and I don't want to become one of those people.

I guess in this case what I really have to do is get my expectations up to my own standards rather than everyone else's. Not everyone is going to agree and you can't please everyone no matter how hard you try. Besides, there's already enough wannabes on the planet. Aha.

Thanks for all your comments.
 

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I'll bet you're talking about Annie Lennox of the Eurythmics. Absolutely top-notch singer, and an alto like you.
 
Ahahaha! I found it. My memory kept trying to throw in other Christmas songs but the one I was talking about is called "Fairytale of New York" and the female I was speaking of is called Kirsty MacColl. I think she has a lovely voice.
 
einstein magoo said:
Maybe don't sing without accompaniemant if you can help it. If they are a "Band" they should play while you sing to be sure you fit in. They may say "sing what you want", but I would show them that I want to sing what they play! Find out what songs they do that need the famale vocal you are offering, then practice those songs so you show your interest in whay THEY like. And as mentioned by others, put some emotion into it. My $.02
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^^^^^^^ this is very good advice .... if you want to sing in a band you'll need to sing what will get them excited about your voice.
 
No offence but I feel like some of you aren't reading all of my posts. I already said that they're taking the band in a different direction. They have an idea of the type of voice they want, just not where they want to take the band so even although I have asked, they don't know themselves what genre they want to take it in which is why they said sing what you want because they don't know what I should sing since they don't have a genre to put my voice to yet. A bit amateur-ish I know but I somewhat understand it at the same time. If you don't know where you want to take your band, you shouldn't really be looking for a vocalist until you know what you want.

I might just look for someone else while thinking about it. They said they've been through multiple vocalists already and "haven't found the right one" but perhaps that's because they don't even know themselves what they want. It's like job searching without knowing what job you want to do.
 
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doesn't matter ..... if they know the kind of voice they want then there's some songs that they heard that made them have an idea of what type of voice they want.
get examples from them of the type of voice they want and then learn some songs from those artists.

Your biggest problem though is your lack of confidence.
Regardless of what you sing, if you approach it with the mindset you have described of, "Maybe I'm not meant to be a singer" that will come across and not in a positive way.

The MOST important thing for a singer is that self confidence .... there's tons of successful singers that aren't really that good but they feel like they're great and so the audience accepts them and doesn't question it.

In your case your voice sounds fine .... so approach it from the standpoint of "I KNOW I'm a good singer and we're gonna rock this place" ...or jazz this place or whatever it's gonna be.
Your voice sounds fine ..... you need to own that. Confidence is what you need the most.
 
Thank you for your reply. My lack of self-confidence unfortunately comes from one of my siblings who bullied me for quite a few years and put me down about my singing so everyone's compliments are actually quite uplifting. I know I can be confident, it's just getting her out of my head that's the hardest.

I did ask them for examples but that's what I'm saying, they literally have no idea what they want. Nothing at all. When I asked for examples, they literally said just sing whatever you want. I don't understand how they can have a voice in mind when they don't even know what they want the voice to sing though. It's frustrating for me because I don't know what they want from me, if you get my meaning.

If they told me that they were looking for someone specific based on a genre or even gave me an example of the voice they were looking for, I honestly could work around it but it's messing me up because I don't know what they're expecting or wanting and I keep going from song to song trying to find the right one.

Thanks again for all your comments.
 
I'm gonna say they might not have their own **** together.

If there are no agreed upon songs then how are they going to be able to accompany any singers trying out?

And the idea of trying out a singer just singing without accompaniment is silly. Plenty of great singers have trouble with that while others that can do it have trouble singing with a band.
They need to give you some help IMO and rather than the issue being you, it may well be that THEY are the weak link here.

If I were trying out a singer I'm gonna try to make the singer comfortable ..... I'm either gonna give them plenty of notice of what I want so they can be prepared or I'm gonna learn songs they want to sing.
In general singers are a bit fragile anyway and it's up to the band to help them with that.
What they're asking is a bit unreasonable IMO.

But good luck whatever you decide ..... your voice sounds nice and has promise ....... if you get to work with some decent musicians you'll be wowing audiences before you know it.
 
Thank you for your comment. It doesn't make much sense to me either and they're also trying out other vocalists at the same time on the same day. They've told me they've booked a studio room for 3 hours and that each person is getting 30 minutes, according to them. So they're pretty much listening to 5 other vocalists at the same time.

Back in my day, we used to ask the person to sing certain songs because the band I was in, it was a tribute band to those such as the stranglers and jesus and mary chain. When they came along, we used to do it so that they had the band playing with them and if we didn't want their services, we wouldn't mess them about, we'd tell them there and then but we'd get to know them first a bit so it wouldn't be as short as 30 minutes most times. If the person has a good voice, fair enough but if they had a negative attitude or simply wouldn't get on with the group, we couldn't possibly say yeah, come along and join our band despite the fact that we don't like you, kind of thing. It sounds nasty but it's like friends. Hopefully you all become friends in the end too.

Maybe it's just done differently from what I'm used to. I hate all this formal crap. Really stresses me out. I feel more comfortable in singing with a band that I feel like I can trust and have a connection with but maybe that's just me. The way I see it, you see these people on a daily basis and it would be good to get along with them and be able to have that bond between you all.

Sorry for the slight rant and thank you to everyone making comments on this. It's been about 4 or 5 years since I was in a band and I got into that one through the bassist who was my boyfriend at the time so I never actually had to audition really. It literally just happened. We were talking about songs and then I just started singing parts of some of the ones I liked and then they were just like "hey, we feel like you're a friend now and we like your voice so do you want to be our lead singer?" Aha!

So yeah. Sorry for the amateur type replies with regards to the auditions.
 
DipityEnigma said:
Maybe it's just done differently from what I'm used to. I hate all this formal crap. Really stresses me out. I feel more comfortable in singing with a band that I feel like I can trust and have a connection with but maybe that's just me. .
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nah ..... it's still usually done the way you used to.

These guys sound like they don't know what they're doing to me ..... and you're right. If you're gonna be in a band it needs to be people you can relate to.

I look forward to seeing what you do in the future .. good luck.
 
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