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Song Selection 101: How to Choose the Right Cover Song
for a Talent
Competition or Audition
By Randi Reed
Aside from
off-key singing, the biggest blunder aspiring singers make in a talent
competition or audition is choosing the wrong song. The right song can help
make your audition the most memorable of the day, and the wrong one can kill
your chances. Here's a step-by-step guide to the art of song casting.
Know Yourself and the
Judges
1. Know yourself as an artist, and learn how
to step back and take an objective look at your vocal strengths and
weaknesses. This is what the judges and potential talent buyers will do.
Which do you have more of: range, or power? Which comes more easily to you?
Which is stronger: the upper or lower end of your range?
2. Know what your voice does when you're nervous. Do you tend to sing
sharp, or do you have trouble with low notes when you're nervous? Nerves can
highlight your trouble area, so choose the range and key of your song
accordingly.
3. Know the details of the audition or
competition you're going for. Is there a list of songs you must choose from?
How many minutes or bars do you get for your audition time? (If the audition
is only a partial song, choose something without a slow build up.) Is the
audition with music or without? A capella auditions call for a different
strategy; when there's no accompaniment, songs with prominent melody lines
work best. When it comes to singing a capella, up-tempo songs are iffy, and
complicated, rhythm-heavy songs don't usually work. A strong melody line
will guide you.
4. If the audition is accompanied, with what kind of instruments? If it's a
talent competition, will there be a band, or will you bring your own backing
track? If a band, what instruments? Will there be backup vocalists? Who's
the musical director? Look up his/her credits to see what kind of music the
M.D. is most comfortable with.
5. Know who the judges are and read their bios
and lists of credits. Avoid songs the judges performed or worked on, as well
as songs by artists the judges worked with. You want to create memories of
your own performance of the song, not make someone else remember their own
experience with the song.
General Guidelines
for Choosing Songs for a Singing Competition or Audition:
1. Unless they're professional musicians, your mom and grandma, bless them,
are usually not the best judges of what songs are good for you. Mom's and
Grandma's love is not only blind, it's often deaf as well, and while they
always have a favorite song they like to hear, it's rarely right for the
singer at hand. Let your vocal coach or other unbiased person aid you in
song selection--preferably someone connected to the music industry, since
that's who you're trying to impress at the audition or competition.
2. Chose a song that fits your image, because
the judges will see you before they hear you. As we've seen many times on
American Idol, a guy in a business suit singing rock and roll doesn't work
in an audition...unless you're an actor auditioning to play a nerdy
accountant who thinks he's cool.
3. Avoid imitations of your favorite artists or artists you sound
like...even if your friends and family love it. Just because you sound like
Stevie Wonder doesn't mean you should sing a Stevie Wonder song; we already
have a Stevie Wonder in the music industry, and he does Stevie better than
anyone. Brad Pitt looks like Robert Redford, but he didn't succeed in
Hollywood by playing Redford's character "Hubbell Gardner" in The Way We
Were remakes.
4. If you have a favorite artist whose songs
fit your style (but your voice is not an imitation of that artist), it's
often better to choose a really good album cut instead of the hit single.
There will be fewer memories attached to the song in the judges' minds. For
example, let's say you love Bon Jovi ballads, and they fit your voice and
style. "It's Hard Letting You Go" may be more effective than the
better-known "Bed of Roses," because the judges won't be waiting to see if
you live up to the way Jon hits the notes on "...tonight I sleep on a bed of
nails."
5. Look for songs outside your musical genre that can be reworked to suit
your style and image. Remember Ruben Studdard's unexpected,
wonderfully-executed version of "Sweet Home Alabama" on American Idol? More
recently, Carrie Underwood's country interpretation of Tiffany's "Could've
Been" was another great example of how to handle a cover tune in a
competition.
6. Potential sources for song ideas: Keep your
ears open while watching TV. Listen to musical genres you don't usually
listen to to get ideas for songs that could be rearranged in your style.
Check out classic, jazz, and country music channels and radio stations, and
raid the music collections of family and friends...especially those of a
different generation or who listen to a different type of music than you.
7. Plan to be creative with your song. Use a new arrangement or do
variations on the chorus to make the song your own. Note-for-note karaoke
renditions of the original artist's version are boring, so give yourself an
edge. (Note: This does not mean Mariah and Christina-style runs. Runs have
been so overdone by others, they're no longer creative.)
8. Choose a song that you really love...or in
the case of an audition or competition where you choose a song from a list,
at least strongly like. If that's still a stretch, think of the song as a
good friend who can help you win.
Some musical and
technical considerations:
1. The song should not be too broad in range, but not too safe. To
compensate for your nerves, the song shouldn't be too rangey--the broader
the range, the more chance of error. But don't go too safe. If you're a
power belter you can sometimes get away with a little safer song, provided
there are some big notes to belt out.
2. Consider what might happen if venue
acoustics or sound quality are poor and you can't hear yourself for a
second. Your song choice should hold up. (For example, Jessica Simpson's "I
Wanna Love You Forever" leaves no room for vocal error. You're either on the
note, or you're not.)
3. If there will be a live band accompanying everyone in a competition,
anticipate the worst and consider how the song will hold up if it gets a bad
arrangement. With all due respect, some talent show band song arrangements
rival the world's worst lounge acts. (Arrangements for rock songs tend to
suffer the worst.)
Getting closer to
choosing your song? Now consider the lyrics:
1. Choose a song that has lyrics you relate to
and feel. Your job as a singer is to make the audience feel it, too. To
paraphrase our webmaster, if you can't sing a breakup song like your heart
is breaking, don't bother. It's not just about the notes.
2. Choose a song with lyrics that are age appropriate. The 14 year-old girl
singing "Call Me" on a kids' talent show made us very uncomfortable.
3. If the original artist is a different gender
than you and you're straight, will the lyrics work with a simple change of
he/she pronouns? Or is major surgery necessary? (To either you or the
lyrics--neither option is good.)
4. Keep in mind that changing gender of the lyrics usually strengthens the
meaning of the song. This can be good or bad. One of the most poignant live
performances I've ever seen was at an awards show when Sting sang "Someone
to Watch Over Me"--a song typically performed by a female singer. But
because of still-lingering sexual stereotypes, women should proceed with
caution: a lyric that sounds sexy on a guy will have an even sexier
connotation when done by a female voice...and may offend a conservative
audience. Think it over carefully and be sure of the image you want to
portray.
Songs to Avoid in singing competitions:
1. Singing a Celine Dion song is the
kiss of death in a singing competition, as eliminated American Idol
contestant Melinda Lira found out. Unless the singer is ten times better
than Celine Dion--nearly impossible, since Celine's notes are so technically
perfect--the judges will constantly be thinking how much better Celine hits
each note. If you have a vocal coach who encourages you to sing Celine Dion
in any public setting, fire him or her immediately; that coach knows nothing
about the music business and is not helping you.
2. While not as technically demanding, Elton John songs are notoriously
difficult to sing, because Elton writes music for his own unique phrasing
and pronunciation. When attempting an Elton John cover song, there are two
options for approaching it: either you can sing a copycat karaoke
vocal--which lacks originality and sometimes sounds odd if the singer isn't
British--or you can try to vocalize it differently, which rarely works due
to the unique phrasing that's already so deeply ingrained in Elton John
melodies. We adore Elton, but you're best off choosing something else.
3. Also difficult: Billy Joel songs
are particularly tricky for women, because they were written for his voice,
which has a very broad range. (Try singing "Honesty" in the privacy of your
own home and you'll see what I mean.)
4. Avoid classic signature songs such as "Jailhouse Rock," "Hound Dog,"
"Twist and Shout," "I Saw Her Standing There," "Can't Get No Satisfaction,"
and "Stairway to Heaven." There's no way you can make them your own, and
major artists don't even try. (When playing "Twist and Shout," for fun
during encores, Jon Bon Jovi publicly acknowledges this fact by doing the
Paul McCartney head shake. Jon's famous and can get away with being cute.
You're not there yet.)
Have Fun!
Within all these parameters is the perfect song for your voice, that will
bring you joy. Now that you know what to do, have fun discovering it!
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MusicBizAdvice.com. All rights reserved.
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