Don't Put That Song In Your Book Just Yet

So you're getting ready for an audition. You picked your song, you built the perfect 16-bar cut, and you're itching to slap it in your book and hit the boards.

DON'T. Not yet.

I've spent a lot of years on both sides of this thing - on the boards as an actor, behind the mic singing standards with my combo, and at the piano watching hopefuls walk in the room. And I'm telling you, the difference between a great audition and a hot mess usually isn't your voice. It's your music. So let's fix that right now.

Forewarned Is Forearmed

Here's the deal. When you set your music in front of the pianist or the Music Director, that page is doing the talking before you sing a note. It's your one shot to say, "Here's exactly what I want." So make it clean, make it clear, and make it easy to read. Nobody's playing detective at 9am.

Run through this checklist before anything goes in the book:

Piano AND vocal. Not a lead sheet, not a piano solo. A lead sheet is you hanging your accompanist out to dry. Give them the actual arrangement so they can give you the actual support.

Clean copy. A copy of a copy of a copy will NOT work. I cannot stress this enough. Buy your music online at Musicnotes.com or SheetMusicDirect.com so it's in your key, it reads clean, and nothing's chopped off the edge.

Let me tell you about the day this lesson burned itself into my brain. I'm subbing on piano for an audition, full room, casting team stone-faced, the works. Sweet kid walks up, big smile, hands me his music. Except it's a fourth-generation photocopy, shrunk down to fit a binder, so faint it looked like it had been faxed from the moon. Half the bass clef is missing. And the key signature? Gone. Vanished. So I'm squinting, sight-reading the ghost of a chart, guessing at his key while he's standing there with his whole heart in his throat. He cracked on the money note because I couldn't give him the harmony underneath it. That wasn't his voice failing him. That was his PAGE failing him. And it was 100 percent avoidable. I think about that kid every time someone slides a crime scene onto my piano.

So please - spare us both. You would not believe the messes that land on my music desk. Pencil smudges, half a page, somebody's grocery list in the margin. Give your accompanist a fighting chance and they will move heaven and earth for you.

Highlight your key signature and time signature. If they're not sitting right there on your cut, write them in. And if you've got an internal key or meter change, highlight that too. Surprises are for birthday parties, not for the person accompanying you.

Mark the START and END of your cut. Big, bold, obvious. Don't make anyone guess where you're jumping in or bailing out.

Decide: intro or bell tone. Pick one, then practice the heck out of whichever one you chose. Walking in undecided is how you get rattled before you open your mouth.

Pay to have it recorded exactly as it sits on the page. Yes, spend the money. Then keep that recording on your phone so you can pop in your earbuds and live with it while you're sweating it out in the hallway. Future You will be grateful.

It's a Two-Minute Relationship - Make It a Good One

Here's the thing I want you to really hear. That little two-minute relationship you build with the pianist? It starts with your music. Walk in with a page that's immaculate, and you've already told them you're a pro, you respect their time, and you came to play.

Do that, and I promise you, the two of you are going to make some beautiful music together.

Now go get 'em. I'm rooting for you.

*these websites offer pre-fab audition cuts of thousands of musical theatre songs.