How to prepare for a Beartones audition!

Your Audition:

Plan to arrive 10-15 minutes early. You will fill out a brief questionnaire.

Warm-up/Range:

Our Music Director will lead you through various vocalizes that could include scales, falsetto, and bass exercises. We are listening for a healthy singing range, as well as tone quality/intonation.

Tonal Memory:

Be prepared to exercise tonal memory. The music director will play a series of 5 pitches, three times, on the piano. On the fourth run, you will sing back the pitches on any neutral syllable - "doo", "la", "mi", etc.

Sight Singing:

Be prepared to sight read. You will be given a brief sight reading excerpt in which you will have a few moments to audiate through the line. A tonal key will be played on the piano, as well as your starting pitch. You can choose to sing on solfege, numbers, a neutral syllable, etc.

Solo:

You will sing a verse and chorus of a song of your choosing. if you're an opera singer, sing something operatic. If you like musical theatre, sing that. If you drive down the highway with your windows rolled down, blasting your lungs out to whatever's on the radio, sing that. Everyone likes different music, and we want to see how you can add to our musical makeup.

Vocal Percussion:

If you indicate on the questionnaire that you can beatbox, we'll ask you to show us your stuff! Free-style percussion is welcome, though it's also helpful for us to hear you perform as if there were a song playing. We're listening for tempo consistency, creativity, and clarity.

Callbacks:

You will warm-up and vocalize with the current Beartones.

You will learn an excerpt from one of our arrangements, as well as the MSU Alma Mater.

You will prepare a second solo (verse + chorus) of your choosing. Consider choosing a piece that contrasts the solo from your general audition.