Taking the time to hear auditions in rehearsal is difficult.
It’s difficult for three reasons:
- It takes time away from rehearsal.
- It is more difficult to go back and listen again. (I have to trust my in-the-moment assessment.)
- It opens the auditions up to people who aren’t really ready but decide to try in that moment.
This year, for my big Friday concert, I tried some online auditions, for a few of the songs that had the most solo interest. I would tweak a few things from my first try, but here’s the general approach.
First, I created a google form that let the singers select all the solo’s they’re interested in. They are defined carefully by bar numbers.
Second, we recorded the group singing the song (minus solos) in rehearsal. I made these audio files available in our discussion group.
Third, I set a deadline for them to record audio or video, singing along with the track we recorded.
In the future, I would make the file labeling more specific – I had to rename files to keep track of them – and I would choose a delivery method that would centralize all the files, like a google folder that accepts uploads.
Want to hear the outcome? Come to the Aces Concert on Friday, May 30 at 7pm!