In this video, professional voice instructor Jennifer Rutherford of International School of Music, and private teacher in Bethesda Maryland, describes how to prepare for a competition like American Idol, or any other audition. Some tips on preparation, vocal health, song choice, and audition etiquette are covered. Warm ups are also suggested and demonstrated with student and model, Mair. The video assumes that candidates will have some level of training or natural ability, but would also be useful for the amateur interested in pursuing training for a career in singing.

FOR OLDER:

-Dress more formally.

-Dont dress with current fashion statement pieces or colors.

-Stick to neutral and earth tones.

-No gel or hair spiking up.

FOR YOUNGER:

-dont over-expose yourself to the sun to avoid early wrinkles,

-dress according to your age bracket (no backward baseball caps for 40 yr olds please) but with new “in-style” clothes.

-Make sure you style your hair in a way that shows you put care into it.

-dress a bit less formally (jeans with a nice dress shirt is always a good option)…

But the women can also alter their look further with make-up or hairstyles that are more common to the age range they want to look like. And one final piece of advice: NEVER, I repeat, NEVER write your age on your resume. Whatever they feel you are from your headshot is fine, dont limit yourself!

Makeover: Get The Look: How To Look Older: Make-Up

Makeover: Get The Look: How To Look Younger: Make-Up

P.S. I also use one small trick: imagine you are your favourite actor/actress. How do they address others? How would they talk? Move? Smile? Act?How would their voice sound? Calm? Funny? Excited?

This is the biggest thing in auditioning as far as I’m concerned.  It’s sometimes hard to fathom just how many people the casting folk have to see on a daily basis.  The same is true for the university admissions folk as well. There are literally hundreds of thousands of people that want to be actors and as a general rule, they’re going to be attracted to the same opportunities to act as you are.

So, the things I’ve noticed that just seem to kill off enthusiasm and worse yet, the ENJOYMENT of acting are:

1- Seeing that kind of blank, empty look on the casting peoples faces at the end of your audition.

2- Hearing a plain old “thank you” at the end of your audition.

3- Not KNOWING and second guessing what the casting people may have wanted or not at the end of your audition.

Taken singularly, these things aren’t so bad.  But, pile them up day after day after day and they become very burdensome.  I think people that don’t act have a hard time understanding how tough it can be emotionally.  My ex-wife’s brother in law was a fairly prominent actor in his youth and he once told me something that always stuck with me.  He said “when people go on job interviews, they may go to two or three, sometimes even four or five, but they KNOW that sooner or later they’re going to get a job, It’s just a matter of time.”

But, then he said “but, imagine if after the 5th interview you didn’t get the job.  And then the next and the next and a year later it’s been 200 interviews and you still haven’t gotten a job.  How would you feel?”
And I said something like, “probably pretty low”

To which he replies, “that’s NORMAL for acting work.”

Here is the other side of the argument from Actor Growth anyways. To read the full article…Click Here