The Singer’s Audition & Career Handbook: “Promotional Materials” Preview

The Singer's Audition & Career Handbook is available for pre-order and will be released October 15, 2019. The following is an excerpt from Chapter 12: Promotional Materials. 

 

 

from Chapter 12: Promotional Materials

 

Audio and Video Demo Recordings

Most vocal performance degree and Young Artist program applications require the submission of an audio or video demo recording. Your demo is the most important component of your application, as screening panels will usually evaluate your singing and artistry before even glancing at your résumé and letters of recommendation. An outstanding recorded performance may secure you a live audition even if your other materials do not yet attest to a great deal of training or performance experience. Some programs evaluate prospective participants solely on the strength of these demos. It is also vital that you continually upload current, representative recordings of your work to your website and YouTube channel, as young artist programs and opera companies will likely take these into consideration alongside your live audition.

Producing a fantastic demo requires time and care, as well as a financial investment. A demo is a virtual audition, so be sure to create demos that are characterized by the same polish and professionalism you would demonstrate in person.

 

Audio Recordings

If you want to make a great audio recording, seek a professional engineer who specializes in recording classical singers and a studio equipped with a well-maintained grand piano. While some singers may produce adequate results with a digital recorder and a room with decent acoustics, most DIY demos do not compare well with professionally produced and edited recordings. I will offer suggestions at the end of this section for making the best recording you can on your own, as it is sometimes necessary. But if you want your demo to accurately represent your artistry, you should ideally partner with an engineer who possesses the skill to capture your sound effectively. 

Studios that do not cater specifically to classical musicians are usually designed to be highly acoustically absorbent. That doesn’t work well for classical singers. If you’re accustomed to performing in a resonant concert hall, a room that provides no resonance or feedback may tempt you to over sing, so look for a studio with a warm natural acoustic or one equipped with acoustic diffusers thatmimic the experience of singing in a more resonant room. Even if you have the opportunity to record your demo in an actual concert hall, you still need an engineer who understands how to mic classical voices and knows how to take advantage of the bigger space. 

    Jeremy Gerard, Recording Engineer: 

    Recording opera singers properly is an art. Opera singers should avoid recording studios that specialize in rock, pop and jazz because they are customarily very dry acoustical environments. This means there is no natural reverb. It is essential that opera singers be recorded in an environment with at least one second of reverb time. In addition, the microphone technique differs at these types of facilities, which tend to place the microphone very close to the singer. Opera singers cannot be miked this way because the sound pressure level (SPL) emitted from their mouths is usually enough to cause distortion either at the microphone or the preamp or both. The right amount of “air” between the singer and the microphone is essential to capture an acoustic classical sound. A studio that specializes in rock, pop and jazz will never be able to obtain this acoustical “air” due to the dead environment… even if the microphone is pulled back from the singer and digital reverb is applied. Engineers at these types of facilities also may not be proficient in reading music, which can cause a bevy of problems when it comes to the editing phase of a project.

 

Here are some tips for a successful audio recording session. These guidelines also apply to video production, as you should ideally use dedicated sound recording equipment to capture the audio and then sync it with your video footage, rather than allow the sound quality to be limited by the audio capabilities of your video camera.

• When possible, keep your selections short. It’s fatiguing to do multiple takes of long pieces, and they’ll be more costly to edit.
• Choose repertoire that you sing well now rather than repertoire that stretches you. If you can only manage to sing that high note thrillingly or nail that cadenza once out of every ten tries, you may be able to make a great recording of the aria – but you will not be well served if your live audition does not live up to the promise of your demo.
• Invite a teacher, coach or colleague to your recording session. They can provide you with feedback and help you to avoid diction and musical errors. Your pianist or engineer might be able to keep track of these things, but it’s best to have a dedicated producer so that your pianist can focus solely on making art and your engineer can devote all their attention to engineering.
• Schedule your session well in advance of application deadlines so your engineer has enough time to edit and master your demo. Ideally, leave yourself enough time that if you need to re-record something, you can still meet your deadline.
• Bring extra copies of your scores for the engineer. Prepare your scores (and your pianist’s) in such a way as to minimize page turns.
• Listen to a playback of your initial takes. You’ll almost certainly notice some things you would like to do differently. 
• Dress comfortably, and do not wear any jewelry that might make noise.
• Take breaks as needed. If you give yourself adequate time to rest and/or vocalize in between selections, you will sound fresh throughout the session and likely need to perform fewer takes. 
• Record your demos with a pianist with whom you have thoroughly rehearsed your repertoire. Never use a karaoke backing track to produce an audition demo.

If you must record your audio demo without the assistance of an engineer, here are some important things to keep in mind:

• Record in a room with well-balanced acoustics and resonance. A small practice room will be too dry to capture your sound adequately. A room that is too live may also cause problems – for example, the sanctuary of your church may be too reverberant to allow your diction and dynamic nuances to come across clearly.
• Be sure to use a room where ambient noise will not interrupt or destroy your session. 
• Use a grand piano that has been recently tuned.
• Use a good digital recorder. You may be able to get good results with a smartphone app if you attach an external microphone.
• Take levels before you start recording. Your digital recorder or phone app will have level settings as well as a light that indicates audio clipping. Check the loudest, highest passages in your repertoire, and well as sections where the accompaniment is loud.
• Experiment with mic placement for best results. Optimal mic placement will vary based on your voice and the acoustics of the room where you are recording.
• Listen to your most successful takes to make sure that they came out as well as you think they did.

 

Video Recordings

Video demos are extraordinarily useful for audition prescreening because they enable the viewer to get a much more complete picture of your artistry than they would without a visual component. They are also likely to accurately demonstrate your abilities, as they are assumed (and often required) to represent a single unedited take. The camera built into your smart phone is likely to be on a par with digital camcorders, so you can probably use it to film your demo, but I strongly recommend that you use an external mic to capture the audio. All of the points discussed above for audio recording apply equally to video production. Here are some additional guidelines for producing your video demos:

• Choose repertoire that you can execute well in a single take and can sing repeatedly start-to-finish without becoming fatigued. 
• Position your camera horizontally and film in the same orientation that is the standard for movies and television. 
• Dress as you would for a live audition.
• Place the camera on a tripod or flat surface when shooting. Film in a well-lit space and be sure that there is more light in front of you than behind you. Frame yourself well, with the camera positioned far enough away that your whole body is in the frame but close enough to capture your facial expressions. 
• If you edit your video to include some introductory text, keep it as brief as possible. You may verbally introduce yourself and your repertoire before singing if you wish, but it is not necessary so long as the video is well labeled. If you do, be sure to speak clearly and calmly and to articulate foreign language aria titles with superb diction. 

 

Videos from Live Performances

Live performances of opera arias, especially when taken from a full production with orchestra, can show you off to great advantage. Here are some guidelines to help you decide whether your live performances will support your applications well and how to present them. 

• Use only performances recorded on a mounted camera. Do not use videos recorded with a hand-held device where the frame is in constant motion. 
• Use only performances where your face can be seen clearly.
• Use performances of arias that show off your superpowers. A studio recording of an aria that showcases your range and skills to good effect will serve you better than a live performance of an aria that does not.
• Edit each excerpt so that it begins and ends with your aria. Screening panels do not have the time to view the entire scene. 
• Be respectful of permissions issues. Make sure that the videographer, producing organization, orchestra and other singers approve of your using the video for audition purposes, especially if the video will be posted publicly online.