Auditions

We know auditioning can be some seriously scary business. So, here’s a quick run-down of how it all works to help ease your nerves!

First, you’ll be blindfolded, and then… just kidding, that won’t happen. Here’s what you need to know:

Troy Tones typically holds auditions at least twice a year, once in the fall and again in the spring (and sometimes more often!). You don’t have to be a music major or even have any musical experience to audition; you just have to come ready to show us what you’ve got!

When you get to the audition, you’ll sign up, fill out a quick questionnaire to help us get to know you, and wait to come in and impress us!

The audition is made up of 4 major components:

Your solo: Prepare the chorus and verse of any song that shows off your talents. You don’t necessarily need to imitate the original artist; we want to hear your voice! Your solo gives us an idea of your sound, how you’ll blend with the group, and what kind of a performer you are. Check out our repertoire to get an idea of what kinds of songs you could sing!

Vocal exercises: We’ll run a few quick warm-ups to get an idea of your vocal range (how high and low you can sing).

Tonal memory: We’ll play a serious of five random notes on the keyboard and ask you to sing them back to us.

Sight singing: We’ll give you a couple lines of music and ask you to sing it for us. Don’t worry; this is definitely not a make or break part of your audition! Plenty of Troy Tones couldn’t read music when they made the group.

That’s it! You’ve survived your audition! If we like what we heard, we’ll invite you back for a callback. Callbacks are a chance for us to get to know you (and your voice) better and a chance for you to get to know us! Being in an a cappella group is major time commitment, so we want to make sure that Troy Tones is the best fit for you.

Feel free to shoot an email to troytones@usc.edu with any questions you might have. Be forewarned: you’re in for a great time!