So I did it! I finally made it to an audition for The Voice, one of these TV talent shows that have become so prevalent. I wish they had these opportunities years ago when I was first interested in being a musician. Things would have been so different for me.

Against all odds, I registered and went to the audition. I wanted to audition for America’s Got Talent last November, but got a really bad cold the day before the audition and had to cancel. Then, last April, The X Factor arrived in America and I wanted to audition for that. I registered, but couldn’t go because my family and I were leaving on a flight to England the very same day and it was just too much to try and audition and pack up all of our stuff to prepare for the trip. I was worried that I wouldn’t make it back in time for the flight and was getting too stressed-out about the whole process, so I decided to wait and try again next year. If I had known that our flight was going to be postponed from 9pm until 3:30am the next day, I might have gone, but since I didn’t find that out until we arrived at the airport at 6pm, it was too late. And that’s a whole other story…

In any case, I made it to the Izod Center in East Rutherford, NJ for my audition on Saturday, July 23rd. My DH drove me there with kids in tow and dropped me off. Luckily, the audition process was very well planned out with staggered arrival times, so I only had to wait about a half hour to get inside the venue. That was a good thing considering that it was about 90 degrees and sunny outside. I talked with some of the other people on line and when finally inside, waited on a shorter line for about 20 minutes before getting to sit down to wait for the audition. They were calling ten people into the audition rooms at one time.

After about another half hour wait, they called my group of ten and we proceeded to the hallway by the audition rooms. We had to wait there for another 10-15 minutes and were told that we would all be going in together to sing in front of the judge. That added a bit of extra nervousness to the whole process as it was bad enough having to sing in front of the judge, but also to have the other contestants listening as well.

We were told when we arrived that we would be able to sing one verse and chorus of a song that represented us as an artist. Right there, I was doomed because I chose to sing Adele’s Turning Tables from her Sophomore album 21 that had just been released a few months earlier. I should have picked a Soundgarden song or Alice In Chains instead, but I picked Adele because I love her songs and have been working on different kinds of vocal styles.

I made the mistake of starting the song at the beginning instead of getting to the showy parts of the song. By the time I sang the intro. verse the judge was already stopping me. I never even got to sing the prechorus or chorus of the song. It didn’t help that someone else was belting out a Janis Joplin song in the audition room next door so that I could barely hear myself singing! Add that to the nerves and freezing cold air-conditioning and I was doomed.

Lesson learned: sing the most impressive parts of the song first, don’t start at the beginning unless that is the most impressive part, and pick a song that truly represents who you are as a performing artist.

So I didn’t get a callback this time and there were lots of singers that were better than me, but I’m certainly not giving-up. I’m just getting started again and this was a good experience for the next opportunity. As far as I’m concerned, I will keep going to these auditions until I get in, die, or they don’t have them any longer. In the meantime, I’ve got tons of song ideas to work on and I’m really getting back into playing guitar. Onward!