American Idol - Tips For Song Selection By Alex Goldman Song selection is both an art and a science, especially for American Idol audition. Song selection is very important whether you are doing covers or original material, or a combination of both. The rules and audition format for each city where American Idol auditions are held keep changing each year, so be sure to check the American Idol site and prepare exactly what they specify for the city where you plan to audition. 1. American Idol Audition So, if you're thinking of auditioning for the next round there are a few things you need to be ready for to make it by the judges. There is no other way to explain it, you need to do your homework if you're going to make it past the very first and following auditions. To become American Idol you need to give these auditions your absolute best shot if you want to make it. Factor in how an American Idol auditions is always a magnet for the really strange over the real singers. To have to listen to those people who confidently claimed that their tones sound like Freddy Mercury in the American idol audition is already emotionally and physically (to the ears of course) torturous. 2. American Idol Songs The first rule to American Idol song selection is to pick a song that you can sing. I have seen too many good vocalists singing poor songs, which effectively reduces an artist's chances of success. The second rule to song selection is to choose a song people know. If the judges don't know your song, they will have little idea if you are singing the song correctly or not and that tends to bring scores down. The third rule of song selection is to pick a song that shows off all you have to offer. Be true to yourself and your voice to get your best shot at this business of singing. The forth and final rule to song selection is to choose a song that suites your personality. If you are shy and quite with a soft voice, you're probably better off singing a ballad than trying to fake your way through an outgoing dance song. 3. Searching for Songs You can search for songs with a keyword, phrase and/or composer. Perform a lyrics search by artist name, title, or song lyrics text or check out the top song lyrics searches and see the most popular love songs on The Love Lyrics Encyclopedia. Searching by titles or keywords is much faster than searching the whole text (these are "indexed" searches, and take only about a tenth the time a full-text search requires), but they only work if you know the song's title or can guess at the keywords. There is a search method for preparing a sensitivity table which can be updated with a correlation value between a search keyword (for example, cheerful song or refreshing song) and a feature word (for example, cheerfulness or energetic). After searching a song, look for the words 'Karaoke Lyrics' under song info. 4. Karaoke Tips For Next American Idols Karaoke is supposed to be easy, breezy, and stress free for American idols contestant, where lining up an hour's worth of songs should only take 30 seconds. You have a great selection of karaoke to choose from and presented in a good package. For example, each Pocket Songs PSCDG album contains a complete performance with a professional vocalist as well as the karaoke tracks of each song, for the at-home performer. The cutting edge technology of the computerized karaoke system is a big plus for the die-hard karaoke junkie, and I can see lots of entertainment potential with the added features of the digital system. Sing at karaoke clubs as much as possible. Record yourself singing along with the singer or piano accompaniment with melody and make sure your voice matches, especially on high notes, low notes, fast phrases and runs. Record yourself again and listen for any pitch problems. Song selection is important for every party involved in American Idol audition, especially if you want them to have a lot of fun. Practice your song in front of the mirror and make sure that your singing sounds good. When you want to become American Idol there are many things that are involved in the worship event and worship leading, but song selection is a really important one. Alex Goldman will give you 1000s of dollars in free American Idol contest preparation resources, info, video, tools, tips and Free ebook from his site : http://www.americanidolspro.com BACK to Appalling Behavior Homepage