Auditions

Interested? Have Questions? Reach out to our Music Director, David Lee (davidklee@princeton.edu).

Our audition consists of two parts – the first round focuses on your individual voice while the second is directed towards your voice within the ensemble. See details below.

The Initial Audition:

• Scales: First we’ll sing through a few scales together to get you warmed up. Then we’ll guide you through a few on your own to get a sense of your range.

• Swells: A swell is an exercise where you start as softly as possible on a given note, slowly increase to your fullest volume and then slowly return to the initial volume. We’ll try a few swells to test your vocal power and control.

• Pitch-matching: We’ll first play several series of three or four notes and ask you to sing them back to us. We’ll then play some chords and ask you to identify particular notes in them (top, middle and bottom). The ability to listen to a pitch and match it with your voice is especially valuable in an a cappella group!

• Sight-reading: We will give you a short melody and ask you to sight sing it. Don’t worry if this is not your forte! This is only one of many opportunities to show us your musical abilities.

• Prepared Solo: This is your chance to shine! Pick a song that you’re comfortable with (and we mean any song — it doesn’t have to be “Christian”), relax and show us your beautiful voice.

We will let you know on the night of your initial audition whether you have been called back for part two, and if so, we will also arrange a short individual workshop session with you to help you prepare.

Callbacks:

Based on the voice part you demonstrated during your initial audition, we’ll help you learn a few of our arrangements according to your part. Then, along with the others auditioning, we’ll put it all together and have you sing with everyone in KS, so we can see how your voice fits into the group as whole. Initially, you’ll sing your part with another member of the group, but once you feel comfortable we’ll move you in and out of smaller groups so we can hear how you individually contribute to group blend. In callbacks we ask that you sing clearly – not too loud and not too soft – while focusing on how your voice harmoniously fits into the larger sound.

Afterwards, it’s a long, difficult night of decision-making for us and hopefully a night of peaceful rest for you as you prayerfully trust God’s good will in the decision. Whatever the decision is, we guarantee that callbacks will be fun chance to work on your vocal skill while singing praises to the Lord!