The Audition

When we reached, 3 girls were already in the middle of their audition. They were singing scales. The scales were ascending. With every half-tone, they sounded more tense, more strained, nearer to the thin line between singing and screeching. I felt my throat going dry and my palms getting cold and clammy. A young (I mean very young) boy greeted us, and gave us forms to fill.

As I was filling the form, the audition continued in the background. There were vocalisation, clapping, more vocalisation, and actual singing of songs. She whom I came with went to the washroom, and left alone, I was just that close to running off to the mamak stall downstairs.

Presently, the on-going audition was over. The girls joined us in the sitting area, and we were given a briefing. Then, it was our turn to audition. Fortunately, the 3 girls and some of the other members who were there left before we started. The nice audition-conducter-lady sat at her piano and 3 of us - she whom I came with, and a young (I mean very young) girl, stood in front of her. I didn't know where to look, didn't know where to put my hands, didn't even know how I should stand.

We started off with scales for warm-up. We went high, we went low, and all the time I didn't know what sounds I made because all I could hear was the voice of she whom I came with. Thank goodness for that, for it calmed me a lot. We were then asked to vocalise the scales individually, so that our vocal ranges can be estimated. She whom I came with went first - she went seriously high, then seriously low. So low it was incredible - very wide vocal range indeed! Then it was my turn - higher and higher I went - just as I was wondering where we would stop, I heard myself squeak. That was where I was stopped. Repeating clapping rhythm and short tunes played on the piano were next.

While the young girl had her turn, the 2 of us were each given several bars of music to read. We needed to vocalise the melody just by looking at the notes - translating taugehs to song using only our brains and vocal chords, that is. They call this sight-singing. It suffices to say that afterwards, I was asked to join sight-singing improvement classes.

The last part of the audition called for a song, sung a capella. I prepared a song - I did. Perhaps I didn't practice as hard as I ought to had - perhaps I was too nervous and intimidated - perhaps... I started in the wrong key, methinks; I stumbled a wee bit on the lyrics, methinks; and that "vibrato" she heard - it was really me trembling. That's all.