Auditioning singers policy?

[fretmeister]

Well some perspective here might help.

We all auditioned for each other in a similar style. We're all high standard players on at least one instrument and only want to work with someone equally serious. I shouldn't have to apologise for that requirement..

You've missed the point. Until a singer is in the room with you, singing with the rest of you, you don't have a clue whether they fit or not. Being of a required standard is only half the requirement anyway. Their style has to fit with yours. They have to be able to function as a front man (you won't really know about that until the first gig). And just as importantly, the person needs to not cause murderous feelings in the rest of you.

I didn't say that 10 mins was enough for you to know you WANTED them - I said 10 mins was enough for you to know that you DID NOT want them. I bet that half of the wildcards will be binned because you just don't like them personally and you'll make that decision before they sing a note. But you can't tell that on a demo tape either.

[guitarfishbay]

You've missed the point. Until a singer is in the room with you, singing with the rest of you, you don't have a clue whether they fit or not. Being of a required standard is only half the requirement anyway. Their style has to fit with yours. They have to be able to function as a front man (you won't really know about that until the first gig). And just as importantly, the person needs to not cause murderous feelings in the rest of you.

I didn't say that 10 mins was enough for you to know you WANTED them - I said 10 mins was enough for you to know that you DID NOT want them. I bet that half of the wildcards will be binned because you just don't like them personally and you'll make that decision before they sing a note. But you can't tell that on a demo tape either.

Yeah I appreciate those points.

Binning half the wildcards would be a given anyway, but this was to discuss if people thought our audition policy of wanting a clip first either was a good idea or a bad idea. Clearly you're on the side of bad idea, which is ok.

The thing is, you've assumed everyone is sending in tuned/produced demo tapes, which isn't the case. We've mostly had dry home recorded or live, and the rejections are straightforward from that if we don't think someone is good enough or their voice is the wrong style. So far we've thought it has saved us time in many cases and saved them travel time.

I just feel getting someone to travel whatever distance for 10 minutes is potentially harsh, if we could have said no while they were sat at home. So we're trying to not be inconsiderate of peoples time and we thought it was a fair assumption that 21-35 year olds replying to an online advert would know how to make a clip.

[Sporky_McGuffin]

I once had to recruit an office manager for somewhere that had to deal with a lot of strange requests. In the advert we specified that all applicants request an application form by sending in a postcard with their name, address and telephone number. A surprising number decided instead to send a CV and covering letter.

Personally I think that if someone can't follow simple instructions they're unlikely to get the more complicated stuff right.

[fretmeister]

I once had to recruit an office manager for somewhere that had to deal with a lot of strange requests. In the advert we specified that all applicants request an application form by sending in a postcard with their name, address and telephone number. A surprising number decided instead to send a CV and covering letter.

Personally I think that if someone can't follow simple instructions they're unlikely to get the more complicated stuff right.

A friend of mine needed a bit of cash while studying, so he agreed to be a test subject for some Psychology students.

All he had to do was turn up to a hall and sit an exam to earn his £30. There were about 30 people there.

The invigilator said - 'turn the papers over and follow the instructions. You have 3 hours. Good Luck'

So - he turned over the paper, filled in his name etc and fully read the instructions - which included an instruction to finish filling in the front sheet, and then leave the room immediately without coming back, and not attempt the actual 'exam' at all.

He left, and 1 or 2 others did. But the rest did the entire exam.

[erictheweary]

I once had to recruit an office manager for somewhere that had to deal with a lot of strange requests. In the advert we specified that all applicants request an application form by sending in a postcard with their name, address and telephone number. A surprising number decided instead to send a CV and covering letter.

Personally I think that if someone can't follow simple instructions they're unlikely to get the more complicated stuff right.

When I worked for GKN if there was a job ad out any that came back with the boss's name spelled wrong on the envelope got binned. I got it right and interviewed well but was a bit of a crap employee.Might be a moral in that somewhere...

[Sporky_McGuffin]

When I worked for GKN if there was a job ad out any that came back with the boss's name spelled wrong on the envelope got binned. I got it right and interviewed well but was a bit of a crap employee.Might be a moral in that somewhere...

There's certainly more to doing anything well than the fine detail, but it's a useful place to start.

I like the myth of the recruiter who bins half the applications at random so that they don't end up employing anyone who's unlucky.

[thereformant]

I think it is always better for an originals project if the singer is on of the founding members as they really do form the character of the band.

However having said that in my secondary band we were in this position and we spent about 4 months finding a singer. Given the genre we are writing in there wasn't huge amount of interest so we auditioned anyone who replied. In our case none of the people who had no online clips were any good at all so I would be tempted to stick to your guns. We also had a false start having given a great candidate the job only for him to only turn up to every other practice so unfortunately I think it actually takes a while even after settling on a candidate to find their true colours.

[fretmeister]

There's certainly more to doing anything well than the fine detail, but it's a useful place to start.

I like the myth of the recruiter who bins half the applications at random so that they don't end up employing anyone who's unlucky.

I worked at 1 law firm that binned any CV that didn't put a 'u' in court.

[daveyh]

I imagine if it was done on the basis of a demo, David Lee Roth might have spent rather more time as a paramedic.

[tonyteech02]

Sorry but this does not compute for me. If I am a good singer and can come up with original musical ideas why should I want to go through this process. I can get a backing guitarist or keys and do my own stuff under my own control. Singer audition processes in other genres - ie musical theatre or panto - opera etc a singer will have a showreel or Youtube channel but will insist on singing live as that is the best sound they can produce and will not be required to jam but sing a known standard song. you can usually tell within 30 seconds if a singer is any good anyway