Keep it comfortable.

Your voice comes first.

You can read without singing. The options menu lets you leave at any time.

The technique · 1 of 5

Know your range in note names

Not "I am kind of an alto". Know your lowest and highest comfortable notes by name, plus where you sit easiest. It takes 30 seconds to measure and it makes the first question of the audition trivial.

Have someone play random notes for you to sing back, without a warmup, because that is the condition. Include notes near the edges of your range, which is where matching most often falls apart.

Have someone play three to five note phrases for you to sing back. This tests pitch memory and it is what a director uses to judge how fast you will learn a part. Increase length as it gets reliable.

Sing a third above a played melody. Then hold your note while someone sings something else. This is the test people fail and the one that most benefits from two weeks of deliberate work.

If a prepared piece is requested, choose something comfortably inside your range that shows steady tone rather than something at your limit that shows ambition. Directors are listening for control and blend, not for the top of your range.

Read at your pace. The guided practice comes next.

Why this exercise · 1 of 8

The idea behind it.

People prepare for choir auditions as though they were solo auditions, and then get anxious about the wrong things. A choir audition is mostly a placement exercise: the director needs to know your range, whether you can hold a part, and how quickly you learn.

Brilliance is not being assessed and, in some directors' view, is not even being sought. Knowing what is on the list changes what is worth practicing in the two weeks beforehand.

Four things get tested almost universally. Range, so they know which section you fit. Pitch matching, usually by playing notes for you to sing back. Some form of reading or echoing, to gauge how fast you learn music. And blend, which is whether your voice sits with others or sticks out.

Range determines your section and it is not a competition. Being placed as an alto rather than a soprano is a fit judgment, not a ranking, and the singer who accepts the section that suits their tessitura has a far easier time over a season than one who fought for a higher part.

The part most people underprepare is holding a line against other voices. Many auditions include singing a part while the director plays or sings something else, and it is the single most predictive test of whether you will be useful in a section. It is also the most trainable in two weeks.

Audition advice tends to be about repertoire selection and nerves, which are the visible parts. The invisible part, that the director is running a placement test rather than a talent contest, changes what deserves your practice time. Two weeks spent on part-holding will do more for your result than two weeks polishing a solo.

The free range test gives you your span in about 30 seconds so you can answer the range question precisely, and the pitch test gives you a matching baseline. Both are free with no account, which is the right amount of friction two weeks before an audition.

Vocal School has the largest harmony and part-holding block of any consumer vocal app, which is exactly the underprepared part of a choir audition. Free tier: one full session a day.

Put it into practice.

A short version of the technique, with its own cues and pacing. Stay in a comfortable range.

What did you notice?

Can you hold a harmony line while someone else sings the melody, for a full phrase, without drifting? That is the most predictive single test of choral usefulness, and if the answer is no, it is the highest-value thing to practice before the audition.

An observation, not a diagnosis. No answer is required or scored.

Choose a snapshot.

Pitch matching and range are separate measurements. Neither identifies the physical cause of a vocal problem.

Both return to this guide. Stop and rest if your voice feels strained.

No saved snapshot yet

The local result is missing or could not be read. No result has been inferred.

Keep exploring.

• How to Sing Harmony Without Sliding Back to the MelodyDrifting onto the melody is an attention problem, not a talent problem. Four exercises that build part independence, in order of difficulty.
• Ear Training for SingersA singer trains the ear-voice loop, not just the ear. Four exercises in order, and how to tell whether your pitch problem is hearing or production.
• Sight-Singing Practice That Builds the Skill You Actually UseSight-singing is pattern recognition plus internal pitch, not note-by-note decoding. A practice routine built around intervals and scale degrees.

Explore gently

A practice cue, not a diagnosis or a finish line.