As a thank you all for the positive responses for my last blog post, My 5 Tips for Auditions Success, I want to share more of the best advice I’ve ever gotten while auditioning. These tips come from the mouths of people who I’ve auditioned for, and who have seen far more auditions than I will ever give.

1. You are enough. You are a good musician. You deserve this opportunity just as much as the next person.

All that the panel is going to decide is whether or not you are ready for the position. It’s mostly a decision on when you will be offered a job, rather than if. This might not be your gig or year at a program, but one season it will be.

2. Be yourself.

You don’t want to work at a place where you are expected to be more smiley than you actually are, more serious than you actually are, more experienced, etc. Maybe, just maybe, you are right in the middle for every aspect that they are looking for. That’s where you want to work. Your ideal workplace is looking for you, not the other way around.

3. You are what you do everyday.

An audition isn’t going to magically inspire all of your weaknesses to come together and create something that you’ve never done before. Practice and rehearse so that you don’t count on surprises for your artistry. Keep yourself consistent this way and when a mistake happens, it’s just a mistake, and a panel will sense the difference.

4. You’re not auditioning for 50 programs to be accepted by 50 programs. You just need one.

One opportunity, one stepping stone to the next level, one paycheck to get you through the next few months. It’s normal to be rejected at some time. In fact, it’s so normal that if you could look at the biographies of successful musicians, their hidden biography of rejections would be considerably longer than their accomplishments.

5. There are two types of rejections: the kind that you go out there, try, and get rejected, and the kind where you don’t go out there, don’t try, and get rejected.

Always make sure that when you audition and get rejected – a reality of life in our line of work – that you are experiencing the first kind of rejection. If you don’t go out there or don’t try during your auditions, you’re not only wasting your own time and talent but also the auditioner’s time and talents. Make sure you respect everyone in the room by bringing your best self and effort into each and every audition you make.

As an opera singer with a steady career and who no longer auditions, I see now how imperative my positive outlook was for my early career. It matters to dream, to hope, and to believe in yourself. What are you working for if you don’t put your heart into it?

Life is mutable. You make it what you want, if you want it enough. Eliminate your fears. What if – just what if – you did what you were most afraid of doing, and your questions were answers, new doors began to open up, and the world became a place of possibility? Spoiler alert: it already is.

Good luck, readers, in whatever you’re auditioning for this week.