Once you have a band organized and have rehearsed adequately, or you are proficient in accompanying yourself with a guitar or a piano and already have a wide repertoire of song under your belt, you can now start looking for work as a singer. This is the day you have been looking forward to isn't it?
Finding work as a singer is not difficult because there will be restaurants, clubs, pubs, private and public functions looking for competent well trained singers like you. You can either engage agents or approach the venue yourself after finding out who is responsible for conducting auditions, hiring bands and singers. After talking to them, you can send them your demo CD's prior to a live audition. If you are selected, they will call you and your band for a live audition.
If you are applying for a singing job at bars and pubs, your booker will not want to listen to your original songs. What they want will be what the venue's audience wants to listen to. For example, if you sing with a jazz band, then obviously you cannot send your rock CDs to a rock club. Therefore it is imperative that you understand the nature of the venue before sending your demo CDs.
Choose about 6-8 songs for your demo CDs and audition. This is because bookers usually will want to know that you have a sufficient repertoire. Don't attempt to do slow ballads unless you are very good and soulful or otherwise, you will bore your bookers.
If you are auditioning just for a singing job and do not have a band, don't clutter your songs with some amateurish accompaniment. Sing with a karaoke minus one accompaniment instead. That will make you sound more like an accomplished singer instead of a fumbling amateur.
Singing Gigs
Your first singing gig is probably one of the most important miles stone of your singing career. Do learn quickly. If you are singing pub and no one is listening to you then you need to quickly know why. Maybe, you are not on stage so the audience cannot see you, or you may be performing too softly or too loudly. There will be a lot of tweaking until you get your performance right.
If you are a solo singer and are accompanying yourself, make sure the guitar or piano accompaniment arrangements are not too complex. Your voice must come through, not the musical instrument. Your audience are there to hear you sing and do not want to listen to the clang clang of your guitar.
Look at Barry Manilow when he accompanies himself on the piano. When singing, he just plays the chords so that his voice and lyrics come across with clarity and powerful emotions. It is during the instrumental part of the songs that his piano playing is more fanciful and more crescendo applied.
