Audition (for show) when accompanist messes up

njmissy13
Mon, 11 Mar 2013 07:10:05 +0000

Question - nothing to do with college auditions in this case - but I guess it could happen there too. But looking for input since there are so many here with so many different experiences.

Has anyone experienced doing an audition when the accompanist completely messes up the song (tempo and/or notes) during an audition. What is the best way to handle? S auditioned for a local show and could just not follow what the accompanist was doing - he said it was all messed up both tempo and he is pretty sure wrong notes too - so he just kept singing through correctly and hoped they would figure out how to follow him. In this case the director had worked with him before so knew they knew he could sing, and they had him do some scales afterwards - so we are pretty sure they know it wasn’t him. This has happened to him once before, but not as bad as it was for this one.

Just wondering what others have done in a situation like this and what is the best way to handle? It doesn’t seem like it would be a good idea to stop and review the tempo again with the accompanist - but it can totally blow an audition if they do it wrong. Thoughts?