How to Prepare for Your Next Convention or Singing Competition

Young singers visit GVAI's table at the CS Music Convention in Chicago 2017

Last year, we talked about how to prepare for your next competition/convention/conference (AKA your CCC!). If you missed it, read it here.

​In the article, we talked about the four most essential steps to making your CCC a success. The steps were:

1. Determine your goal.
2. Lay out a plan to reach your goal.
3. Do your homework.
4. Remember to rest.

Following these four steps ensures that you are happy with your participation at your CCC, no matter what the outcome of it. You may not be able control the judges or recruiter’s opinions, but you do have complete control over your preparation.

If you have already gone to a CCC and you are considering going again, it is important to determine if it would be a good decision to attend a second time. To determine if it is the right choice, now is a great time to pull out your pros/cons list! Your list might include cost, time spent, connections made, opportunities presented. If you decide to go a second time, it’s important that you will take something away from the experience, just as you did the first time.

Now that you have decided to go to your CCC, this year, we’d like to add some steps to your preparation list! These further steps ensure that all of your practical items for your trip are ready.

• Financially plan for your trip. No matter where your CCC is, it will require some financial planning. The last thing you want to have happen is finding that halfway through your stay, you’ve run out of money and you are across the country from home! First of all, determine how much the actual CCC will cost. Is there an entry fee? An accompanist fee? Then, estimate how much your extra expenses will be. How many meals are you buying? Are you staying in a hotel? Do you want to buy merchandise? Do you need to buy plane tickets? Do you need to pay for uber rides between your AirBnB and the conference center? All of these questions are essential to budgeting for your trip. It’s wise to include a cushion in your budget just in case something happens, like your flight is cancelled! 
  
  Now, determine how you can offset your expenses. Are you taking paid time off from work? How much money from your salary or savings will pay for your CCC expenses and how much do you need to fundraise? 
  
  For example, if Joe is travelling to Seattle from Tacoma for a one week conference, he can determine that he will have five days of paid time off from his day job (+$500). He needs to decide if it would be more cost efficient to drive an hour and a half in traffic one way or if he needs to stay in a local AirBnB. He decides he’s rather stay in the AirBnb to save time (-$250). He may budget for 2 lunches out and 3 sack lunches from home (-$25). He also will need to pay for a dog walker during the day (-$150). His conference might have an entrance fee for the week, but they will provide an accompanist for his master class included in that fee (-$700). Joe has saved some money for this conference (+$350). 
  
  $500 Salary
  $350 Savings
  -$250 AirBnB
  -$ 25 Food
  -$150 Dog Walker
  -$700 Conference Fee
  -$275
  
  Joe needs to fundraise $275 in order to fully pay for his trip without borrowing money or putting it on his credit card. 
  
  
  
• Get ready to network. Anytime you leave your home is a time to network. You never know who you are going to run into! Even if you are travelling from LA to Chicago, you may run into people who could mentor you, help your career, or who you may just want to keep in touch with. You will want to make sure that you are professionally equipped to network. 
  
  Check on your website. If you keep your resume on your site, when was the last time you updated it? Is your contact info correct? Do you feel that it accurately represents you right now? Is your headshot current? If not, block out a couple hours to update your website. 
  
  You will want to make sure that your website and contact info is easily accessible. Two words: business cards. No one wants to take home a napkin with someone’s name and email hastily written on it in Sharpie. To present yourself as professionally as possible, make yourself some business cards. I personally like to use www.vistaprint.com, because of it’s easy-to-use templates and affordability, though there are several options out there. Pro tip: include your headshot on your business card. Someone will be much more likely to remember you if they can see your face.
  
  For example, let’s say that Sally is at a competition and runs into an audience member. It turns out the audience member is actually a faculty member at one of her dream grad schools. She can whip out her business card and ask to exchange information so that she might be able to ask the faculty member questions about their program. This allows their conversation to be professional and if needed, short. It takes much longer to search for a scrap of paper and a pen and write down your information.

• Take notes. In our last article about CCC’s, we talked about making sure that you bring all your paperwork with you, including your music. The other part of that is making sure you bring a notebook! At a CCC, there is so much to learn and you don’t want to forget it. If you bring a notebook to write in, you can take organized notes after every performance or during every presentation. Plus, it’s been proven that you are more likely to remember something by physically handwriting it, rather than typing it on your computer, tablet, or phone. Even if you take notes on your iPad, it may look to the presenter like you are distracted. It gives a much better impression to look engaged with your physical notebook. 

If you are able to speak with your judges after a competition, it is the perfect opportunity to take notes. I once did this at a competition after the judges offered feedback to every contestant. I was the only one who brought a notebook to take notes, and they noticed. They gave me twice as much feedback because they saw that I was truly invested in what they had to say. 

Likewise, presenters at a conference have put in a ton of time, sometimes tens of hours, into preparing their presentations. They are incredibly knowledgeable in their fields. You will take much more away from a presentation if you take notes. You can go back to your notes months later and relearn what you’d forgotten. Not to mention, you can write down your questions during a presentation so that you don’t forget them. 

• Be mindful of your voice. Oftentimes, large conventions and conferences can get very loud. Everyone is excited, meeting new friends, and running into old friends. (The music world is small after all!) It is very easy to get carried away speaking too loudly, too frequently, and then return to your hotel room at the end of the day, only to discover that your voice is shot. And then your hotel room’s air conditioner is blowing on your face all night, leaving you hoarse and dry. 
  
  If you are singing at your CCC, it is especially important that you are taking good care of your voice. Be careful not to overuse it. Make sure to hydrate throughout the day. And don’t feel bad if you need to put yourself in time out away from your new friends so that you can get into a good mental space to sing. Be that person who brings their portable humidifier gravelling. Or at the very least, try some very light warm ups in a steamy bathroom. Not to mention, get some sleep. It’s tempting to stay out with all your new friends until 2:00am, discovering a new city. But if you have to wake up early the next day, it might not be worth it. 
  
  
  
• Learn from last time. If you’ve already gone to a CCC, chances are you will now know more what to expect of the event and of yourself. Refer to our Lessons Learned post. Some of the main takeaways from this article include choosing the right arias and the right clothes. Choose songs that are right for YOU. That doesn’t just mean songs that are in your fach, but also songs you are completely comfortable with. It’s hard to sing after a day of travel or after you’ve had a couple full days at a conference already. Make sure you songs reflect your physical ability when you might be worn out. Also, choose audition songs in a variety of styles. Yeah, you might sing Handel really well, but the artistic directors in the room might only be hiring for Mozart and Puccini this year. Play up your strengths across the board of music. Likewise, know your body shape and what is most flattering for you. Always dress professionally. You could be meeting your next boss.
  
  
  
• Research your food! Some conventions provide meals, some don’t. Have you ever been to an event that doesn’t serve food, and then you spend an hour searching for food without ever finding it? I have!!! If you can scope out the area before your CCC starts, that will help you. Or better yet, do some internet research, you can go straight to the food at lunchtime, saving time and frustration. OR you can go to a grocery store and pack your lunches all week, which may be the best way to save time and money. Nobody wants to race through the streets of an unfamiliar city, hungry and late. You don’t have to put yourself through that. 
  
  
  
• Be yourself and don’t compare. Try not to get intimidated by those around you. The tenor before you in a competition might be AMAZING, but that doesn’t mean that you’re any less amazing. The music director you hang out with might be really good at schmoozing for connections, but that doesn’t mean you have any less to offer. Concentrate on yourself. Your competition is the person you were yesterday, not the person sitting next to you.

Utilizing these three extra steps will help you to make the absolute most out of your CCC. If you are taking time away from work or money out of your savings account, you want to make sure it is worth it. You have the power to make the experience worth it. You also have the ability to waste the opportunities presented at your CCC if you show up unprepared. As my mama said, much better to be overprepared than underprepared!

Tell us in the comments, what is your best advice for going into a CCC? Do you have a favorite CCC to attend? What is the most valuable thing you’ve learned at a CCC?

Upcoming: 

Masterclass "Sing in German!" by GVAI's director Christine Menschner
Saturday, May 26th 2018, 2pm., Boston Sheraton Hotel

Lacking feedback from native speakers, many singers believe they know how to sing in German, but recognizing the appropriate degree of openness of vowels and umlauts can be challenging. Not to mention the ach and ich- sounds and other German consonants! Learn to distinguish the different sounds and get real hands-on--or better yet ears-on--experience. Bring your German art song or aria and Christine Menschner, director of the German Vocal Arts Institute (GVAI) in Seattle, will help you to bring your text to life.

Meet Christine at the German Vocal Arts Institute exhibit and sing in her class.