How To Pick The Right Songs For Your Voice

Song choice has the potential to make or break you, so it’s super important that you learn to pick the right songs for your voice. But in order to pick the right songs for your voice, we need to talk about the different occasions of singing (practice vs performance vs audition) and how to choose which songs to sing for each. That way you can make more progress in your singing practice AND wow your audience at any performance or audition.

The Different Occasions

Depending on what you’ll need the song for, you’ll have to pick a different song. Here are all the different occasions to pick songs for:

• Practice

• For Fun

• Performances

• Auditions

Practice Songs

When it comes to picking a practice song there are two very important things to consider…

Current Skill Level

We practice to get better, which means we should pick something that’s outside of our comfort zone - but only by 1 to 2 steps, not 10! If you pick something that’s way too difficult for you then you’ll just torture yourself and your voice instead of actually getting closer to your goals. For example if you’re a beginner, you probably don’t want to start with Mariah Carey songs. That doesn’t mean you’ll never get there! But you just have to work your way up to that one song at a time. But also if the song is too easy then you won’t really learn anything, so those songs also don’t make good practice songs.

Practice Focus

Usually in practice we isolate certain parts of the voice, that’s how you’ll make progress more quickly. So be sure that you’re picking songs based on what you’re also working on with your vocal exercises so that you can apply what you learned in the exercises in your songs right away.

Fun Songs

These are the songs you’re singing in your car, in your shower, at karaoke, or wherever you like to sing for fun. There are no rules to picking for fun songs - just sing whatever lights up your heart! If that’s a Mariah Carey song, go for it! If that’s a song that’s super easy to sing, do it! As the name says, the main objective here is just to have fun with your singing and that’s super important for your singing journey. We sometimes get so caught up in trying to improve our voices that we forget to have fun.

Performance Songs

Our duty is singers is to deliver the best possible performance - wherever you’re at in your singing journey right now - not to sing the most difficult song ever. So here are some things to consider when picking a performance song:

Prima Voce

First and foremost when you’re picking a performance song you need to know what your Prima Voce - the sweet spot - of your voice is, and then pick songs that highlight that part of your voice as much as possible. To learn more about how to identify your Prima Voce, check out this post.

Song Difficulty

Don’t pick the hardest songs that you can pull off… You’ll probably feel a bit nervous, which will make singing harder. It’s better to pick something that’s a bit easier to sing but that you feel secure with, than to pick something that’s super hard and then with nerves you’ll crack on stage…

Occasion

Whether you’re singing in a coffee shop or at a wedding ceremony or it’s your own show will completely change what songs you should be singing. Always keep in mind where you’re singing and who’s going to be in your audience and then pick based on that!

Audition Songs

For audition songs, everything I already said for performance songs also applies here. But there is one more thing I wanted to mention… Pick a song that showcases YOU well. I once made the mistake of auditioning with a musical theatre song for a TV show and then they branded me the musical theatre girl, even though that’s not what I wanted to do at all. Often times when you’re in these auditions you don’t get to pick your own songs anymore after the first couple of rounds so make sure that the first song(s) you pick are all songs that showcase you in the way that you want to be perceived.

Don’t Overthink It

Your voice will tell you if something is too easy or too difficult… Learn to listen to your voice and you’ll do just fine.

🎧 Coach Emily, Coach Bri and I had a detailed conversation around song choice - you can check it out there:

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