Careers dealing with Music

As an aspiring singer, actor, musician or other kind of performer, getting comfortable with auditions is a big part of the process. Along with this comes rejection, which you might face a lot of before you make it big. Read on as Haddon Heights, NJ teacher Aaron K. shares his tips for moving on…

I’m currently trying to become a professional opera singer. I know, it’s a dying art form, no one really understands the plots, and it’s only for snobby rich people who actually enjoy listening to Arnold Schoenberg (sorry if you do, I still can’t get into it). While I understand (yet contest for many reasons) all the previous points, I am choosing this path and have to deal with something that is common to all performers, whether you’re working toward a singing career or something else in the industry: rejection.

You’ve trained for years. You’ve read all the articles on auditioning. Heck, maybe you’ve even researched your audition panel to try to play to their tastes. But after all that effort, you didn’t get the part. You didn’t get on American Idol. You didn’t get into the college you had your heart set on. I’ve personally had to deal with rejection more times than I like to think about. Here’s a few steps to help you with this difficult outcome.

1) Separate yourself from your performing.
The initial impact of being told “no” can be quite hard. What really makes matters worse, though, is when you take rejection as a personal attack. You are not your voice. You are not your interpretation of Hamlet. You are not your piano, cello, flute, or anything else you have been studying. You are a complex human being with many attributes that are unique and wonderful. Your auditioners are not saying no to you as a person. It’s much easier to say my singing was rejected rather than I was rejected.