Hey guys. I'm auditioning for a new show with pop style music at a local theater company. I've been looking around for songs that show I can sing the style, but I do have a slight problem. My music teacher tells me most tenor songs are much too low for me (and I'm 18) and has been unable to offer me anything in the direction of advice towards this. If tenor songs are legitimately too low for me (I do know my specific range but I don't know how it really fits with songs and all that...), what should I do for this audition? Would this be an instance where I should transpose a song or cross the gender boundaries slightly or should I just give up on this audition? I'm sorry if I'm coming across as amateurish or if I confused anyone... I can clear it up, if I did. If someone can give me some advice, that would be wonderful!!! Thanks!!!

What songs are you singing in your lessons right now? What songs are you comfortable singing at home, in the shower, in the car, etc.?

A lot of the typical guy musical ballads... Bring Him Home, Empty Chairs at Empty Tables, Music of the Night, If I Can't Love Her, etc. But all of them were transposed up, no joke. The song I recall spending the longest on was Somewhere from WSS but it was supposedly the Barbra version and I sang it transposed up a half step from her key. I do sing a lot of female songs like in the car, in the shower, at home, etc.

Well, Empty Chairs, If I Can't Love Her, and Music of the Night are all baritone songs (albeit the last one has slightly high note), so needing to transpose those ones up isn't quite an indication. "Bring Him Home," however... huh.

I know there's one song from "Myths and Hymns" that's crazy high - it's in one of the Singer's Musical Theatre Anthology tenor books.

Oddly enough, Empty Chairs and Music of the Night are written for Tenors. I've done both and I'm a 1st Tenor (I'm actually playing Marius in a showcase of Les Mis this week, so Empty Chairs is my solo and I struggle with the low notes. Marius is always played by a tenor, so that song wasn't exactly written to sound particularly great in his voice at the lower parts. )

Bring Him Home is definitely a tenor song.

To the OP, could you maybe be a countertenor? While Empty Chairs and Music of the Night are written for tenor characters, they don't particularly sit well in a 1st tenor's voice range (Music of the night is easier for a tenor than Empty Chairs in my opinion). Bring Him Home should be fine for your range though. It's full of high notes and falsetto.

It's possible. My school's choir teacher has said something like that. And I have performed Bring Him Home before, so I have that in my repertoire but it's not exactly a good song to sing for a pop musical. I'm looking for one to sing for a pop musical.

Off the top of my head, maybe look into "I can't stand still" from Footloose. I can't recall how low it goes, but it has some high notes (hits the soprano high C). Also look into Those Magic Changes from Grease. Has 2 very high falsetto parts (up to E6) that would work well for a countertenor.