Contests

[HBB]

Our band is choosing contests, and we couldn't decide. So, what contest do you prefer, Entertainment, or Test-piece ones?

[TheMusicMan]

I think you cold add a few more categories here ... maybe "Test Piece" could be split into two.... i.e.

'Own Choice' Contests and 'Set Test' ContestAnother opition of "A balance between each of these..."

... just some suggestions.... :D

[Wonky_Baton]

Its great to get own choice contests because the conductor can chose one that:

a) Suits the band
b) That the band enjoy playing

The downside is that it becomes a lottery as the judge may have his personal bias for a certain piece. Both good and bad.

Entertainments are also a lottery cos do you go for entertaining pieces with not much challange or challanging pieces that are not entertaining or mix it up. Results can vary dramatically from contest to contest and from adjudicator to adjudicator.

The old fashioned everyone plays the same one is fairer to adjudicate but ****** boring for the audience, especially if the test piece is ****. :roll:

[McEuphie]

I agree totally with Wonky Baton and would like to add that my personal favourite is the own choice test piece.

I don't like the new trend in entertainments contests - I remember when you were asked to play a 15-20 min concert programme - with the emphasis on concert music, but the new entertainment contests are more towards putting on a show!

Cheers

[Heather]

Definately own choice test piece contests for me then at least the conductor can pick a piece that suits the band, concentrates on its strengths and is one the band like and enjoy playing. After all, we all play better when performing a piece we actually like! I really don't feel an adjudicator can honestly judge the best band when he hears performance after performance of the same piece, especially somewhere like the areas where there are lots of bands playing.
I love doing entertainment contests and play for a band who is extremely successful at these but I agree that some performances are turning into pantomimes.Not us, I hasten to add! We tend to let the music and the way we play it be the deciding point.....and its worked to date!!

[PeterBale]

I realise this isn't practical for most settings, but I like the set-up at the Europeans, where you have a combination of set piece and own choice. This gives the adjudicators some common ground against which to assess standards, as well as allowing conductors/bands to choose something which allows them to play to their strengths. As a member of the audience, I would tend towards a set piece as I like to follow with a score, and would not fancy the practicality or the expense of having a dozen or more scores to cart around. There is certainly no better way to get inside a piece than listening to 20 or so bands giving their own interpretation - invariably, there will be something come out towards the end that you have not been aware of in any other performance, and which will make you look afresh at the score.

[blondey]

I like contests where you play a testpiece, march and hymn tune. That way all bands strengths (and weaknesses) are displayed. That's good competition!

[The Cornet King]

Set Test Piece is the choice for me. Although i love to hear own choice contests, so you can get a selection of pieces, for me the only really fair way of contesting is the set piece.

Plus its great to hear so many different interpretation os one piece. You can hear the good, the excellent and sometimes the not so good. That for me is what makes set test piece contests so exciting! :D

[Naomi McFadyen]

I like all contests... nice to do a mixture of the lot

[horn1]

Can't we have an option for all contests!

[Accidental]

I prefer own choice contests. Hopefully the MD chooses a piece that the band enjoys and can make a decent job of, so its usually more satisfying than set pieces, and its more interesting to listen to other bands. I'm never convinced by entertainments contests - so many bands' programmes are either well boring or excruiatingly embarrassing (if they try too hard and take the dressing up and am dram too far) and I really hope their normal concerts aren't like that!

Having said that though, for a Spring contest I prefer entertainments because it makes a change from all the test piece work for the areas.

[bruceg]

I really enjoy all contests but my favourite is March, Hymn Tune and own choice Test piece (which is the format at the Fife Charities Contest).

[jambo]

Contesting requires the same amount of effort whether its entertainment, set or own choice. Its going to be nights on end of sectionals/rehersals/home practice etc we all know...

I just love the buzz of the day. The banter/rivalry the aprez-ski

at the end of the day everyone works so hard any tension is deserved as if you dont go to put on the best performance possible, why do you bother.

The style of contest only matters if you're going in to listen to more than a handful of bands, pther than that they all sound the same from the bar!

[NAS]

Own choice for sure!

[Straightmute]

The banter/rivalry the aprez-ski

Is that where we all go off piste?

I enjoy all contests - the fact that they've all got their own rules/formats/parameters is part of the fun.

Also enjoy good concerts, before anyone gets on their high horse.

D

[Rambo Chick]

yes i agree with mr lancaster. :D

contests can be real fun especially if you win!! as for the music, if you enjoy playing it, i don't think it's origins of selection matter so much. both entertainments and test-piece contest can be enjoyable :grnsm

Carolyn

flugel,
united co-operatives yorkshire

[Straightmute]

yes i agree with mr lancaster. :D

Good move! Go to the top of the flugel section.

Dx

[Dawnys_flug]

I like the set test pieces most. It's exciting finding out your test piece!
However, this is probably because the majority of set pieces i've played, i've really enjoyed. Although if i hadn't enjoyed them, then i'd go for own choice test piece for sure. It's so much easier to put maximum effort and practise in if you enjoy the piece.
I can see why people like entertainment contests though, because i always feel more relaxed an under less pressure when playing in entertainment contests compared with me at test piece contests - :shock: :cry: :shock: - whether this is good thing, i'm not sure because when i relax a lot i find myself loosing focus and my performance seems to slip a bit which is never good when you're being judged!! :lol:

[backrowbloke]

Contests are Ok for meeting friends in the bar, but personally I would rather have a great concert than a contest.

If I had to choose between the options available form the poll, then set piece is the one i prefer

[Banana]

It's hard to choose between the types of contests - they both have their place really. To have all the bands playing the same piece must make it much easier to compare them, but by the time you have listened to 19 bands all droning on the same piece they must blur rather. I sometimes wonder if the adjudicator has got us mixed up with someone else when the results come out!! :wink:

On the other hand, what are brass bands really here for anyway? To entertain! So surely the ability to do that well is the important thing (and surely that includes a certain amount of theatricals)

So please reserve me a place on the fence!

[Trigger]

I love all contesting, but probably would go for set test piece if I had to choose. Mainly because I feel I have to concentrate more, because I know that 9 times out of 10 there is someone in the audience that plays the exact same part as me and they are listening and watching to see if it is done 'correctly'. :oops:

[super_sop]

Until recently, i had never enjoyed contests.
Now, i love em, im not bothered if its set piece, test piece, entertainment or march i like them all.
I think my new perspective has come from now playing with Wem.
i have never enjoyed preparing for contests but Mr T, has knack of making the rehersals fun, but we still work really hard, and seem to get the work done.

Cheers Mr T, for giving me a new outlook on banding

[eckyboy]

Prefer set pieces if they are new but otherwise the march/hymn/test piece arrangement
Cant be bothered with entertainment contests as they are a lottery but enjoy playing concerts

[drinkalot]

I must say I hate contests!!!!!! Weeks of hard work go into it and very rarely do you come out of it with anything. I've been in the same band for nine years now and have only Won 2 contests!!!!!!!, the second being in December last year. Not a very good record!!!!

Playing should be about producing good quality music, not pleasing a man in a black box.

But each to your own!!!!!! :)

[blue_smarties]

I personally prefer set test pieces, I also think it's easier for the adjudicator! As people said earlier, entertainments contests are always a bit of a gamble, you never know what the adjudicater will be looking for! In my opinion those types of contest should be judged on the the quality of the performance, not comedy value. At the end of the day, we're brass bands, not comedians! Surly a band who gives a good performance should be placed higher than a band who doesn't play so good but has the audience in stitches?! :? :)
Just my opinion! :)

[eckyboy]

:lol: A very good one though

[James McFadyen]

Surly a band who gives a good performance should be placed higher than a band who doesn't play so good but has the audience in stitches?! :? :)
Just my opinion! :)

Depends on what the band think 'entertaining' means - many conductors have different feeling about this. Many believe a traditional view, playing a march a hymn and a few 'concert' piece, many believe on a more comedic performance. I think what alec says about it being pretty much a lottery is very true and I don't think there is any one solution, I don't think it's about just how well you play or just how good of an entertainment the programme is, It's a combination of everything.

However, at the Borders contest, the adjudicators said there was "too much beat" emmmm........well yes! entertainment is supposed to be foot-tappy and if people have a beat in their programme then ooh my god we are so sorry! Maybe everyone should just go out and play some serious symphony! ;) and win because we played it well but lacked what the contest was all about!

I think you can see where I come from - It is an entertainment contest - so entertain - don't be overly-comedicd, it's cheep and tacky, although do it with some taste, but play good charts, real foot-tappers, never let the audience fall asleep - you can NEVER have too much beat in music! ;)

[AJSOP]

I enjoy all contests. From my point of view I enjoy the own choice ones more, but i think it is a lot easier for the audjudicators if it is a set piece for each band. :wink:

[markhall]

For me it is the set test piece. Mainly because it forces the band to work at a new style. At our local contest (own choice) you know which bands are going to do a Phillipe Sparke piece, which ones are going to do a Peter Graham piece and which ones play Eric Ball - and the one band that did Paganini every year! While all conductors and players do have their own favourite composers, the set piece format forces us to try new ones and develop new styles of playing.

[Tuba Miriam]

I personally prefer set test pieces, I also think it's easier for the adjudicator! As people said earlier, entertainments contests are always a bit of a gamble, you never know what the adjudicater will be looking for! In my opinion those types of contest should be judged on the the quality of the performance, not comedy value. At the end of the day, we're brass bands, not comedians! Surly a band who gives a good performance should be placed higher than a band who doesn't play so good but has the audience in stitches?! :? :)
Just my opinion! :)

For Entertainment Contests maybe one solution to potentially unmusical comedic performances is closed adjudication (e.g. Milton Keynes contest). At least then the adjudicator is immune to programmes with a comedy bias ... unless he's amused by the playing of course ... :(

[lynchie]

why does visual entertainment have to be stupid embarressing dancing and dressing up in bear costumes? Maybe if some conductors had a bit more imagination they could come up with something that was enjoyable to watch and listen to! Sometimes all you need is a whole section to move their instruments together to make something that looks really effective, and keeps the audience interested... unfortunately too many bands come into these things without putting any real thought into it and we end up with these shamefully embarrassing programmes, where half the time the "entertainment" part of a piece is someone who doesn't even have an instrument to play!!

I remember a few years back my old youth band did the blackpool entertainments and played a whole set of world music by jan magne forde, which is not something many bands would try admittedly, with choreographed movements around the stage, PROPER singing etc. and we won the most entertaining item prize. We then got slagged off for winning it without playing a "novelty" item! No, we didn't play a stupid item, we played a novelty SET!!

Oh, and I prefer entertainment contests, because I've been dragged up through the ranks of possibly the most entertaining youth band in the country...

[ScrapingtheBottom]

<prepares to get flamed>

I think Flowers do a pretty good line in visual effects.

[Steve]

I love set test piece contests purely because you are competing directly with other individual players as well as against whole other bands. I love to see an oposing player in the audience and think "I bet they didnt do it that well" when I finish every passage. Oh, and lets not get into the entertainment contest debate again, I think it has been done before (several times)!!! :roll:

[ian perks]

Out of the two i do prefer set test pieces as it can be juged fair then.

But going on the last two contests we have been to the same adjudicator was in the box, it MAKES YOU WONDER what he was listening to!!!:x

[lynchie]

why is a set test better than an own choice? Surely every band has their strengths and weaknesses... why not exhibit the strenghts????