Is this cheating . . . Band's thoughts?

[2nd tenor]

I can but feel sorry for Phillthrfluter in that he’s tried to make what could be a valid point (in terms of natural justice) but has done so in a way that hasn’t served him or his argument well. Not everyone is good at expressing their ideas and experiences here, and in this case those that are have not worked with the OP to help him either better express his view of events or to really help him understand where he might be mistaken. Sometimes that’s the way it goes, but to my mind it doesn’t build a stronger forum or help to spread knowledge ‘cause people either switch off or just stop posting.

 

[Tom-King]

Well to be fair the OP asked a fair and open minded question to close their post:

is this not a problem, bad practice or cheating

I think the answer is quite clearly "not a problem", but that's from my perspective - that 4th section banding is something of an introductory section for new/young players to cut their teeth and for bands to get feedback.
(This may sound patronising... That's not the intention at all - there's an awful lot of value in these things and they're the building blocks of improvement both for individuals and of banding as a whole!)

I think there are different ways of viewing this and part of that comes from just how seriously you're taking such a contest...
I suppose it's easy for me to be blasé about it on the basis that it's a local (therefore relatively unimportant) contest and an issue affecting bands in the bottom section/s (doesn't affect me) - it's also possible (likely??) that my perspective of what 4th section banding means is not shared by players therein (it's a long time since I played in 4th section!).

I don't think any of this particularly invalidates any points I made, though...

 

[Tom-King]

If this practice is allowed why do bands bother registering at all, some championship section bands could choose to not register and just win low level contests, which would completely defeat the object of banding as we know it.

As @Anno Draconis says, why bother when a concert would pull in way more than prize money for a bottom section contest?

Plus...
To be honest, it's always been my view that it's competition that drives standards at the top end... Not so much lower down in my experience but noticeably in top section.

If you weren't going to bother competing at that level then several questions arise:
1) Without the status of being in championship section would players even know what approximate standard the band was? Without knowing that, would they be interested in joining?
2) Even if they knew, would they be willing to travel the distances people currently do in order to participate?
2) Without competition to keep the bands motivated and sharp, would standards stagnate?

Championship bands aren't like top orchestras in that very few players will get paid anything for playing in the band and you don't have audiences interested in listening to major works... The motivations for getting involved and keeping up standards are different.

At any rate would I (as a championship player) have any interest whatsoever in competing against 4th section bands?
Hell no! Wouldn't be fair.

 

[2nd tenor]

Well to be fair the OP asked a fair and open minded question to close their post:



I think the answer is quite clearly "not a problem", but that's from my perspective - that 4th section banding is something of an introductory section for new/young players to cut their teeth and for bands to get feedback.
(This may sound patronising... That's not the intention at all - there's an awful lot of value in these things and they're the building blocks of improvement both for individuals and of banding as a whole!)

I think there are different ways of viewing this and part of that comes from just how seriously you're taking such a contest...
I suppose it's easy for me to be blasé about it on the basis that it's a local (therefore relatively unimportant) contest and an issue affecting bands in the bottom section/s (doesn't affect me) - it's also possible (likely??) that my perspective of what 4th section banding means is not shared by players therein (it's a long time since I played in 4th section!).

I don't think any of this particularly invalidates any points I made, though...

As you say Tom perspective is crucial to how someone views a situation. I suspect that the OP’s perspective and experience of Banding is, in a whole raft of ways, very different to yours - nothing wrong with folk differing though. What troubles me is that the OP might feel that he’s been shouted down by louder and more expressive voices, we may never know but I hope that that is not the case.