Contest or Convention
Posted by Kevin Keller | Posted in Contests & Judging | Posted on July 29, 2012, 1:56 PM
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From John Wabel
The society website refers to C & J as Contest & Judging. At Harmony College we were urged to not use the term “contest”. We go to the district /international convention to have fun and see a show of the best that the quartets and choruses have to offer. I wish we could get away from the term “contest”.
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When you stop judging, awarding scores, ranking participants, and awarding medals, you can stop calling it a contest. What bothers you about “contest”?
Hi John
The contest is part of the convention. I understand the urging of the HU teacher, which was to not lose sight of the weekend. The weekend is more than just a contest.
Many quartets and choruses do treat the weekend more as a festival than a competition. My experiences as a judge is that few groups are actually “competing” with all of their goals tied up with competition results. Most have objectives outside of competition results.
The great thing about our society is that you can define your barbershop experience the way you desire. I agree with the HU teacher in that if you define the weekend purely on the contest, you are likely going to be disappointed. If you base it on the educational and fun aspects that can be had as a convention attendee, it will be more rewarding.
But, as Larry mentioned, a contest does go on during the weekend and you can only write so many euphemisms. Part of the weekend there is a contest!
Kevin Keller
You still can’t call it a Convention usless it meets more of the definition of a “Convention” Such as, activities in parallel with the contest. For instance if you were to have the competion at and combine with Harmony College East / or West depending on the location of the contest that year (save $$$?) then during the prelims people could slip in and out of classes, seminars, workshops, Tag goups, private Voice evaluations, Sight reading seminar, directors forums etc, etc, etc… Sadly the hall is empty the first few days of the contest prelims anyway. (I did get to sit in the front row seats next the Society Presidents seat till the last day of the contest at Philly. Would more people attend if there was a plethera of activities and opportunities surrounding the competition activity? Would they go home being better singers with renewed vigor for their chapter?
I’d be curious to know how many people go to the International Convention as non-competitors vs. competitors. I’ve attended only one International and I was not a competitor. I enjoyed it a lot, but I think the thing that stuck out in my mind was really the length of the various contests. The contest segments are so long that it makes it very hard to even want to do much else at the convention because you are so tired of sitting. I really felt sorry for the judges. Something should really be done about either limiting the number of contestants or the length of each performance. The chorus contest was particularly long. Two marathon sessions. I really don’t see how the judges can maintain their focus. As the old saying goes, “the mind can only absorb what the backside can endure.”