Contests: pros and cons, and should ACDA get more involved in running them?

By Ron Bayer
Green River Community College

There is nothing quite so wonderful and often beneficial as a good music contest or festival.  It can generate concerted practice, give us short and long term goals to shoot for, and it can also give us some bragging rights and subsequent good PR with administrators and parents.  It can however, have some negative effects, too. 

I vividly recall an experience I had as a high school teacher in Minnesota 20 or so years ago.  One of my singers entered the choir room after school looking particularly defeated.  When asked what was going on, he responded dejectedly that the one act play he had a major role in had just competed and not won the contest they expected to win.  When I asked him how he felt they had done he replied, “wonderfully!”  Sensing a learning moment here, I gently pointed out to him that the group’s feeling and self-evaluation about their performance was far more important than their final ranking.  I then explained that contests that judge such subjective areas as drama and music, give ratings and rankings that are at best one person’s evaluation, on one day at one particular time.  His value as a performer or person should not be determined by this event.  You also have little idea or control over the quality of the competition, and often don’t know the criteria used or expectations and even prejudices of the adjudicator.  We need to consider these contest events as tools we can use for evaluation and improvement, not a final judgment of self-worth as a performer.

I may as well come clean; I grew up in Wisconsin and started my teaching career there, and eventually took the required class and became a certified music judge through their state organization, Wisconsin School Music Association. They run a tight ship – for the solo and ensemble categories at the district and state level, they have a required list and a class system which allows for younger students and students from smaller schools to compete on a more level playing field.  They also have a state contest, but do not name “winners”.  Students with a strong I rating advance from the district contest and are again rated I through V at state.  The required music list is maintained and revised frequently by master teachers in the profession and is used by as many as seven different states throughout the nation.  They have a uniform judging form and certified judges are assigned to the district contests by WSMA.  They also have a staff of something like seven full-time employees to pull off this daunting task.  While I certainly don’t see something like this in the cards for Washington State, I do think we could learn from and perhaps even use a few of the ideas used by a state with very strong music education goals and extremely well-run contests.

I taught high school here in Washington for three years before teaching now at Green River Community College for the past fourteen years, and have been judging contests throughout the area since my arrival at the college.  I don’t claim to be any sort of authority on music contests, but do have some thoughts on how our contests here are run and might be improved.  I am also sharing some concerns of the many “bull” sessions by judges in the lunch room at numerous contests, both large group and solo and ensemble that I have judged over the years.

Things we might consider here in Washington

A uniform judging form
This is probably the biggest beef amongst judges.  We often don’t know which form is being used until we get there, some contest chairs want individual numbers for all the subcategories, some allow “pluses” and “minuses” in the final scoring and some don’t, and some of the forms are ponderous enough to take a lot of time just to manage, valuable time taken away from clinics and spoken comments to young performers that can really make a difference. 

A selected contest list
Of all my suggestions, this might be the toughest sell.  Good voice teachers don’t want to lose their ability to perfectly match song to singer, but a great number of singers at contest don’t study privately.  Truth be told, many of them get their selections from their choir/band director who may remember a song or two they took in a class voice class in college.  Even a well trained soprano choral director might not be well versed in male literature.  Truth be told, most instruments have an unspoken agreed upon repertoire of solid literature.  Other than the “24 Italian Songs and Arias”, our literature is incredibly more diverse.

We would also see more “reasoned” selections at contest – no longer do judges have to decide how to deal with the pop tunes sometimes performed, or even worse, a young singer doing potential damage to their voice by singing music that is way over their head.  A preselected list of perhaps twenty songs would give each voice type a chance to select something that would help them shine as a singer.  It would even help to even out the various categories; while judging the state contest a few years back, I listened to a wonderful “tenor” who never sang across the break, not even above Eb.  How do you rank him with someone who sings not quite so well but sings obvious tenor literature?

Class system
It’s often difficult in judging situations to take into account grade level or size of school.  Some of the large group forms do have a tiered system of scoring, but many do not.  A simple Class A, Class B and Class C breakdown in both large group and solo and ensemble might really add incentive for younger students or smaller schools to become involved in contests. 

Certifying judges
One of the real charms of our current system is the complete freedom that judges have in evaluating performances.  This is especially valid when two or more judges are used; they offer differing viewpoints and the learning can be impressive.  However, if all young, incoming judges were to attend a daylong workshop taught my master adjudicators, they could learn some of the lingo, rules and criteria that could help them give better evaluations.  This would also help festival managers in general in selecting more qualified judges, but would be especially most helpful  in more rural areas where the network for judges is not very strong. 

“Winners”
Is it time to stop naming “winners” at the state contest?  I know that part of this rationale is the desire by WIAA (co-sponsor of the state event) to rank the top students.  I suggest that this athletic mindset is perhaps not the strongest educational tool we can use.  I know students react strongly to the concept of winning, but in this type of subjective endeavor, I’m not sure we’re sending the right message to young singers.  Giving rankings at the state level as is done at the district level works in other states and is strongly coveted by the students receiving I’s.  I think the same, valuable musical lessons can be learned by this reasoned approach to winning. 

I am aware that both WMEA and WIAA are ultimately in charge of the divisional and state contests, and that the instrument side of music education in this state might agree with a lot of what I’ve suggested here.  But perhaps it’s time for ACDA to begin a dialogue and partner with them in the management of our joint contests.  Let me know if you share some of the concerns and perhaps your state ACDA board can take up the banner!