In today’s Technique Tuesday, learn the secrets to crushing it at choral competitions used each season by yours truly (the only guy in history to perform an encore at the Music in the Parks festival).
Show Notes (Topics discussed within the episode)
Planning Stage
- Choose appropriate repertoire (tempos, solos, accompaniments)
- Warm-up selection or not?
- Preparing the scores for adjudication
- Ordering copies
- Preparing paperwork
- Folders/binders for judges
- Uniform/grooming
On the day-of
- The pre-departure talk
- Timeline
- Uniform check
- At the site
- Decorum
- Warm-up time
- Outside the performance venue
After the competition
- Exiting the venue
- Self-critique
- Sharing adjudicators’ comments
- Avoiding the victim mindset
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Thomas Juneau says
The language used in this blog REALLY bothers me. We are currently celebrating the 100th birthday of Robert Shaw, a many who, so eloquently, brought the spirituality and humanistic attributes of choral music to America and 20 years later, we’ve degraded to “killing it”? What is this, a Mike Judge movie?
This is not the gym, choral music is not a competition or a football game, and by the way…some of us have EARNED a lot of things and don’t brag about it on this (or really any) website. We just love our art and learned how to inspire others to perform it at a high level.
I hope you will re evaluate your lexicon for future posts. The last thing choral music needs is a “bro” attitude.
Michael J. Seredick says
I’m confused. Overkill? Kill it at competition? Whatever happened to choral music as a peaceful endeavor?
Dawn Gilmore says
My middle school choir was Overall Festival winners three years in a row! The fourth year, I thought it would be overkill to win again, so we opted for a different festival. Music in the Parks is a wonderful organization and we had good experiences with them, but needed to do more challenging things!