Field Judges "in the way"

[CrunchyTenor]

They deem it unsafe enough until July 4th; I'd say July 5th is no more safe.

The 5-judge panel up until July 4 has nothing to do with safety and everything to do with economics.

Garry in Vegas

[Jeff Ream]

Jeff, a few things... you sort of clarify my argument.

1st, you're suggesting that Crown is getting poor scores because the MA judge is upstairs?

2nd, you're suggesting that unless a percussion judge is "in the form", his/her work is duplicative of the MA judge?

A few things... I'm not suggesting that the quality of execution judging is better from the press box. I'm not suggesting it's worse; I'll let others decide that. I'm not surprised that you had large variations between field-level and press box-level judges, since part of the job of a staff is to minimise the errors seen from that distance. I won't argue there; if it were me, I'd want to be in row 3, but that's just my opinion.

That said... I don't care about the MA judge. MA isn't a performer health issue.

So let me restate all of this - agree or disagree...

Percussion evaluation (not just battery evaluation) is reasonably able to be done well without having to be within a 10-foot radius of any battery performer during movement.

I believe it can. Jeff, if you disagree, I'd love to know why you feel otherwise.

No...I am saying crown gets good MA scores because A) he's not looking solely at percussion, and especially in domes, clarity is lost. If drums were upstairs you'd see tonight's fluke happening. and no, I am not suggesting the drum guy is doing the MA guy's job.

I am saying if you put the drum guy upstairs, it becomes MA 2 with the emphasis on percussion....because he won't be able to get clarity like you can at field level. they become like the old upstairs perc judge.

and.....for all of the guys on the field over how many years....the amount of collisions is small. quiet honestly kids do far more damage running into each other or props.

if you are using todays sheet, you can't be far away. from even in row 3, with amps and brass out there, you aren't going to get clarity of articulation, uniformity of style (because most of the time the battery won't be visible)precision of content with respect to challenge....you won't be able to truly appreciate the range of musical, physical and environmental challenges or the simultaneous responsibilities. Even with indoor at Dayton, clarity from the battery is tough to get from row 4 because of the pit in the way and amps etc...sight lines blocked etc. maybe 8 rows up it would be better.

you move the percussion caption upstairs you need to change the sheet to an ensemble sheet because so much will be lost that you can only get up close. I'm a trained bass drummer, and sitting in the Oil Echo Can in 2010, I had to strain to hear bass lines outside of featured moments...and I was on the 45 30 some rows up.

[bgrassie]

My daughter was the bass drummer that had a run in with Charlie Poole. I ran into Chatlye later as I was teaching Surf and he told me how her drum hit him and cut him. He was being treated on front side line by emt's and his tape was still running. Also while being treated the Bass line came to the front sideline during ballad any my kid watched him being worked on. Classic

[bgrassie]

Sorry bout typos. Hard on iPhone. :-)

[Mozartean]

There is absolutely no way that a percussion judge in the stands would be able to thoroughly assess clarity and technique to the same extent as an on-field judge. Listen to your favorite on-field percussion judge tape and ask yourself if everything that was said could have been said if the judge were hundreds of feet away and separated by a hornline. No way. Of course new things could be said about interaction between pit/battery etc. but a lot of that is already handled in music analysis and the supreme attention to detail that is gained from an on-field judge is for the best in my opinion.

Edited August 1, 2013 by Mozartean