Yay, Technology: Long-distance Coaching
Like most other technique-heavy art forms, barbershop singing is the kind of hobby that offers infinite opportunity for improvement. Even the scores of top performers rarely top 95%. Those scores are determined by certified judges. One does not get to be a judge without first having a reputation as a good coach. When push comes to shove, though, some questions are best left to the judges. There are less than 200 judges in North America for 30,000 singers. To the best of my knowledge, my district includes only two active judges. One of them lives in Rochester, and the quartet had an excellent session with him last week.
Judges come in three flavors, though, Singing, Music, and Presentation. Our session on Thursday was with a Singing judge. He can help us sing the song using our best vocal quality. It's the Music category, though, that decides if the arrangement is suitable for contest at all. There's a Music judge near Utica, but that's farther than we'd typically travel. Enter technology. I sent MP3 files to two Music judges who've made themselves available for online coaching. Both told me that the songs were good for contest. Even though I told them that we were mostly interested in the contestability question, the recordings being old enough to not be an accurate reflection of our sound now, one of them sent back a list of issues on which to work. Yay!
Judges come in three flavors, though, Singing, Music, and Presentation. Our session on Thursday was with a Singing judge. He can help us sing the song using our best vocal quality. It's the Music category, though, that decides if the arrangement is suitable for contest at all. There's a Music judge near Utica, but that's farther than we'd typically travel. Enter technology. I sent MP3 files to two Music judges who've made themselves available for online coaching. Both told me that the songs were good for contest. Even though I told them that we were mostly interested in the contestability question, the recordings being old enough to not be an accurate reflection of our sound now, one of them sent back a list of issues on which to work. Yay!