Scioly.org

Uhh, yeah, that would be my warped sense of humor and a desparate need to kill time as one last event was scored and entered. That video has NOTHING to do with the real Sounds of Music.

Jeff Anderson
Livonia, MI

*facepalm
That would have been so cool though! Way to get my hopes up and then tell me its false...

jander14indoor wrote:Uhh, yeah, that would be my warped sense of humor and a desparate need to kill time as one last event was scored and entered. That video has NOTHING to do with the real Sounds of Music.

Jeff Anderson
Livonia, MI

... *twitch*... thank you for that note of relief, but... well... next time show videos of cute kittens. Nobody should have a problem with that

Bogoradwee wrote:

chalker wrote: We have a general policy of trying to make at least one significant change to each returning event. What specific changes would you make to the rules?

It would be disadvantageous to people just coming into the event next year in comparison to the veterans if you DON'T adjust the ranges or perhaps the categories or some other instrument requirement. I vote replacing wind with strings, and perhaps making percussion treble, and then strings bass. My reasoning is that some people also have a natural disadvantage if they can't already play a wind instrument, so they wouldn't have the breath support. As for the flipping of ranges, it makes it fair for percussion, too.

I'd second that. In fact, even for wind players, the rules seem to favor brass players--the range is very low for a flute, and reed instruments are relatively hard to make, but the range is similar to the bottom part of a trumpet's or the upper part of a trombone's.

Just because the wind instrument had a relatively low range for a flute doesn't mean people didn't try it... there was an astonishing amount of the good ol' PVC pipe flutes at competition, and some people could play them pretty well. That being said, yes, I do believe a change in octave should be made, for the sake of "parity" in SO and also because the low percussion range made for some pretty large, immobile instruments

100% agreed, Z. My partner had to give up on making the lowest 5 notes or so (the ones below C4) because she couldn't get a decent sound out of the pipes. And at States I saw several percussion instruments that were so massive I was doubtful they could even fit through the double doors to the BAC, let alone a regular classroom door. In fact, I had to temporarily remove keys from my xylophone to fit it through the door. Now, excuse me while I rant about Sounds at States:

1. The event ran over time. Out of 9 teams in our slot, my partner and I were 4th, and we barely made it out of the testing rooms in time for our next event (infact, I had to leave my partner to put away our xylophone in order to make it my next event on time). The teams after us weren't so lucky, and I know that at least one team had to have someone sub in for an even at the last minute because their usual event person was still stuck at Sounds.
2. The event was not run as well as it could have been. The software used to check pitch didn't always pick up the notes that were played, especially on percussion because the pitches were so low. Also, my partner and I spent most of our time simply waiting for the judges to finish with the teams before us.
3. It was on the THIRD FLOOR. Of a building with no elevator. Yes, there was a loading dock in the back, but hardly any of the teams knew it was there until they had already hauled their instruments up multiple flights of stairs. Let's just say that large instruments + rather narrow stairwell =/= good things.

Sorry if this is seems out of place in this thread...

but how are teams shipping their instruments over to Madison? Especially teams with large instruments?

Our team is breaking down our large percussion instrument and then shipping it. For our wind instrument, we're packing it on our plane carry-on.

what sort of questions in the interview do you guys think we should expect at nationals?

I'm guessing similar ones to what you recieved at states, assuming the event was understood and run properly. The physics behind your instrument, and such.