I often enter competitions for under 16's, and i am fifteen. Unfortunately, this tends to encompass anything from prodigious 18 month olds upwards, and often find myself pushed out by the " cute little kid", who, nine times out of ten, cannot sing or play for toffee. Maybe this is unfair, but when i was much younger i never got preferential treatment for being "young". Should competitions have more age categories than just an "under 16's" and "Adults" section??
It's sad but true. Now keep in mind, you can usually play up a level (adults) and blow'm away with your cuteness there. Also unfair (to the uncute old folks) but all is fair in love & war.
Have fun with your age! Before you know it you'll be 25 then 35 etc....go surfing!! get a skate board!! Take a minute to have some fun for yourself...There is always going to be someone younger and cuter... Don't burn yourself out on ITM......besides what are you going to do for fun when your 25? Taxes?
all the best kiddo!
If the musical competitions were really only about the music, the competitors would be playing out of sight behind a curtain, and the judges would know neither their name, age, gender, race, religion, nor anything else about them. They would then be sadly obliged to evaluate, to the best of their abilities, ONLY the music.
Yeah exactly that happened to me. I was in a band of five people, all fifteen, in an open under-16s competition. We played the best, easily, but the prize went to a gap-toothed 11 year-old who sang solo.
In the old-time world, there are several different age categories, Li'l tykes, jr.jr., junior, young adult, adult, senior.
I used to play in fiddle contests and was very grateful for the age categories, cuz those litlle kids are not just precocious, they are very good!
The contests that are "certified" run by the same rules as the National Old-Time Fiddle contest. The judges are in another room, with the music piped in electronically. The contestants appear on an open stage for the benefit of the audience.
I'm sure the smile of delight on your mums and dads face when they see you up there doing your thing is a prize in itself, so that makes you a winner any ways...
Chin up chest out and keep giving it the lash, you'll someday look back on your competition days and wonder was it really that important you didn't "apparently" get the recognition you deserve, I'm sure you'll come to the conclusion that you are a winner !!
Could be worse. I attended a competition where people self-categorized as beginner, intermediate and advanced. Some of those beginners just couldn't have been. No beginner plays like that.
I'm wondering what sort of a competition is it ? I can't imagine that there's a fleadh in the Waikato Basin, maybe a Highland games or two but if a competition is clearly based on cuteness (and I've seen that first hand in NZ) then it's a talent show, not a music competition and clearly not worth entering.
As PatKiwi asks, what kind of competitions dop you enter, Djaque?
The CCE Fleadhanna Cheoil are divided into Under 12, 12-15, 15-18 and Senior age categories (except for the 'Irish Conversation' competition, which has more age divisions - I discovered this by accident while browsing through the all Ireland results one year).
As for me, I've been trying to enter the Under 12 category for nearly 15 years now, but they won't have it. Ageism, I call it.
NameChange, if if you've been playing for nearly 15 years you obviously wouldn't be eligible for the under-12 category, but you may be able to squeeze into the 12-15. Next year you should be ok for the 15-18 category. I've been playing for 7 years so I'd be eligible for under-12, but I've no intention whatsoever of entering for any competition at my age. So there!
It was a busking festival in Mt Maunganui. I entered assuming it would be in a way similar to the likes of the Durham, Hexham, Morpeth gathering, or the Alnwick international music festival. Oh how wrong i was! The sad thing about some of the kids is they obviously hated what they were doing, and their parents were pushing them into it...
Ooh, I really like Rook's idea about contestants playing behind a curtain. Not only would the judges know nothing about the contestants except their playing ability, some of us would be a lot less nervous if we didn't have judges staring at us while we played!
When they establish a "Come on, give the fat old guy a break because he didn't start playing seriously until he was in his fourties, and now his fingers are stiffening up on him and his joints ache" category, I will start competing!
Those preferentially treated kids usually end up as head cases anyway since they probably get treated like minor gods in other areas than performance.
When they reach their level of incompetence or find as always happens that there is someone better than they or that there is an equally prodigious new 18 month old wonder snapping at their heels they go postal (as we say in the states), end up paying for the college tuition of the local pub owner's children, or become a mental shipwreck occupying a bedroom in their 80 something parents home.
I recommend you stay away from competitions. They are pointless and always demoralizing for those who do not do well. Michael Flately (of Riverdance fame) won an All-Irish for flute playing, and he's one of the worst players I've ever heard (even if he is one of the best dancers). BTW, I saw him play before I knew who he was. He opened for the Battlefield Band. The point is, competition is not good for the soul. Stay away from them.
The important thing about playing behind a curtain is that the judges must somehow be absolutely certain that they really are listening to the person whose name is on that sheet of paper in front of them
I thoroughly agree with Ailin about avoiding competitions. The big problem is that kids often have no say in the matter.
Anyone else have this problem?
Anyone else have this problem?
Just wondering if i am the only one.
I often enter competitions for under 16's, and i am fifteen. Unfortunately, this tends to encompass anything from prodigious 18 month olds upwards, and often find myself pushed out by the " cute little kid", who, nine times out of ten, cannot sing or play for toffee. Maybe this is unfair, but when i was much younger i never got preferential treatment for being "young". Should competitions have more age categories than just an "under 16's" and "Adults" section??
# Posted on October 21st 2007 by Djaque
Re: Anyone else have this problem?
It's sad but true. Now keep in mind, you can usually play up a level (adults) and blow'm away with your cuteness there. Also unfair (to the uncute old folks) but all is fair in love & war.
# Posted on October 21st 2007 by gaelic_gale
Re: Anyone else have this problem?
Have fun with your age! Before you know it you'll be 25 then 35 etc....go surfing!! get a skate board!! Take a minute to have some fun for yourself...There is always going to be someone younger and cuter... Don't burn yourself out on ITM......besides what are you going to do for fun when your 25? Taxes?
all the best kiddo!
# Posted on October 21st 2007 by lamh trom
Re: Anyone else have this problem?
Maybe you're just not cute enough...
# Posted on October 21st 2007 by irishfiddler32
Re: Anyone else have this problem?
I've never had that problem (sigh)
# Posted on October 21st 2007 by Greg the Piano Tuner
Re: Anyone else have this problem?
If the musical competitions were really only about the music, the competitors would be playing out of sight behind a curtain, and the judges would know neither their name, age, gender, race, religion, nor anything else about them. They would then be sadly obliged to evaluate, to the best of their abilities, ONLY the music.
Could this work?
# Posted on October 21st 2007 by Piece
Re: Anyone else have this problem?
Yeah exactly that happened to me. I was in a band of five people, all fifteen, in an open under-16s competition. We played the best, easily, but the prize went to a gap-toothed 11 year-old who sang solo.
No justice in the world!
# Posted on October 21st 2007 by mehitabel23
Re: Anyone else have this problem?
In the old-time world, there are several different age categories, Li'l tykes, jr.jr., junior, young adult, adult, senior.
I used to play in fiddle contests and was very grateful for the age categories, cuz those litlle kids are not just precocious, they are very good!
The contests that are "certified" run by the same rules as the National Old-Time Fiddle contest. The judges are in another room, with the music piped in electronically. The contestants appear on an open stage for the benefit of the audience.
# Posted on October 21st 2007 by wyogal
Re: Anyone else have this problem?
I'm sure the smile of delight on your mums and dads face when they see you up there doing your thing is a prize in itself, so that makes you a winner any ways...
Chin up chest out and keep giving it the lash, you'll someday look back on your competition days and wonder was it really that important you didn't "apparently" get the recognition you deserve, I'm sure you'll come to the conclusion that you are a winner !!
Slán
# Posted on October 21st 2007 by Enigma
Re: Anyone else have this problem?
Could be worse. I attended a competition where people self-categorized as beginner, intermediate and advanced. Some of those beginners just couldn't have been. No beginner plays like that.
# Posted on October 21st 2007 by sbhikes
Re: Anyone else have this problem?
I'm wondering what sort of a competition is it ? I can't imagine that there's a fleadh in the Waikato Basin, maybe a Highland games or two but if a competition is clearly based on cuteness (and I've seen that first hand in NZ) then it's a talent show, not a music competition and clearly not worth entering.
# Posted on October 21st 2007 by Patkiwi
Re: Anyone else have this problem?
As PatKiwi asks, what kind of competitions dop you enter, Djaque?
The CCE Fleadhanna Cheoil are divided into Under 12, 12-15, 15-18 and Senior age categories (except for the 'Irish Conversation' competition, which has more age divisions - I discovered this by accident while browsing through the all Ireland results one year).
As for me, I've been trying to enter the Under 12 category for nearly 15 years now, but they won't have it. Ageism, I call it.
# Posted on October 21st 2007 by CreadurMawnOrganig
Re: Anyone else have this problem?
NameChange, if if you've been playing for nearly 15 years you obviously wouldn't be eligible for the under-12 category, but you may be able to squeeze into the 12-15. Next year you should be ok for the 15-18 category. I've been playing for 7 years so I'd be eligible for under-12, but I've no intention whatsoever of entering for any competition at my age. So there!
# Posted on October 21st 2007 by Trevor Jennings
Re: Anyone else have this problem?
Lazyhound - How do you know I didn't start playing 5 years before I was conceived? Some parents can be very pushy, you know?
# Posted on October 21st 2007 by CreadurMawnOrganig
Re: Anyone else have this problem?
Now there's a logical conundrum ...
It's giving me a headache.
# Posted on October 21st 2007 by Trevor Jennings
Re: Anyone else have this problem?
Where does logic come into it?
# Posted on October 21st 2007 by CreadurMawnOrganig
Re: Anyone else have this problem?
It was a busking festival in Mt Maunganui. I entered assuming it would be in a way similar to the likes of the Durham, Hexham, Morpeth gathering, or the Alnwick international music festival. Oh how wrong i was! The sad thing about some of the kids is they obviously hated what they were doing, and their parents were pushing them into it...
# Posted on October 22nd 2007 by Djaque
Re: Anyone else have this problem?
Ooh, I really like Rook's idea about contestants playing behind a curtain. Not only would the judges know nothing about the contestants except their playing ability, some of us would be a lot less nervous if we didn't have judges staring at us while we played!
# Posted on October 22nd 2007 by seisflutes
Re: Anyone else have this problem?
When they establish a "Come on, give the fat old guy a break because he didn't start playing seriously until he was in his fourties, and now his fingers are stiffening up on him and his joints ache" category, I will start competing!
# Posted on October 22nd 2007 by AlBrown
Re: Anyone else have this problem?
Those preferentially treated kids usually end up as head cases anyway since they probably get treated like minor gods in other areas than performance.
When they reach their level of incompetence or find as always happens that there is someone better than they or that there is an equally prodigious new 18 month old wonder snapping at their heels they go postal (as we say in the states), end up paying for the college tuition of the local pub owner's children, or become a mental shipwreck occupying a bedroom in their 80 something parents home.
I like Lamh trom's advice
# Posted on October 22nd 2007 by zippydw
Re: Anyone else have this problem?
I recommend you stay away from competitions. They are pointless and always demoralizing for those who do not do well. Michael Flately (of Riverdance fame) won an All-Irish for flute playing, and he's one of the worst players I've ever heard (even if he is one of the best dancers). BTW, I saw him play before I knew who he was. He opened for the Battlefield Band. The point is, competition is not good for the soul. Stay away from them.
# Posted on October 22nd 2007 by Ailin
Re: Anyone else have this problem?
The important thing about playing behind a curtain is that the judges must somehow be absolutely certain that they really are listening to the person whose name is on that sheet of paper in front of them
I thoroughly agree with Ailin about avoiding competitions. The big problem is that kids often have no say in the matter.
# Posted on October 22nd 2007 by Trevor Jennings