Steelband Panorama Judges Seminar in the works

Replies

Sweet Eustace June 6, 2010 at 5:28am

there will allways be long faces, in most cultural contests especially pan, if you were offered two cups of coffee, one in a beautifull china coffee cup and the other in a plastic cup, and the china cup had cheap watery coffee and salt in it , and the plastic cup had premium cooffe well prepared, you most likely will end up drinking the salted coffee, the plastic cup will be hot and you may not be inspired to try it, I am not trying to bring anybody down but the best arrangement, pans etc is not what wins it is the presentation, with the exception of Silver stars all the other bands were mediorcre and tame in their efforts, phase II and Despers had the best arrangements, Despers gave a good offering execution wise but energy wise they were too relaxed and seemed to be simply enjoying themselves and not entertaining their audience, which includes the judges, phase II same thing and to add insult to injury boogsie made his count and the drummer made a serious blunder at the very begining, and the rythym section was too relaxed, and if there were responses to the various changes it was not present enough to be felt, Renegades did the same song Kenneth is a good replacement for jit but the rythym section although responsive were not building up enough energy to spur on the band, silver stars conductor looked like a drum major in a marching band and his rythym section kept up with him how could any one not pay attention, a performance seminar is more needed than a judges seminar. jus getting a lil outside the box Michael Jackson did stuff that James Brown, Elvis and fred Astaire did before but the way he did it was more effective than they did, he looked more like the inventor of the moon walk than james brown, the judges have been doing a good job most times, Bias will allways be around that needs attention, for example out of 7 judges 5 scored a band in the mid 90's but 2 scored the band in the low 60's, the same two scored the winner in the high 90's and the other bands in the low and 80's, that is evidence of a clear bias since the highest and lowest will be dropped and the band they scored low was a clear winner by the 5 judges score sheets but with a differential of 20 points the band did not make it to the top three, I will not tell who is the band and what year but that actually happened, so seminars cannot change that but accountability is needed and rules to eliminate that behaviour needs to be installed to minimise it
Pepe Francis MBE May 5, 2010 at 9:20am

I would very much like to attend this seminar as i will be in Trinidad and it seems that this seminar is in the best interest of all who participate in Panorama anywhere in the world.

Pepe.
oba charles May 4, 2010 at 4:49pm

I guess that, at that seminar, SERIOUS discussion will be held on the question of whether theatrics and dramatics should play a greater or lesser role in deciding on the winners of Panorama.......(and the bands should be told this in advance so that their presentations will all take this into account).
Equally importantly, concensus should be arrived at as to whether arrangers who use snips and pieces of foreign music to enhance their own arrangements will be awarded higher marks as long as they do it "tastefully".

Whatever you decide on TELL US!!!! There seems to be too much waivering in criteria from year to year dependent, to some extent on who the judges are. It seems that criteria change whenever judges do - suggesting that there may be subjectivity.
- BEDE LOPEZ > oba charles May 4, 2010 at 9:27pm
  
  JUDGING STEEL BAND PANORAMA MUSIC WILL ALWAYS BE SUBJECTIVE. THE JUDGES ARE HUMAN, THEY GO WITH THEY HEAR. SOMETIMES THEY HEAR SOMETHING THAT SOUND NICE BUT ITS A LOT OF TARTAR CAUSE CALYPSO MUSIC TEMPO IS VERY FAST. THE SWEETNEST IS LOST IN THE TEMPO
  PANORAMA MUSIC IS VERY MUCH DIFFERENT THAN CLASSICAL MUSIC WHERE THE JUDGES HAVE THE MUSIC SCORE SHEET IN FRONT OF THEM TO FOLLOW
  - momo > BEDE LOPEZ May 17, 2010 at 9:08am
    
    i dont think you are on point with what you said because there are classical music played in a calypso tempo
    there are also arrangers who arrange with the classical flavor if i come out with a song with a classical flavor but is played in a calypso tempo who is to say it is not a calypso ????? remember Skiffle Bunch Andy Narrell song apreacation that was the best arrange song for me that year i still enoy listening to it panorama judging has change over the years things that did not count before play a part in it now THEATRICS DRAMATICS it has become part of the show CLIVE BRADLEY was a master at it all he had the whole package there have been panorama over the year that there where band that had the better music but was not the winner a prime example was 2010 Winners there was bands that had better music DESPERS PHASE II to name a few but sivler stars realy won because of the little things that they did another example is the NBA cleveland had the best record but boston won why ???? Panorama has gone from not just music but all the little things that make up the package
    - the pan cafe > momo May 17, 2010 at 9:51am
      
      how do you actually judge that one moment in time..
      sometimes it is not what is played, it's how it's played.
      The crowd's reaction must play a part, a judges preference must play a part, a lot of the time the name of the arranger will play a part.
      Judging is a hard task and must be respected.
      A problem i have found is that if an arranger does try something a bit different from the norm, how then is a judge to judge, if it is not part of the manifesto...
      how about just let it be
VALENTINE YOUNG May 4, 2010 at 1:56pm

This would be a good thing. I am very confused about how these Panorama judges award their points. They are not really listening to the arrangements of the music. They have a lot of criterias that dont really make any sense, and this also confuses the arranger. I hope a lot of questions would be asked at the Seminar, that would shed some light about how they come up with the results that they do.