Guitar Contests! Options

[Marius Pop]

Musicians feed on their audience's emotions and feedback. We love to be appreciated and we sometimes feel competitive one with the other, although music is not about that. It's sometimes a good mood to be in cause it can get you a lot of progress and education, even exposure.

I see a lot of online guitar contests with different themes and a lot of good guitar players, but most of times, I can not understand the principles on which judges decide the winners - it often happens that a lot of tasty and mature players are left out.

What are your thoughts on this terribly subjective topic?

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[Monica Gheorghev...]

Sometimes I also can't understand which are criteria of judges to choose the winner. To be honest I never thought too much at this because it's a little subjective. Even if I like something this not mean that everybody must like the same thing.

I can be disappointed by what judges chosen but not affect me too much. I feel sorry if I like very much a take from a contest and that guy it's not between winners. This happened last year in melodic contest. One of my friend made an awesome take and he had a very original approach for a contest. He added over a part from backing some orchestral sounds and trust me that violin created a very touching feel and perfect for a melodic contest. Unfortunately he didn't won but for me he was a winner I would liked that they gave him a prize for originality. I'm not say this because it's a friend of mine but no one thought to add something extra to a backing.
BTW this is the vid I am talking about:



I never entered in a contest for winning the material part of prizes. But I'm dependent of the feeling of competitions because this push me to do my best. You know, all those emotions, suspense, limit time for making a take, trying to find the best idea and making many different versions for the same backing until I decide for a one, finding a good tone.......all this are like a drug for me

But I decide to approach the contests in a different way. Some of contests are annual. I looked at the winners from every year and they have something similar in their playing. Can be an idea to try a similar approach. But if this it's not your style it worth to make a compromise?

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[klasaine]

Not that my answer will be a surprise to anybody here but I think the whole idea of a guitar 'contest' (unless you're AUDITIONING for a conservatory and or a scholorship) especially the on-line type, is ridiculous. How they're judged, not to mention who judges them is a mystery to me.

I assume the organizations that 'sponsor' most of them have some type of advertising angle - ? They want to sell you or somebody something.
I may be wrong aboout that but I do know that 90% of 'battle of the bands' contests here in the states are really about selling stuff.
At it's most benign - lessons at a music school or shop. At it's most banal - drinks and swag at a bar.

*I audition kids for a performing arts high school. My criterion is pretty strict and traditional. After high school, most go on to a conservatory or a music college. Most of those become pros and many of those become my competition (happily ).

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This post has been edited by klasaine: Jun 19 2014, 11:05 AM

[Kristofer Dahl]

I assume the organizations that 'sponsor' most of them have some type of advertising angle - ? They want to you or somebody something.

For sure! I guess the sponsors want to sell their products and the contestants (usually) want promotion and/or whatever the prize is.

So far so good. Then we have to pick a winner, decide who plays the "best" music. That's where things get complicated.

I guess we have to accept that if we want to find out who are the most popular/best musicians, online competitions are not the place to look. If we want to find out what music appeals most to ourselves - then we should probably look within ourselves!

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[klasaine]

I'm not referring to the competitions at GMC by the way. This is a 'pay for lessons' educational site. Recitals, recordings and competitions are a known part of it.
I'm just talking about the random internet guitar contests.

Another thing that strikes me as dubious is the fact that - since it is online - you can totally edit your entry/ performance or do it 100 times. Not too mention you're in the very comfortable environment of your paractice/recording space.
Really, what's even the competition in that?

Here's a competition ...
Show up to performance space with a backing track (or a band?) - warm up for 20 minutes - play your solo - get judged.

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This post has been edited by klasaine: Jun 19 2014, 01:13 PM

[Monica Gheorghev...]

I'm agree with you guys and it's obvious that the small competitions from internet are just an oportunity for sponsors to sell their products.
But anyway do not forget about big competitions like Guitar Idol where the final etape it's with live performing. Only this kind of contests are made to find professional players.

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[Steve Gilfield]

There is a new guitar competition if there is anyone who wants to try it out.

I might give it a go but the backing track doesn't really need a solo; it is already great

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[jstcrsn]

There is a new guitar competition if there is anyone who wants to try it out.

I might give it a go but the backing track doesn't really need a solo; it is already great

the is a good competition , but it proves Ken's theory .. They are promoting their wares and usaully the winners did not really need what they won .. I would love to see people win that actually could benefit with the winnings

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[Steve Gilfield]

Online competitions help 'boost' someone's reputation/youtube channel who is not well known yet, since quite a few people will check his/her response. It is a good shout-out in my opinion.

Winners usually don't need the equipment but neither do rich people need more money. We all know the saying "money brings money" so it's obvious that a rich person will most probably continue to make more money but it's the poor who need it the most.
Same thing with players with expensive equipment; usually they are the ones who put effort, time and money on this so I don't see why not win if they are the best out of those competing.

Whether or not someone is actually the winner or not, that is up to the organiser's or judges' judgment.
When we will make our own competition, then we will get to judge who is the best

If Dragonball has taught me anything is that competitions help growing and becoming better

Competitions are great for challenging you, you get to participate with amazing players, AND keeps your ego down once you see how much better some of those are, and makes you want to push your limits and get better.

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This post has been edited by Steve Gilfield: Dec 14 2020, 12:05 PM

[Todd Simpson]

"Competition" is a sort of biz friendly word for PROMOTION in many cases. After all, these are not charities that are running these things. I ran a contest back in the day and the winner got a free copy of OVERLOUD. Of course, the software was provided by overloud for promotional purposes. It's all part of the same machine. I don't think it's bad thing by itself, after all, it does give people a chance to have their work seen by folks who might not have and one can often win cool stuff. However, I too share a sense of amazement at the choice of winner in many cases. Sometimes I suspect the judges in some of these may be deaf

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[Steve Gilfield]

In most competitions I've been a part of, the judge/organiser, picked a person who needed the gear or who had potential to grow as a musician (they encouraged people to subscribe/follow them).

They didn't pick the actual best musician. At least this is what I understood from watching the entries.

But nevertheless, I find them great for pushing me to my limits (time and performance-wise) that is why I keep recommending competitions to other musicians.

It's not the gifts (the destination) but the learning experience (journey)

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