Congratulations to everyone that joined this Music Contest, you are all winners because you evolved our skills and experience as composers! I encourage all members to listen to all entries below, then vote on your favorites.
@Mikael - having to pick 5 “favourites” is fun and no problem to do.
To promote the idea of learning with these contest, one suggestion would be to create more structure of the genre criteria for voting. (This would help for composing as well). I see some of this in comments or your videos, but listing out the criteria clearly would be helpful.
Perhaps a voting matrix with this criteria and scoring ie. “Excitement” criteria score 1-5, “Intensity” score 1-5, etc would be useful. This would then provide feedback to the composers at what elements could be improved for the genre.
Not clear to me in voting is the weight to give to “production” in these submissions. The contest is for composing, however much of the feedback given in comments is around production. This could be argued either way so I was curious to hear your thoughts on this as well.
Not trying to detract from the fun aspect or make these great contests to serious, but wanted to give some thoughts on making them more educational. Thanks again for providing this forum as a space for composers to grow.
Thanks Brandon, I appreciate your ideas. However I also don’t want to put too much weight on the “contest” part of this, as I see it more as a great opportunity for everyone to practice and make music for a specific theme.
I hope that the educational side will come from both the “learning by doing”, as well as the feedback everyone is encouraged to give each other.
That makes sense. I think part of my idea was to help me pick the 5 pieces… there are so many good ones and hard to choose some over others so I needed something to go by.
I totally understand. Perhaps I can add a couple of helpful pointers on “judging fairly” on the next challenge voting/poll. I just don’t want to steer too much, as things very soon might become rigid and boring if I do.
Good thoughts Brandon. I agree with Mikael as well. To be honest, I enter the contests not really to win, but to see how my skills compare to others, to get feedback on where I can improve, or what people liked about my music. It would be a shame for it to become too rigid, but to Brandon’s point, it might also be helpful to maybe have some extra guidelines to the contest that must be followed (i.e. must be in ABA form, must modulate keys, etc.) I think this could help beginning composers to learn and practice these things, but at the same time, you don’t want to scare off people from participating because the rules are too difficult to follow.
well, good point matt.
I think, @Mikael has already enough work with these contests. If I had a free wish, than in would be divide the votes in a professional and a amateur section. (even if its a “professional” forum, there are lots of amateurs in here)
I am trying to vote with 2 criterias: 1. the song itself and 2. the engagement of the creator.
With 20 or more years of experience its much easier and faster (more gear, better workflow) to create a track, than as a rookie.
But in fact, its always a lot of fun competing in the contests, and the best win is a lovely comment and a constuctive critique.
Intersting views about contests. On one hand, having points to grade would help to do a well based evaluation, but on the other hand, in some moments you don’t have time or energy to review a piece analyzing several points. In my case, i reply every entry and it would increase my effort very much. So i think, as @Mikael wisely refer, it is better letting everyone choose the way he/she review. Sometimes your coment is short and other times is long.
All very good points, and we definitely don’t want to overburden @Mikael Just some ideas to help everyone learn from each other in more direct ways. I have great fun here regardless, but like @brandowalk says, it’s difficult to pick your favorites in the contests because there’s really something to like about all the entries!
I think it all comes back to “art is subjective” and “beauty is in the eye of the beholder”. And I agree that picking your favorites is tricky, but I still feel we all have to individually choose what we want to emphasize when judging/voting. And that goes for giving comments as well. I rather have you keep that freedom than trying to “force” things too much.
All in all, I want to downplay the “contest focus”, and think of all these as creative challenges that everyone can use to practice and improve their own skills as a composer.
Just some ideas to help everyone learn from each other in more direct ways. I have great fun here regardless, but like