The TMEA Judging Process Behind the Scenes 

Yeah that’s the kind of thing I was talking about in the video.

Elaborate?

That's right. I think they've used that system for a long time now.

@@eltigredo I'm a little confused about how the dropping the highest score is fair. Hypothetically what if a person who is indisputably better then all the candidates auditions. Wouldn't their score be the highest on every judges score sheet? The score would then be dropped and then the strongest person auditioning wouldn't make it. Or is their something in place to prevent this from happening?

@@guitarandgaming1 They don't drop the highest score for each judge, they drop the highest score for each student. The student will get five scores, one from each judge. The highest of those five will be dropped and the lowest of those five will be dropped. then they average the three that are left. That will be the student's score.

@@eltigredo Okay, thanks! Great video.

@@guitarandgaming1 Thank you. We are doing a live &A today at 5:00 Houston time if you are interested.

I would like to encourage you to think of it differently. It is not the person who wins the contest, it is that student's performance. Does that make sense. People don't make region or all-state because of who they are. They make region or all-state because they did well. This is a VERY important point because there are a lot of really fine trumpet players who end up NOT making all-state. Are they "good enough" to make all-state? Yes. Did they perform well enough to make all-state? No. And the same is true in the other direction. There are some extremely mediocre trumpet students who make all-state. Why? Because they worked hard and nailed the audition. I have another video that talks about my philosophy about music competitions. You can see it here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-vL94-Pl9cbw.html Watch that video and tell me if you think that answers your question.

That really depends on the judges. I have another video called Competition in Music that talks about the judges preferences. But in general, if you make mistakes, in this TMEA system, it doesn't have nearly the impact on your placement that the students think it does.

I do not usually get another judge’s perspective, so this is interesting. With region season coming up, I can say having been a judge that I do have a scoring system . Being placed in the 90s, 80s, 70s, 60s, and so on means something as far as how the student played overall. It can be relative though if I have a really weak room or strong room, but I come in with an idea in mind and start with a generic rubric in mind. My priorities: 1. Right notes, rhythms, and articulations, and at least a decent tone quality (I leave a lot of room on this because teachers have different tonal concepts). 2. Appropriate tempos both for the etude and for the player to play successfully at. 3. Quality of Articulation 4. Phrasing, Style, and Contrast 5. Tone Quality (more of a tiebreaker) My philosophy is that most of the time you won’t be successful at No. 1 without at least a decent tone quality. I have heard players with a great sound who do not play the right notes and rhythms at all but never the reverse. I do not write off a student for bombing an etude. Each etude performance stands on its own. This is my system, and others have their own system. I have judged in three different TMEA regions and one time at the area level. I have run into tiebreakers many times and do use my comments to break them. The larger the number of people auditioning, the more issues you have with tiebreakers. For specific tips, I reserve that for my students or whomever I work with. But, I have no problem with sharing my judging system because I do think students should have an idea of how they are being evaluated.

Yep, so you've seen it, too. I think it has to do with a person's character. I remember when I was a child, "good sportsmanship" was a big deal. The best "winners" were those who could lose without throwing a temper tantrum or whatever. It's a self control thing. But I don't believe self control is being taught like that anymore. So you have students who do what your friend did, basically having a temper tantrum in his audition. But guess what!!! That's part of what the auditions are for. Those students shouldn't be in the All-State band. They don't have what it takes.

Taylor Wood you can make all-state jazz band for free. Just be the best player in the audition. 😜

I can see what you're saying, but I don't think the Texas system is setup in a way that can work like that. We are told to avoid ties, and you cannot avoid ties without seeing the previous scores.

The only reason I mention pay is so the students can understand strategy.

They need to understand how much more important it is to “sound good” than it is to play perfectly. I want them to know what a drag judging can be, and how they can use that information in coming up with a strategy.

Yes, that’s something I forgot to mention. The only difference for recordings is that we listen to all four of your tracks and total your score immediately. Then we listen to the next player.

@@eltigredo Oh okay thank you

Right. Something like that.

I think my other video answers your questions better than I could in a comment here. It’s called Competition in Music. Competition in Music: Auditions, Contests and Tryouts ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-vL94-Pl9cbw.html

Wow. Now that was a very different kind of compliment. I think it was a compliment. I'll take it that way. I'm glad the videos are helping.

I charge according to how many lessons you pay for at once. So, for an hour lesson, you could pay as much as $100 (if you only pay for one lesson at a time) or as little as $50 (if you pay for 12 lessons at a time). However, prices are relative. I charge what I do for two reasons, 1) because people in Houston will pay my rates. 2) because I also have other sources of income besides lessons. So I cannot afford to charge any less than I do. If I had to charge less, then I simply wouldn't teach lessons anymore. I hope that makes sense. Congratulations on your progress already. You are certainly off to a good start. But I do think you would do even better with a qualified teacher.

Emmanuel Acevedo Congrats on lead trumpet man!

Thank you so much! It's such an honor and makes the grind feel SOOO worth it!@@tylerjones7806

You know, that REALLY depends on the judge, If it was me, I would say, "no", I wouldn't deduct anything. But more importantly, please take to heart what I say in this video. There is NOTHING to deduct. It really doesn't work that way. And if you apply what I say in the video to your question, I guess it is also important for me to say this.... that if you nailed it in every other way, I would be extremely surprised that someone gave you a bad score for going a little past the cut. However, if you sound awful (speaking only hypothetically), and you prolong the judges misery by playing past the cut, they YES, I could see that possibly causing them to give you an even worse score. But still, the bottom line is that it really depends on the judge.

I've judged before. There's no standardized judging response to this, but I usually deduct 1 point per measure past the cut. This usually isn't enough to drop a chair but it can be. It doesn't hurt as much as you might think. It's much worse if you don't play the entire cut (even if you try to play past the cut to "make up for what you didn't play"). That can cost you a lot of points (and will drop you several chairs).

Sure. Contact me on one of my websites and we will setup a time. EddieLewis.com

I don’t believe a more unified system is possible. There are far too many cultural differences, across the spectrum. I’ve been informally interviewing judges for decades and I have seen no hint of consensus.

I believe so.

I talkd about this in the live stream Trumpet Q and A last friday. Here's a link to that video: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ywjGnhadpf0.html

@@eltigredo thanks!

I can't say for sure, but probably. I've never been part of that specific process, so I can't say for certain.

No. I wish I could but I’m working.

Haha... I don't remember saying that the star wars stuff was stupid. If that's how it came out, that's not what I meant.

Eddie Lewis 8:55 “...and you go in and play Star Wars or some other stupid song...” you implied that Star Wars was stupid. 🤷‍♀️

@@sophiamireles6871 any song played at an audition that is not actually the required audition piece would be stupid and insulting to everyone there

Lana Britt oh yeah I understand that. I know it’s insulting. I’ve competed for many years and I know it’s SUPER disrespectful when someone even plays careless whisper (I’m a sax) really loud as their warm up. I completely understand that playing anything other than the required music is disrespectful to not only judges but to everyone in the room.

No clue what that stands for.

@@eltigredo Association (of) Texas Small School Bands. Its basically like TMEA, just for 1-4A schools. I believe it does have the same judging

I’m confused. Director of what?