Contest Review: December 2001

Well, my friends, we have qualified once again, and done so in style. Not only were our marks significantly higher than last year, our lowest mark this year is higher than last year’s average. We knew that good things have been happening in our music-making, and our Prelims experience has confirmed and quantified our intuition – as well as giving some useful pointers as to what to do next.

Before we move onwards and upwards, though, it is worth pausing to review the day itself, and learning any lessons from it for next time.

1. The performance: well, what can I say? The first song in particular demonstrated how we can make the magic happen when we choose to commit to it. Certainly, it wasn’t technically perfect (our score, though greatly increased, has not yet reached 100%!), but we gave everything we currently have to give. And the intense musical pleasure this gave to us as we performed together is a top-class way to motivate us to develop further.

This, indeed, is a point worth emphasising: after we performed, John Ellis remarked, ‘Well after that the marks are really irrelevant.’ This marks a real gain in our level of achievement: we did well enough that we became autonomous, we no longer needed external validation to be able to be sure of our worth as performers. We earned the right to feel proud of ourselves.

2. The preparation: thank you for your conscientious and organised approach to the warm-up room. This was a key point in the process where we had trouble at Glasgow, and we had vowed it would be better next time. Everybody knew what they should be doing when, and did it efficiently and without fuss, letting us get the full value of those precious 20 minutes in the warm-up room. That success is one we should recognise and take ownership of: it will prove a key factor in helping our steady progress up the contest scoreboard.
3. The overall planning of the day: from the perfectly-timed coach pick-ups to the presentations of BOTY badges and Sam’s certificate, a goodly number of people put a good deal of careful thought into the day’s events, timings and logistics. They co-ordinated well with each other and worked out not only the broad shape of events but the details that would make them work smoothly. This careful planning meant that none of us had waste emotional energy in worrying over what was happening, and could get on with what we needed to do. So next time you see a member of your management committee, thank them for their behind-the-scenes work that made our day perfect.

1. Things outside our control: by definition, we can’t bring these within our control, but we can verify that our plans and practices are robust enough to cope with the unexpected.
   • Delay due to coach roof coming off: we had enough slack in our timetable to cope with this hitch, and we used the rest of the journey to plan carefully to get the people going to the chorus briefing off the coach first.
   • Mix-up over rehearsal rooms: we had clear enough objectives for the rehearsal time that we could still focus on the job in hand despite manifold distractions. It may be worth investigating for future reference whether we can make arrangements to find somewhere in advance as we did in Derby last year; clearly however the feasibility of this depends on the contacts available to the club. The way everybody kept their minds on the job in the face of adverse and distracting circumstances, though, is highly admirable: this aspect of the day showed the extent to which we can still produce good music when circumstances are conspiring against us. Remember that you can still produce overtones even when there is no oxygen in the room (!), and you will be able to produce them, at will, anywhere.
   • Lack of risers in the warm-up room: again, we dealt we this simply by focusing on the job in hand. To have had risers would have been preferable, but their absence had no negative impact on our performance.
2. Things within our control: clearly, this is the area where we can ensure things go better next time.
   • Too long in the changing rooms: people were ready, and starting to get impatient a good 10-15 minutes before our report time. This also provided an opportunity for ‘last minute’ (= unplanned) discussions which served to raise anxiety levels (only a small amount, to be sure, but more than necessary). Next time we should not, therefore, head into the changing area much more than half an hour before we are due to report. This is ample to change, make up, and read the cards, and leaves no ‘dead’ time to interfere with our focus.
   • Marginally poorer performance of the second song: this was perceived by both us as we sang it, and by the judges as they listened. A couple of explanations have been forthcoming for this: (a) that discussion within the chorus (during the unplanned, last minute chats) had labeled this as our weaker song, hence undermining confidence and increasing distraction, and (b) that we were so surprised at how well the first song went we went into the second in a state of some bogglement, which increased distraction. There is probably some truth in both of these, and plus other explanations that different chorus members will feel more or less valid to their own experience. The key to all of them, though, is focus. If we can continue to develop our skills of concentration such that whenever we approach any song, we have nothing in our minds except the message of that song, then we rob any other external factors of the power to affect our performance. We have come a long way in this, but we have yet further to develop.

So, those are the key things that I feel we can learn from our day at Sheffield for future reference, and I am immensely pleased that there are so many of the ‘we did this right – let’s do it right again next time’ type. The points outlined here are primarily issues to do with organisation and psychology rather than music – although they clearly had an impact on our performance. More specifically musical lessons from the day are in store with the Music Committee’s response to the Evaluation – coming to a club bulletin near you sometime in the New Year.

And let’s remember: the time just after contest is the best time to build our skill set further, since the memory of our peak-level performance is fresh, yet the pressure of external judging is removed – we can focus on our own art for its own sake. So let’s be prepared to dive into the New Year with vim, vigour and verve and to build on our already considerable skills to make even better music.

Thanks again - it was a truly wonderful day.

Liz Garnett,  10th December 2001