PASIC 2003 HS & College Tenors--Review by James Christian

Overall, this was probably one of the best tenor contests I've ever seen for both high school and college. Many players at the last PASIC I watched (in 1998) basically hacked through their solos and had rim click city. I was pleasantly surprised to find that most of the players this year attempted solos written at their playing level, and it made for a much more enjoyable contest. I used the following system to rank and score everyone:

I was probably a bit harder on General Effect this year than I was in 1998, so don't try comparing the scores from my '98 review to this year's. Most of the errors I heard this year were just random rim clicks. There weren't very many who had numerous rim clicks one after another. Most players suffered on opening and closing their single stroke roll and their demand. You can't open and close a roll in 10 seconds. Most people started off way too loud on their rolls, and they either had to fight to maintain that dynamic level throughout, or they got a lot quieter. Most performers also attempted to go too fast on their rolls when they hit the peak. They pushed the speed beyond that which they could control on the decel, and it created a lot of problems.

Some pretty nice solos overall. It was nice to see several soloists with some interesting flam sections. My biggest complaint would be the lengthy amount of time that almost everyone spent on time keeping patterns. It's certainly good to demonstrate limb independence, but it gets old listening to drum set patterns over and over again. Here are my thoughts on each player in the order they performed...

ROLL: 16 errors. Fairly even on the accel/decel times. Heavy right hand. Tried to go too fast and had some execution problems on the decel.

Several flams. Missed the drum when he tried to play behind the back. He had some nice sweep passages and demonstrated good independence. He had some minor ticks here and there. On his diddles, you could hear that the second note was dropped; it sounded weaker than the first note. Not too many rims overall. A good way to start the contest.

The list outside the performance room listed his name as John, and when they posted the scores his name was listed as Ian. If anyone knows which is correct, please contact this site in order to correct it.

Played on the drum with a metal rake (those brush type rakes, not an actual rake). Used hand drumming for a little while. His right hand was heavy on rolls and singles. He played mostly timing stuff. Fairly clean overall. Not much dynamic contrast.

I'm not sure what the judges were thinking on this. Chase had the highest demand of anyone there. There's no way he should have gotten last place. He played several Swiss Army triplets. He had a lot of risky double, triple, and quadruple sweeps across the drums. Good variety of rudiments. Quite a few rim clicks on the difficult sweep sections. Not much dynamics.

Used a soft mallet in one hand with a hot rod in the other. This section was not terribly difficult. The use of these emplements masked a lot of mistakes (though I still managed to catch them). Several 16th note sweeps. He only had any dynamic contract during the simple sections.

Not sure what the judges were thinking on this either. He had the worst roll, moderate solo execution, low demand, and the lowest general effect. He played mostly timing keeping parts. I wrote, "harsh dynamics--little contrast". He had a few singles and a few simple flam parts.

Utilized backsticking. Used a rake. He had several nice 32nd note sweep passages, but there were some rim clicks mixed in. Several independence sections.

Again, not sure why the judges placed him so high. He had the second worst execution, the second lowest demand, and the second lowest G.E. He played a slow tippy tap intro. Used soft mallets and a rake. Played a lot of rock beats. Virtually no dynamic contrast. A few short bursts of speed.

A lot of time keeping stuff. Little dynamic contrast. Stick changes. One well executed 32nd note sweep section.

ROLL: 21 errors. Pretty good timing. Started out too loud. Tried to go too fast at the peak.

Used hot rods. Executed most of the difficult passages well. He had a lot of time keeping sections. Not a whole lot of dynamics.

ROLL: 20 errors. Pretty good timing. Started out too loud. Tried to go too fast at the peak.

At last, the judges and I agree on the placement. Used soft mallets. Had several semi-tricky visuals. One of the cleaner performers. Several difficult sweeps. He did a good job of selling the solo.

PART 2: COLLEGE TENOR INDIVIDUALS

Carlos Johnson   Judges: 7th place (68.5)   Mine: 8th place (42.3)

ROLL: 25 errors. Started off too loud. Tried to go too fast at the peak.

SOLO: 77 errors. 2 breaks.

Little dynamic contrast. Pretty dirty. A fex nice visual attempts, but he didn't execute them.

Tim Jackson   Judges: 2nd place (88.0)   Mine: 1st place (66.6)

ROLL: 30 errors. Heavy left hand. Started out too loud. Tried to go slightly too fast at the peak.

SOLO: 29 errors. 1 stick drop. 1 break.

Used soft mallets. Some nice sweeps. Several flams. Several risky visuals. The interior beats on his singles were weak. Pretty clean overall. He wasn't the cleanest there, and I would imagine that the stick drop hurt him, but I thought his demand was high enough that he should have won. It was a pretty close contest though.

Nick Werth   Judges: 3rd place (85.0)   Mine: 4th place (62.9)

ROLL: 21 errors.

SOLO: 50 errors. 1 stick drop. 1 break.

Not sure what Nick was thinking on this, but he passed out a copy of his solo at the beginning of the contest with an introduction explaining that his solo was "about nothing and everything all at once". In my opinion, he copped out. He had a recurring theme (a slow 1 2&3 4&1 2&3 pattern on a single drum over and over again), and if it was a recital piece it would have actually worked pretty well. But it was not a competitive solo. He had a lot of tippy tap stuff throughout. Some slow Swiss Army triplets. Some tricky flips. Too much down time. His only dynamic contrast was on the simple parts. He had a lot of rims on the fast parts.

Mike Hodges   Judges: 1st place (91.5)   Mine: 2nd place (64.7)

ROLL: 19 errors. Pretty good timing. Started off too loud. Tried to go too fast at the peak. He had the best roll of the night.

SOLO: 29 errors. 1 break.

Some nice sweeps. Tapped on his stand. He had a lot of time keeping parts. He had an effective use of one-handed rolls (where you rest the stick on the rim and move your wrist up and down, so that you hear a roll between the head and the rim) during time keeping sections. Pretty clean. He had good quality double stroke rolls. He didn't sound like he dropped the second note of the diddles like most everyone else.

David Parks   Judges: 4th place (83.5)   Mine: 5th place (61.9)

ROLL: 20 errors. Started off too loud. Pretty decent control at the peak.

SOLO: 31 errors. 2 breaks.

Several flips. 16th note triplet flam accents were nice. Pretty clean. Not terribly difficult except for a few select sections.

Shane Smith   Judges: 8th place (65.0)   Mine: 6th place (60.4)

ROLL: 13 errors. Way way too short. Started too loud. Tried to go too fast at the peak.

SOLO: 60 errors.

He had some flam drags and several other flam rudiments. Played some yips. Little dynamic contrast. Good variety of rudiments. Decent difficulty.

John White   Judges: 5th place (83.0)   Mine: 3rd place (64.3)

ROLL: 22 errors. Too short. Started off too loud.

SOLO: 39 errors.

Used soft mallets and a brush. Good intro. Too much tippy tap stuff throughout the solo. Some nice attempts. A few tricky visuals. Several flams. He used several recognizable themes, such as The William Tell Overture and Peter Gunn.

Jim Colonna   Judges: 6th place (80.5)   Mine: 7th place (58.4)

ROLL: 24 errors. Too short. Started off too loud.

SOLO: 31 errors.

Some tricky flips in the intro. A lot of tippy tap stuff. No dynamic contrast. Mostly time keeping parts. A few nice sections.

PLACEMENTS:

	Contestant	Judges' Score	My Score	My Placement
1	Mike Hodges	91.5	64.7	2
2	Tim Jackson	88.0	66.6	1
3	Nick Werth	85.0	62.9	4
4	David Parks	83.5	61.9	5
5	John White	83.0	64.3	3
6	Jim Colonna	80.5	58.4	7
7	Carlos Johnson	68.5	42.3	8
8	Shane Smith	65.0	60.4	6

	Contestant	Judges' Score	My Score	My Placement
1	Shane Snyder	91.5	64.0	1
2	Brian Hanley	90.0	46.6	9
3	Kevin Ferriman	86.0	62.9	2
4	Sam Trevathon	81.0	45.9	10
5	Josh Wilson	80.0	61.7	4
6	John/Ian Hunt	79.0	49.3	8
7	David Neil	78.0	56.0	6
8	Daniel Tkacik	77.5	56.5	5
9	Walton Murphy	73.5	53.9	7
10	Chase Storbeck	67.0	62.3	3