Hi Stephen,
Although I have a rather strong and unwavering opinion about guitar competitions, did you enjoy the experience yourself? Would you do it again? And... is it just me, or is there a disturbing trend of Don Ross-heads (clones) winning this thing year-after-year?
Hi Warren,
Music, (dance, ice skating...) competitions can be very subjective, biased and the outcome totally without merit. I did Odessa last year for my wife. She seems to think I have talent and wants me to play out, even record a CD. I thought that playing in the competition would show whether or not she was right. It also gave me a series of goals. The biggest of which was to get over my stage fright.
Last year I was a nervous wreck and made lots of mistakes. So it was a big surprise to me when I learned that I had finished 12th. However, there was a very wide range of talent and playing styles. That may have helped my finishing just shy of the top ten. So to answer your questions, I had a BLAST! So much so that I had to enter again this year and will do so again next year. I haven't thought about seeing if there are other competitions around. If I looked and found a couple to enter I might find that they are not as much fun.
This year with the calibre of talent being so high I knew right off I didn't have a chance. So, with no pressure to score high I just let the music flow and enjoyed playing all that much more. And the camaraderie amongst the players gets better each year. I remember seeing guys giving each other the evil eye and playing head games back in 2004. But I saw none of that last year or this.
I'm not sure I agree with your assessment about the DR clones. It is a "Fingerstyle" competition after all. So, you have to expect lots of hammering, tapping, harmonics and bongo hits. So yes, the winners have been more in the "current vein" rather than say that of a Chet Atkins. But if you check out their music you'll see they each have their own unique styles.
RobertTaylor 2004
ErickTurnbull 2005
AntoineDuFour 2006
CraigDAndrea 2007
And the runners up have included people from as a diverse group as you can get. Kelly Valleau (2nd in 2006) is strictly a nylon stringed classical player. He doesn't even like to pick up a steel stringed instrument, (until he played my guitar "Fast Eddie"). And
David Gillis (top five two years running) is more of a singer, song writer in the Paul Simon / Bob Dylan vein.
come on, try it... you'll like it:banana:
