[Bards] Differing Styles

[Pat Mullins]

Personally, I like "different styles" competitions. I can tell a story pretty well, I can perform poetry, I even do bits from Shakespeare (a play, [style number 4] even written in iambic pentameter, is a play, not a poem ), but I can't (and usually don't) sing a note. I know that my pretty good poem and my pretty good story, which would be beat by a great song, can compete pretty well against a great song and a poor story. 
As far as the audience, it has been my observation in most bardic competitions I have attended in recent years that the audience is frequently composed only of judges and competitors.
Finally, this may be my personal bias as a non-singer, but it seems to me that in  best piece or any style competitions, a great singer will usually, if not always, beat a great storyteller or poet, all other things being equal. Is a performer who can sing three songs very well a better bard than a performer who can perform a piece of Beowulf from memory, part of Shakespeare's Henry V, and a No S**T There I Was story, all done well?
Maybe we could have a Best Singer competition, AND a Best Storyteller competition, AND a Best Poet Competition,  AND a Best Actor competition, AND a best Juggler competition, AND... AND... And a Best All-Around Bard competition. 
Until then I have some suggestions for those who don't like "Differing Styles" competitions:
1. Get better at a differing style
2. Wait for a best piece or open competition
3. Lose
Just my two cents worth,
Lord Paedric OMullan

P.S. Are Beowulf and a Shakespearean sonnet REALLY the same style?
Brian O'hUilliam <brianoftheloch at gmail.com> wrote: You make a decent point, however, wouldn't a storyteller benefit from learning rhythm by doing poetry?  Couldn't that help them learn pacing and word stress better?  Remember, poem and story are classified as two different styles, so it would not be necessary for someone who is tone deaf to sing. 
  
 On another note, great post Robin!
  
 Brian

 
 On 10/3/07, Melody Soice <melodysoice at hotmail.com> wrote:  I really should not reply to this because Master Robin has given a beautiful and wonderfully correct answer.
  
 SNIPPED

  Selfish fool that I am, I WANT TO BE ENTERTAINED!  I would far rather see someone perform 3 pieces in the same manner if it plays to their strength, rather than hear a single story teller singing off-pitch.  That is torture, not entertainment. 

Someone tell me again, why we have to be diverse for the sake of diversity?  Why can we simply not do what we do well, what others enjoy hearing us do, and strive to constantly better the areas we CAN master instead of being forced into areas we will never be even decent in. 

<Sigh> I know.  I should have kept my mouth shut.

Melody
(who is going back to lurking now)

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