The 2009 Bushman Harp contest ended Friday, now the judging starts. John Hall of Bushman is letting the public vote this year. I tuned in and found the usual, a lot of thin toned first position efforts, some attempts at the blues and a few guys pulled out their amps and jam tracks. Most were pretty disappointing. Then I discovered one posted on the forum pages by rbeetsme. I met Rick at the Bean Blossom festival several years ago (met Adam there that same year, in fact, he was with Rick at a jam) and I knew he could play. Wow, he just tossed in a last minute vamp and compared to others he was pure tone! I've heard him play this little tune before and it was a little rough but head and shoulders above the other attempts! I loved the long drawn out note he added at the end, even got his cat going! Everyone should check out the entries, vote for your favorite, I will.
Hi hohnerjones: I wish more people entered the contest. I wonder why they didn't? I believe to vote one must be a member of the forum. I entered my 3 last week. John hasn't uploaded any from then yet. So, you may find some videos more interesting to you showing up in the next few days. One thing you have to remember is a lot of the videos were done on cheap cameras. MSarge for instance, is a hell of a player of old time harp. I got to meet and hear him live at the bean blossom festival this past summer. We get pretty spoiled nowadays with high end productions. Most cheap camera videos, even when they are of big name players, sound pretty bad. If the player didn't have a name for themself, I doubt many would watch them for long...... I respect all the entries because each person had the drive to do it. What I like about the contest is all levels of players and filmakers enter. I am no filmaker and my videos show that. Iam just a wee beginner on this end but John sets up a contest that allows everyone to feel comfortable entering.
here are my three. On the second one, the guy playing the harp isn't me. It is an actor. I had nothing to do with this video, only the music. A filmaker did this one.
walter
---------- walter tore's sponotbeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing.
I don't think all the entries have been updated, I would wait a day or two to check it out. Also the voting rules have not been posted yet that I could see.
from the bushman site. John is a bit behind, so the Jan 4th date will most likely be extended. Voting hasn't started yet because all the videos haven't been uploaded yet:
Entries will not be judged by Bushman Music Works personnel. We will begin accepting votes at 12:01am on Friday, January 1, 2010, and we’ll continue accepting votes until midnight Monday, January 4, 2010. Voters will come from the following groups: A.) Bushman Music Forum Members – see our forums, B.) Anyone who submits an entry into the contest may vote, C.) All customers of Bushman Music Works, and finally, D.) Anyone who signs up to receive the free Bushman Music Works Harmonica or Ukulele Newsletter by filling out one of our newsletter forms like the one here, may vote. We hope voters judge the videos on the following criteria: entertainment value, technical ability, creative video presentation, and humor. In the past, when Bushman personnel judged the contest, "Entertainment Value" was the most heavily weighted factor. With each video we judged the first question we asked ourselves was, "Would we go out of our way to watch the video again?" Skilled players could win, but they couldn’t beat skilled players who were also creative entertainers. Now the judging will be left up to the public; it will be interesting to see what happens. Ten "Honorable Mentions" will be awarded to contestants who show outstanding enthusiasm. ---------- walter tore's sponotbeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing.
i had videos done and ready to load on my hard drive, but between youtube and maybe a not great internet connection, i necer got one loaded. apparently youtube doesn't like .MOV files, and i couldn't justify buying conversion software just for this one event. in early december, i initially did get 2 .MOV's on our youtube page, then had a free trial software set that i converted to .MP4, and loaded them in about mid december, but since we then had camera issues that took a week or 2 to resolve, i basically ran out of time and resources. i am gonna get all this straight both so we can keep uploading vids to our youtube page and so i can enter the HPC3 by the end of the month. and when next year's bushman contest rolls around i will definitely be ready!
i do look forward to seeing all the videos in the contest and voting also!
