The 30th annual Minnesota State Old Time Fiddle Championships will be held in the Cotton, MN high school auditorium August 5th & 6th, 2011. Eliminations on Friday, Championship round on Saturday.
This contest draws many very fine fiddlers from around the mid west and Canada. Hope to see you all there!
12 Comments |
 | kubasa says:
2/4/2011 11:31:47 AM
I hope to see you there too, Tim. How's the winter in OH? Lots of snow up our way.
James
|
 | TimK says:
2/4/2011 12:08:12 PM
I'm near Lake Erie so we've been blanked with lake effect white stuff for quite awhile. Temps in the single digit to teens. Nothing like "up north" but everyone here complains. I just tell them cold is relative :) I'll look forward to seeing you in Cotton when the weather is much nicer! You gonna enter the contest this year?
|
| kubasa says:
2/7/2011 5:14:01 AM
Hi Tim - I've thought about entering. I'm still thinking about it. This summer is going to be crazy at work so I'll see how it all goes. There were some really good fiddlers there last year - including you.
|
 | martynspeck says:
2/8/2011 8:27:11 AM
How does the competition go? How good do you have to be to "belong" on the stage?
|
| TimK says:
2/8/2011 9:05:03 AM
Elimination round is Friday. Top four scores in each age group come back on Sat. for championship round. Top five scores overall (regardless of age group) from Friday round go into the Championship round the rest compete for their division. Based on your age, you'd be in the intermediate division. This division usually has the the least number of entries. Last year there were two if I remember correctly. If there are less than four in an age group, they would all come back on Sat.
|
| kubasa says:
2/8/2011 9:11:28 AM
Tim can probably answer this question better than me. In my opinion, there were all different levels represented. However, I felt there was a pretty good jump in skills when it came to the folks in the Championship division. I keep hoping that they will put some videos online of this competition. That would definitely answer your question.
|
| kubasa says:
2/8/2011 9:14:12 AM
Say, Tim have you ever gone to the workshops on Saturday? Are they playing workshops or demonstrations? Just curious.
|
| TimK says:
2/8/2011 10:39:54 AM
I went to the workshop for the first time last year. There were only two people there besides the instructor. He taught a Canadian tune breaking it down into sections and phrases played slowly and repeated until it was learned. I guess you'd call that a playing workshop.
As for the question how good do you have to be to belong on stage; like James said, there are many different levels of skills. The championship round is the best of the best so the competition is usually close and intense as you'd expect from "the best". In the various age groups it really depends on a number of variables, the skills of the players, number of contestants, experience, nerves or lack thereof, the accompanyment, judges and how well one plays on a given night. Considering all this, some players with less skill can make it to the championship round. IMO, if you get through the Friday elimination round, you deserve to be on stage regardless of where you finish. It's a contest, anything can happen. Just jump right in and let the chips fall where they may. I first entered this contest in about 1992 and did not make the finals until 2004. Since then I have made the final every year and won my division in 2009. It's a learning experience, have fun and enjoy the ride :)
DMiller has also participated and won this contest, perhaps he'll add his thoughts.
|
| TimK says:
7/27/2011 6:14:00 AM
The Minnesota Old Time Fiddle Championships are comming up next weekend in Cotton. Hope to see some of you there!
|
| martynspeck says:
8/2/2011 8:27:20 AM
Shoot! We were just up along the North Shore. Don't think we can go back and catch MBOTMA the following weekend.
|
 | clawhammermike says:
8/30/2011 6:11:18 PM
what workshops? I saw no workshops.
|
| TimK says:
8/31/2011 4:49:47 AM
I don't think there were any workshops offered this year. The turn out has been pretty low for them so they dropped them.
|
Post a Comment
|
You must be logged in and a member of this group to post a comment.
|
