Drum Competition Part 2: Scoring Tough

It never felt so bad to win…

In a previous email I told you about the one kid that beat me my freshmen year at my first drum competition. You know “Mr. Happy Feet” double pedal guy! Well, over the next three years we ended up at almost every single competition together. We actually became somewhat friends because we were around each other so much.

I remember one competition in particular. We were tearing down all our gear and loading it up. A representative came around and handed out all the judge’s packets which, contained the judge’s scores and notes, as well as audio tapes of their critiques as we played our solos.

He opened his and was obviously disappointed with what he saw. He said, “Man, they were really judging tough today.” When I asked what they gave him, he replied, “78.” As I opened my packet he came and stood right next to me. At the top of the sheet in bright red marker it said “96.” Ouch.

I had never felt so bad winning as I did at that moment. All I could muster was, “Sorry man.”