Chorus Contest analysis

Hey Chorus!

I really enjoy analyzing stuff, so below is some analysis of our latest contest score in relation to the past and other choruses in our district.  If you’re not into geeky analysis, don’t bother reading.  In short it says we should be very proud of how much we’ve improved.

It’s also hoped that this data can be useful as we decide where we want our chorus to go and what we want it to be.  I believe that with good information, good decisions can be made.

Summary conclusions

• Jumping from 67 to 76.3 in 2 years is phenomenal improvement
• There are choruses that score above 80 with the same number of guys we have.  It's possible, however it looks like it's easier to do with more on the risers.
• The main difference between us and the group that came in 3rd was in the Music category.

Over the past 5 years, 17 different chorus’s have gone up on Contest stage to compete in the Cardinal District.  Some have gone just one time, and others almost every time.  If you look at the average scores for each chorus (excluding Saturday’s), the Cavemen Chorus is the 6^th best chorus in the Cardinal District.   See graph below

In general, chorus’s score pretty close to how they’ve scored in the past at Contest.  That’s why it’s remarkable that we were able to move from 6^th place to 4^th place.

Also note:
·         All top 6 chorus’s competed.
·         We were very close to getting a better score than the Louisville Thoroughbreds and coming in 3^rd place.

It’s very illustrative to look at how much we improved over our average compared to the other top performing chorus’s in the District.

Also note that 5 out of 6 of the chorus’s are improved vs. their historical performance.

In fact, if the Thoroughbreds hadn’t improved by 3.2 points over their historical average, we would have come in 3^rd place easily.

It’s very rare to have that kind of jump in performance.  Our jump is double what the other top choruses have done in the recent past.

Other district comparions

Five other Districts have posted their Fall contest scores.

Cardinal District is an above average District.  We would have placed in the top 3 or better in another District:

Also of note is the location of which chorus’s scored better than us in this year's Fall Contest.

In general, larger metropolitan areas score better than us.

Having 50-60 guys on the risers makes a big difference too.

In the past, Louisville has had 38-40 on the risers, they increased that by 46% for this last Contest.

In contrast, we have also increased our chorus size by 47% since the last couple Contests.

Below is a graph showing a very loose correlation between Score and number on the risers.  In general, every person adds 0.2 to the score.  This correlation held up for the Thoroughbreds, they added 17 people and raised their score by 3.1 which is 0.18 points per person added (pretty close to 0.2)

By that logic, in order to score an 80.0, we would need to have 18 more people – 52 on the risers.  Now, I think we know it’s not just quantity of people, but a lot of other factors that influence the score.  Indeed, by that logic we should have only scored a 69 this time.  I credit our massive increase to more people and significantly better craft.  Nevertheless, more people on the risers would allow the chorus more flexibility and depth.

I looked through the 2012 Fall Contest results and there were 7 chorus’s that scored 79 or greater that had less than 40 members.  It’s possible to get high scores without  huge numbers on the risers, but the larger chorus’s invariably score higher.  Nevertheless, we ought to be able to score 80 or above just with the guys we've got!

Below are our 2013 results in detail:

What I note from this is the following:

• We were consistent across all 3 categories.  The spread from min to max was just 5 points 151 - 156
• We scored best in Singing Bright was the Night
• Our lowest scores were in Music for both songs
• I thought our presentation scores would be our opportunity (guess we looked pretty good).

Now, if you're like me, you might be confused about the difference between the categories.  Here is the quick definition straight from the judges handbook.

You can see that in Presentation and Singing we were pretty much tied with Louisville, they beat us in Music.

Brian's opinion on direction

I think it's important we decide what kind of chorus we want to be.  Getting super high scores may not be our goal.  I really enjoyed watching KVU and Circle City perform their sets, but the amount of work to coordinate that level of choreography and set/costume design must have been enormous.  Personally, I'd rather just sing well and leave the dancing and back flips to others.  If that means we don't win for the District, so be it.  I do believe that perfecting pieces for Contest helps make the other 15 pieces we sing throughout the year better, so going to District Contest is a good thing, it's just not the only thing.

Overall, we should be very proud of our accomplishment.  It’s great to be associated with all of you.

Brian Schuck