Twin lakes, Fishers, Dekalb, Northridge, Ben Davis, mooresville, North Central, Avon, Carroll, and East Noble were qualifiers this year.
Thanks. The Mooresville competition was never fully posted on here, but I fixed that. Washington must have qualified via that competition! Thanks for the help.
Women's finals:
9th: Anderson Prep
8th: East Noble
7th: Washington
6th: Bishop Dwenger
5th: New Palestine
4th: Fairfield
3rd: Northridge
2nd: DeKalb
GC: Plainfield
Best Vocals: DeKalb
Best Visuals: Plainfield
Best Band: Northridge
Thanks! Out of curiosity, how did Washington "Accents" qualify for ISSMA? According to their record on here, they didn't attend an ISSMA qualifier. But then again, Indiana is a big show choir state with a lot going on so did we miss a competition or something?
This is gonna be a bloodbath for those top spots. For the mixed, you have Fairfield, Northridge, Plainfield, DeKalb, and Dwenger that have all had fantastic years. In the women's division, Northridge, Plainfield, and DeKalb are always incredibly strong and this year is no exception. So excited to see all these shows! :D
I just wanted to say I was extremely impressed with Fairfield, IN this year! I had never really heard of them until Northridge this year and didn't see them until Huntington North and I was blown away! They have amazing vocals and they were very clean! Congratulations on making state, I'm not really surprised though, you guys rock.
Yep...you have to go to a qualifier, you have to submit whatever your highest ISSMA qualifier score is (meaning you can go to 5 qualifiers, but only your group's highest score at any of the qualifiers will be considered), and they put the top 9 groups into a hat and draw. I'm guessing that there was a tie for 9th, which put in a 10th choir this year.
I'll explain the ISSMA scoresheet a little more in-depth. There are two sheets, visual and vocal. Each is split into three categories - Technique, Artistry, and Effect. Each is worth 100 points, for a total possible score of 300 from a single judge. Inside each section is what I can only describe as a rubric, separated into 6 boxes, 1-5 with 3 split into 3a and 3b. 1 is impossibly bad with no redeeming qualities, 5 is impossibly good with absolutely no room for improvement. In practice 1 and 5 are almost never used; I've never seen a sheet that had a score in either range. 3 is split into two because it is expected that since that is the middle, most choirs will fall somewhere in that range, so it is more specific as to what will go where. Each box has a numerical range assigned to it... something like box 1 is 0-5, 2 is 15-30, 3a is 30-50, 3b is 50-70, 4 is 70-95, 5 is 95-100 - made up ranges, but you get the idea). Judges select from statements that apply for each choir (for example, if we're talking about pitch, it might go from "box 1: Choir never is at the correct pitch, 3a and 3b would be the low and high end of average, respectively, and box 5 would be choir is always at the correct pitch with absolutely no instances where sound is off pitch), select a number that fits inside the box that the choir appears in most often for that section, and add up the three sections.
Once each judge has a score out of 300, visual scores are averaged with each other, as are vocal scores. This gives an overall score. Then, the vocal score is multiplied by .6 and the visual score is multiplied by .4, to give a 60% weight to vocals and 40% weight to visuals. The result is a final composite score out of 300, which is what is ranked at competitions.
So an example: Choir A gets an 84, 87, 79 from Visual A; 80, 77, 80 from Visual B; 70, 68, 73 from Vocal A, 80, 69, 77 from Vocal B. Visual A's score is 260, Visual B's score is 237, Vocal A's score is 211, Vocal B's score is 226. Choir A's overall visual score after averaging is 248.5, vocal score after averaging is 218.5. Then, after the weights are applied, we're left with a weighted visual of 131.1, weighted vocal of 99.4, and the total composite score is 230.5.
Good Lord is this unbelievably complicated to explain. In practice, once the scoring spreadsheet is made that does all the math, it's really easy to score and tabulate...punch some numbers into the spreadsheet, it does all the math for you, you're left with a score.
I'm not in love with ISSMA's take on the scoresheet, but it's certainly an interesting take on how to score a competition.
You also have to apply and send your scores into ISSMA I believe. They let you know the Sunday before the competition if you qualified. A few years ago, I went to an ISSMA qualifying competition and we won our division, but we did not apply because the competition date fell during our spring break.
There are so many excellent groups in Indiana that choose not to participate. For us, it seems we always have conflicts. Maybe someday.
Congrats to Anderson Prep Academy's Bel Canto. I am so proud of us, ladies. Our first year competing, our first school year as a show choir, even, and we make it to state? Wow. That's something! I'm proud to be apart of Anderson Prep Bel Canto && the Collective.
I don't know all the specific qualifications, but I know that certain invitationals use ISSMA score sheets. (Bishop Dwenger's qualifiers were DeKalb and Carroll, but there are many others.) I believe State usually takes the top ten Indiana choirs with the highest scores to compete. It doesn't usually have to do with making finals at any of the competitions, it's basically just the scores from the judges.
I have no idea why the mixed groups have 10 choirs and the girls have 9... I don't know that this has happened before because I'm pretty sure it's usually the same number for both.
It is super confusing. Haha. There are various ISSMA State Qualification sites throughout the regular season. They compile all of the scores for the groups from those sites and the top 9 scores are selected to compete. If a group wishes to compete in ISSMA State they have to apply first as not all of the groups that compete at ISSMA sanctioned events wish to participate in ISSMA State.
Prior to 2009 they simply had 1 division in which large and small school groups competed together. I believe 12 groups were selected to compete in this. In 2009, they split it into 2 divisions with 9 groups in each division.
Would any Hoosier be so kind to explain the qualification requirements? I'm not too familiar with ISSMA and I was looking around a bit on the site when setting these events up, but didn't see anything. I know that there are various Indiana competitions throughout the competitive season that are specifically ISSMA-qualifiers. Does a group have to achieve a certain score in order to qualify? Do they have to just make finals? What does that look like?
I'm also curious, although this could just be a coincidence, does ISSMA usually only allow 9 competitors? Prior to "Crimson Heat" being added to the line-up, there were 9 small mixed, 9 small women, 9 large mixed, and 9 large women groups.
Since the small school and large school ISSMA competitions are held at different sites they will be separate events on here. The Large School Discussion can be found by clicking here.
Please continue your ISSMA Small School discussion here.
Indiana State Small School Finals 2013
