#50 Contest, part two.

Remember that post about the judges at music contests? Remember that? Wasn't that great? Wasn't that the funniest thing you ever read?
(If you're feeling left out right now, that was the last post. Scroll down a bit, you'll see it.)
Anyway, this post is about the musicians at music contests, because without them, there would be no music contests. Judging contests, perhaps, but not music.
Anyway, there are four main types you should watch for...

1. The guy who's really expressive with his body.
Have we covered this before? There will always be somebody who does this. They aren't necessarily good musicians, either. They could be thinking one of several things. "I hope all this breakdancing will distract the judge from my horrible playing," "I wonder if they'll count me down for bad posture?" and (from the pianists), "I don't care how this looks, my rear end is asleep and I have to move around a bit," are just a few.

2. The person who's really awesome and makes the rest of us feel inferior.
This is one good reason not to listen to anybody else's performance. If you do, you'll end up picking the one guy who's been playing the glass armonica and the marimba at the SAME TIME since he was two days old, while you don't even know what a glass armonica is (that deserves its own post) and you thought that "marimba" was an African language. You'll probably end up depressed and quit your instrument. Poor you.

3. The person who freaks out.
Everybody should feel sorry for this person. It's not her fault that she can't handle the pressure of these things. She's probably been shaking and sweating and regretting for a whole week, and hasn't slept the whole time, and when she gets up in front of people she just loses it. Here's what this person is thinking the whole time: "Ok, it's ok, I'm ok, I'm prepared, I've practiced a hundred million times, I've got this, what am I holding? An OBOE?! I don't play the OBOE! Do I? Well, I don't now, anyway. OH MY GOODNESS they just called my name! Was that my name? I can't remember my name! Why do we even HAVE names? What am I holding? Nothing? Where did my instrument go? Why does my cousin have it? Give me that! What song am I playing? I hope my family doesn't mind if I freak out and run away, which would mean driving fourteen hours here was for nothing..."
And then she passes out.
What? Why is the failure a girl, you ask? Nothing against them, it's just that...girls are more prone to faint.

4. The guy who just sits there and plays his music, like normal.
Lame, I know, but these people are ALL OVER THE PLACE. There's even one who lives in my house. These people don't do anything particularly bad, but the judges have to criticize SOMETHING, so they put on the score sheet, "WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU, YOU CRAZY UNMUSICAL FREAK?! YOU JUST SAT THERE, AND PLAYED YOUR MUSIC, LIKE NORMAL!"
At least, they should.