New York State School Music Association

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The New York State School Music Association (NYSSMA) is a professional organization that tests New York State elementary and secondary students in music. Each spring, New York students attend NYSSMA Evaluation Festivals to be adjudicated. These festivals take place at local high schools within the fifteen NYSSMA Zones, each of which cover an area in New York State. Usually, county high schools take it in turns to host the festival every few years. At each festival, hundreds of students go before music professionals to perform solos they have prepared, along with scales and sight reading. The judges grade the students according to defined guidelines set by NYSSMA. They also write comments, which are returned to the students later along with their grade. The grades are then certified and sent to the school that each child attends, as well as logged by the state. Auditions take place for both soloists and groups, in categories including voice, percussion, and band/orchestra instrumental. Also during the spring is the NYSSMA JAZZ Evaluation Festival where students are graded the same way as normal NYSSMA but in a Jazz form of music.

NYSSMA scores are taken into account when students are considered for selective All-County, Area All-State, and All-State orchestras within New York. They may also be used by their music teachers for other purposes, such as diagnostics and progress testing.

[edit] Judgement Criteria

Please help improve this section by expanding it.
Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion.

Participants in all categories perform a solo selected from the NYSSMA Manual, and demonstrate sight reading from original music provided by NYSSMA at the audition itself. Non-vocal soloists also must play scales, the number and rhythm of which are determined by level. They are judged on seven categories, which are tone, intonation, technique, accuracy, interpretation, scales, and sight reading.

Vocal soloists (Levels I - IV) are judged on seven categories: TONE (Quality, Consistency, Projection), INTONATION, TECHNIQUE (Breath Control, Flexibility, Posture, Appropriate Range), DICTION (Vowels, Consonants, Naturalness), ACCURACY (Accuracy of Notes, Accuracy of Rhythms, Steadiness of Rhythms, Pulse, INTERPRETATION (Dynamics, Style, Tempo, Phrasing, Expression, Artistry, Stage Presence) and SIGHTREADING (Accuracy of Dynamics, Accuracy of Notes, Accuracy of Rhythm).

[edit] Levels and Grading System

There are a total of six levels, each depending on the child's level of accomplishment in their certain field of music. Levels I through IV are scored on a scale of 0 to 28, while levels V and VI are scored from 0 to 100. On the NYSSMA Evaluation Sheet, on which the judges mark their scores, each of seven categories are defined and alloted a certain number of these 28 or 100 points. For example, on Level V and VI String Solos, tone is worth 20 points, intonation 10, technique 20, accuracy 15, interpretation 20, scales 5, and sight reading 10.

The content of the sight reading, which is provided by NYSSMA and kept relatively secret from the public, is dependent on which instrument (including voice) is being performed and what level it is being performed at. Similarly, the number of prepared scales varies according to level: levels I and II require knowledge of three scales, III and IV require seven, and V and VI require fifteen scales. With levels I-IV, the student chooses which scales he or she will prepare by circling them on the Evaluation Sheet; on the higher levels it is understood that students must know all the major scales. The judge chooses three, from among the indicated scales, for the student to actually perform.

Some students wish to forgo the numerical rating entirely in favor of a completely comment-based evaluation. Such students indicate this before the audition by checking the "Festival" box on the Evaluation Sheet. They must still perform all the required components of the audition, but the judge does not score the performance.