Adjudication and Judge Feedback: The Staff Perspective
Adjudication is one of the most important educational tools in the marching arts when it is understood and used properly. For staff members, judge feedback should not be viewed only as a score explanation or a reaction to placement. It should be treated as one part of the larger process of helping students, designers, and instructors understand how the program is being communicated from the audience perspective.
At FMBC, adjudication is intended to provide evaluation, perspective, and direction. Judges are not there to rewrite your show, diminish your students’ work, or validate every decision you have made. Their role is to assess what is being presented, respond to what is clear or unclear, and offer feedback that can help guide continued growth.
As a staff member, your responsibility is to know how to receive that feedback, interpret it honestly, and apply it in a way that supports your students.
Understand What Judges Are Evaluating
Before you can use judge feedback effectively, you need to understand what judges are actually responding to.
Judges evaluate what they see and hear in the performance moment. They are not evaluating your intent, your rehearsal process, your long-term plan, or what the show is supposed to become later in the season. They are responding to the version of the production that is presented on that day, in that performance, under those conditions.
That distinction matters.
As a staff member, you may know that a musical phrase is still being developed, that a transition was recently changed, or that a visual idea will make more sense once additional staging is added. The judge may not know that, and they should not be expected to evaluate based on information they do not have.
You should listen to feedback through that lens. If a judge does not understand something, it does not automatically mean they missed the point. It may mean the idea is not reading clearly enough yet. That feedback can be useful, even when it is difficult to hear.
Treat Feedback as Perspective, Not Permission
Judge feedback should inform your process, but it should not control every decision you make.
As a staff member, you should be willing to listen carefully without feeling the need to immediately change everything. A judge’s perspective can reveal clarity issues, achievement concerns, pacing problems, balance challenges, or design opportunities. However, one comment from one performance should not automatically override the direction of the program.
The key is to separate reaction from reflection.
After receiving feedback, ask yourself:
Does this comment match something we have already noticed?
Is this a repeated concern from multiple judges or captions?
Is the issue related to design, achievement, communication, or performance consistency?
Does the feedback apply to where we are now, or where we intend to go?
Would making this change help the students perform the show more clearly?
You do not need to agree with every comment in order to learn from it. You also do not need to reject feedback simply because it does not match your original intent. The best staffs are able to listen with enough confidence to stay grounded and enough humility to recognize when something needs attention.
Know the Difference Between Design Feedback and Achievement Feedback
One of the most useful things you can do after a show is determine whether the feedback is primarily about design or achievement.
Design feedback usually addresses what the show is asking the performers to communicate. This may include pacing, staging, musical effect, visual composition, transitions, development of ideas, or whether the program concept is being communicated clearly.
Achievement feedback usually addresses how well the performers are executing what has been written. This may include timing, tone quality, blend, articulation, body control, interval spacing, accuracy, energy, or consistency of training.
As a staff member, you need to identify which type of feedback you are receiving before deciding what to do next. If the issue is design-related, more cleaning alone may not solve it. You may need to adjust staging, clarify a transition, strengthen a musical moment, or reconsider how an idea develops.
If the issue is achievement-related, changing the design may not be necessary. The students may simply need more time, better training, clearer responsibilities, or more consistent rehearsal expectations.
Misreading the type of feedback can lead to unnecessary changes. A design problem cannot always be fixed through repetition, and an achievement problem does not always require rewriting the show.
Avoid Turning the Next Rehearsal Into a Panic Response
After receiving judge feedback, it can be tempting to walk into the next rehearsal with a long list of urgent corrections. While that reaction is understandable, it is not always productive.
You should avoid turning the next rehearsal into a reaction to every comment from every judge. Students can quickly become overwhelmed if the staff presents feedback as a pile of problems instead of a clear path forward.
As a staff member, your job is to organize the information. You should decide what matters most, what can wait, and what needs to be addressed immediately.
A better approach is to identify a few priorities:
What is affecting the overall clarity of the program?
What is holding back student confidence?
What is preventing the ensemble from achieving at a higher level?
What feedback connects directly to our current rehearsal goals?
What can we realistically improve before the next performance?
When you narrow the focus, students are more likely to understand the next step. They do not need to hear every judge's comment. They need to know what the staff has learned and how that information will help them improve.
Help Students Understand Feedback Without Carrying the Weight of Scores
Students should learn from the adjudication process, but they do not need to carry the emotional weight of every number, ranking, or critique.
As a staff member, you should be thoughtful about how you share judge feedback with your ensemble. Students can benefit from understanding broad themes, major priorities, and areas of growth. However, they may not need every detail of every tape, especially if the comments are technical, design-focused, or directed primarily at the staff.
Your role is to translate feedback into student-appropriate action.
EXAMPLE 1
Instead of saying:
“The judge said our visual program is not reading.”
You might say:
“We need to make our visual responsibilities clearer so the audience can understand the effect we are trying to create.”
EXAMPLE 2:
Instead of saying:
“Our music score was lower because of balance issues.”
You might say:
“Our next step is improving how we listen across the ensemble so the musical moments connect more clearly.”
That distinction matters. You are not hiding information from students. You are framing it in a way that helps them grow instead of making them feel judged by the process.
Listen for Patterns Across Captions
One of the most valuable ways to use adjudication is to look for patterns across the full panel. A single comment may be useful, but repeated themes are usually more important. If multiple judges are identifying similar concerns, that is worth your attention. If music, visual, and effect judges are all pointing toward clarity, pacing, or achievement issues, the staff should take that seriously.
As a staff member, you should review feedback with the full picture in mind. Do not isolate each judge’s comments as separate pieces of information. Look at how the comments connect.
For example, if a music judge discusses ensemble timing, a visual judge discusses unclear transitions, and an effect judge discusses loss of momentum, those may not be three unrelated issues. They may all point to a larger concern about pacing and performer responsibilities.
The strongest use of judge feedback comes from finding those connections. That allows you to make more informed decisions instead of chasing individual comments.
Remember That Judges Respond to Communication
In the marching arts, design and performance are both forms of communication. The audience and judges can only respond to what is made clear to them.
As a staff member, you may have a deep understanding of the show’s concept, structure, and emotional intent. However, the audience does not have access to your planning meetings. Judges do not know every internal decision behind the production. The performance itself has to communicate the idea.
If a judge is not understanding a moment, your first question should not always be, “Why didn’t they get it?” A more useful question is, “How clearly are we presenting it?”
That does not mean every judge's comment is automatically correct. It also does not mean your program needs to become obvious or simplistic. But it does mean that clarity matters. If an idea is important, you should make sure the performers, staging, pacing, and musical choices are helping that idea read.
Stay Professional in How You Respond
You will not agree with every judge comment. No staff does. There will be times when feedback feels incomplete, inconsistent, or misaligned with what you believe the program is trying to accomplish.
Even then, your response matters.
As a staff member, you set the tone for how students, parents, and other staff members view the adjudication process. If you dismiss judges casually, speak negatively about the panel, or make the process seem unfair every time the numbers do not go your way, students learn to avoid accountability instead of learning how to evaluate their work.
You can disagree professionally. You can question feedback thoughtfully. You can decide not to act on a comment. But you should model the kind of maturity you want your students to develop.
The adjudication process works best when staffs engage with it seriously, even when they do not agree with every outcome.
Use Feedback to Strengthen the Program, Not Just the Score
It is easy to view judge feedback only through the lens of competitive results. Scores and placements matter in a competitive environment, but they should not be the only reason you listen. The best use of feedback is to strengthen the program itself.
As a staff member, you should ask how the comments can help your students perform with more clarity, confidence, and understanding. You should consider how the feedback can help the design team communicate more effectively. You should use it to refine the rehearsal process, improve training, and make better decisions from week to week.
When feedback is used well, it becomes more than a score explanation. It becomes part of the educational structure of the season.
Our Overview
Adjudication is not meant to replace your staff’s judgment, and it is not meant to define your students’ worth. It is a structured opportunity to receive an outside perspective on how your program is being achieved and communicated.
As a staff member, you should approach judge feedback with professionalism, patience, and perspective. Listen for what is useful. Look for patterns. Separate design concerns from achievement concerns. Translate feedback into clear student action. Stay grounded in the long-term growth of the ensemble.
The goal is not to chase every comment. The goal is to "understand" what the performance is communicating and use that information to help your students take the next step.
About Eric Levy: Currently serving as the Director of Education & Marketing for the Florida Marching Band Championships and a percussion educator, designer, adjudicator, and arts leader with more than 25 years of experience in the marching arts. His work has included teaching, designing, judging, presenting, and developing programs for marching bands, drumlines, colleges, arts organizations, and performance programs in the United States and internationally. His collegiate experience includes work with multiple colleges and universities across programs affiliated with the Big Ten, ACC, HBCU institutions, and other collegiate music and marching arts programs. In addition to his work with FMBC, Eric is active in music education, program development, leadership training, marketing, and arts administration. Through his educational work, he focuses on helping students, educators, and organizations better understand the systems, standards, leadership practices, and culture that support successful and sustainable performing arts programs.
About FMBC: The Florida Marching Band Championships is Florida’s premier marching band circuit, dedicated to showcasing excellence in musical and visual performance. Since 1998, FMBC has celebrated the talents of thousands of student musicians, providing a platform for growth, achievement, and community through the marching arts.
For media inquiries or more information, please contact: media@fmbcstate.com
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