Solo Competition: What It Is, Where It’s Run and How It’s Judged

A solo vocal or instrumental performance in which one musician plays or sings a prepared piece alone and is rated on technique, musicality and presentation.

Solo is the simplest music item a festival can run: one performer, one prepared piece, one adjudicator or panel. The performer may sing or play an instrument, and the item name says nothing about style, so a coordinator decides which instruments and voices are welcome. Nothing is shared with a band or choir, so every note, pause and wrong turn is the performer’s own.

On the eTalenter templates the title is used in several different ways. A school music festival template built from a United States state association’s published rules carries it as one of three event types beside Regular Ensemble and Special Ensemble, open to any gender, as an On Stage item scored as Marks. Other templates, built for community and talent-test events, carry a Solo item inside a Music, Oral or On Stage category, sometimes marked as a rating out of 10 instead of marks.

A round is short and orderly. The performer is called up, introduces the piece (or has it announced), performs it within the time the organiser has set, and leaves while the adjudicator writes comments. At a rated festival the performer is measured against a written standard rather than against the other entrants, so many solos can earn the top rating on the same day. At a ranked event the highest total simply wins.

Organisers keep Solo because it is cheap and flexible. It needs a stage, a music stand or accompanist where permitted, and a clear schedule, yet it covers every skill level from a first-year pupil to an advanced student. It also feeds the rest of the programme: ensemble players usually enter a solo as well, and the results show a teacher which pupils are ready for harder repertoire.

Where Solo is run

On eTalenter the item appears in six templates: a school solo and ensemble music festival, and several community, Sunday-school and talent-test templates that run it as a music or oral item. The solo and ensemble format itself is a long-standing feature of school music education in the United States, where students perform for a single adjudicator and receive a written rating. Other countries run similar graded solo classes, but each event sets its own repertoire rules, time limits and scoring, so coordinators should follow the rules of the event they are running.

• United States
• Other countries (community and talent-test events)

Key facts

• Individual entry: one performer, one piece
• Open to singers and instrumentalists; the organiser decides which are accepted
• On the school festival template it is one of three event types: Solo, Regular Ensemble and Special Ensemble
• Scored as Marks on most templates, and as a rating out of 10 on one talent-test template
• A school-festival entry is classified by years of experience, not age, so a Class C entrant can be older than a Class A one
• The school-festival standard uses ratings against a fixed standard rather than placements, so several solos can earn the same top rating

On eTalenter, Solo is filed under Music, On Stage, Oral and typically scored with Marks, Rating out of 10. It appears in 6 ready-made event templates — each one can adjust its time limit, age-group assignment and scoring setup independently.

Across the templates that use it, Solo is most often entered as an Individual competition, commonly run for Female, typically scored out of 100, commonly time-limited to around 3 minutes where a limit is set.

What judges look at in Solo

What a Solo panel is actually weighing up, and where the marks are usually won or lost:

• Tone and intonation: a steady, characteristic sound and notes that are in tune, since these are the first things any adjudicator hears
• Rhythm and tempo: a pulse that holds through difficult passages and a tempo that suits the piece rather than the performer’s nerves
• Technique: fingering, bowing, breath control or articulation at a level that matches the entrant’s class, not the hardest piece they could attempt
• Musical interpretation: phrasing, dynamics and style that show the performer understands the piece instead of merely getting through it
• Preparation and accuracy: correct notes and rhythms from memory or the printed part, with no stops or restarts
• Presentation: posture, a calm entrance and a clean finish, which shape the first and last impression

Treat these as the judging focus, not a fixed rubric: publish your own weighted criteria for Solo under Scoring Setup, or start from the full solo performance judging criteria guide.

How to prepare for Solo

How entrants and their teachers usually get Solo right on the day:

• Pick a piece that suits your class: a clean performance of a moderate piece beats a shaky attempt at a showpiece
• Learn the piece slowly with a metronome first, then raise the tempo only when every note is secure
• Record yourself and listen back for pitch drift, rushed passages and breaths in the wrong place before you rehearse with a teacher
• Practise the whole performance, including walking on, tuning, and starting after a brief pause, because the entrance is part of the first impression
• If an accompanist is allowed, rehearse with them at least twice and agree where you will watch for cues
• Check the rules for your event on repertoire lists, memory and time limits well ahead, so a technical breach never costs you the rating

Frequently asked questions

Is Solo judged individually or as a team?

Across eTalenter’s templates it’s most often run as an Individual entry, commonly for Female, though an organiser can set either participation type when assigning the item to an age group.

What is the difference between Solo and Ensemble?

A Solo has one performer. An ensemble has two or more performing together. On the school festival template there are separate Regular Ensemble and Special Ensemble items for groups, and Solo stays a one-person event.

Is a Solo ranked against other entrants?

It depends on the event. The school festival template models ratings against a fixed standard with no placements, so several soloists can earn the same top rating. Other templates mark the performance and rank by total.

Can I enter more than one Solo?

That is the organiser’s rule. The school festival the template is built from caps the number of events a student may enter, so check the entry limit for your festival before registering.

Does age matter in a Solo class?

On the school festival template it does not: entries are classified by years of musical experience, not by age or grade, so classes are Class C, Class B and Class A. Other templates may group by age.

Want the full judging picture? Read the full solo performance judging criteria guide, or browse every music competition item.