Nobody missed a beat this year at the instrumental competition held during Tuesday's indoor events at Spirit Week 2008.

Each class featured one student who displayed their musical talent by playing an instrument of their choice.

The four classes showcased skills with different instruments: Freshmen Angelina Todaro played the violin; Sophomore Drew Wood played the trumpet; Junior Matt Kotowski played the electric keyboard; and Senior Jake Pardee played the guitar.

The participants had to learn a song within a short amount of time, put their own twist on the song, and perform the piece in front of the whole school. The instrumental competition, considered by some to be one of the hardest events during Spirit Week, seemed to cause no sweat for the seasoned musicians who participated in the event.

Although it was her first Spirit Week event, Todaro thought that the instrumental event “wasn’t that hard.” The best part of the competition, she said, was the fact that the song chosen (the classic "Take Me Out to the Ball Game").

“I knew the song before hand, so it wasn’t that difficult to learn,” Todaro told The Tiger Transcript.

Todaro wasn’t the only one who believed that the competition wasn’t that hard; Junior Matt Kotowski also had no trouble with the event.

“I kind of knew what was involved with the competition, so I had an idea of what I needed to do,” said Kotowski, who boasts considerable piano training. “I’ve been playing the piano for 11 years, so site reading isn’t that hard for me. It took me a few tries, but I finally got the song.”

Although the competition was easy for those who participated in it, the event wasn’t so easy to judge. A group of teachers were chosen to judge the instrumental event. One of those teachers was math teacher Sherrie Whitman, a substitute judge this year who enjoyed judging the competition despite the difficulty.

“Judging was pretty subjective, because not many of us judges have a musical background,” Whitman said.

Although the judges didn’t have musical backgrounds, they still were able to decide on a winner. According to Whitman: “The decision was pretty unanimous. In the past it was difficult to decide who won, but this year we all came to a similar decision.”

The competition was a hard one to judge, but a great one to hear.