Based on the feedback here and my personal experience, it's a long and difficult task to winnow down our selections to a ranked top five choices. (I identified 36 contenders based on a first reading of all entries.)

For those of you who, like me, have the soul of a songwriter and the logical mind of a computer programmer, I believe that the following simple procedure results in the fewest comparisons and decisions that have to be made, so by that logic it's the fastest and easiest way to complete the judging process. Starting with your list of finalists...

1. Look at the first two songs (A and B), decide which is better.

2. Look at song C... is it better than B? If not, it's third; if so, compare with A. You now have three songs ranked.

3. Continue this process until you have the first five songs ranked.

4. Now, for each new song, compare it to the song currently ranked #5. If it's not better, no further consideration of the new song is necessary. If it IS better, repeat the process above, comparing it in ascending order to the previously selected songs to come up with a newly ranked top 5. (The previous #5 drops off the list.)

Obviously, this approach is not the best for everyone, for lots of excellent reasons, but if any of you out there are bogged down and looking for a better system, you're welcome to try this one and see if it works for you.

I'd also like to hear how other people are managing the judging/ranking process. I'm still working on my list, and would welcome interesting ideas.


Mike
New Middle Class
http://www.newmiddleclass.com

Mike Borok
New Middle Class
newmiddleclass.com