Scoring performances

Everything happens on one page: your judge sheet. You can reach it any time by signing in — you'll be taken straight to the band you should be looking at.

Before the show

Your page shows your assignment (for example, Percussion Judge) and the Lineup — every band in performance order. Tap any band to peek at its slot.

Announcements shows the host's Staff and Public messages above the sheet. It updates without replacing your scores, comments, or recording controls. Messages need a connection; if the connection fails or your assignment is removed, the message list clears and explains how to try again. Open announcements opens a separate reader tab, including when JavaScript is unavailable, so you can keep your sheet in place.

Lineup badges update as the announcer stages, starts, and finishes bands. Scored means your sheet for that judging section reached the server. These updates keep your selected school, scroll position, readiness, draft points, written comments, and recorder in place. After a connection drop, the badges catch up when you reconnect; you do not need to reload your work to check the lineup. If the host removes a school's participation in your caption, its old status badge clears on the next update. Reloading the lineup removes that school's link from your section.

Judging more than one section at this competition (say, Majorette and Feature Twirler)? A Section switcher still appears near the top of the page, and your dashboard's assignment cards still go straight to each section — but the sheet itself is now one combined page: every section you're covering for the band on the field stacks as its own scoresheet card, one after another, under a single Ready / Standby / Need Help toggle, one shared audio recorder, and one Submit button. Score both sheets, record one commentary that covers both, and tap Submit once — MusterSheet still files each section as its own judge sheet behind the scenes, and the director's packet plays the same recording under both captions. If a band opts out of one of your sections, that section's card simply doesn't appear for them; you'll still see it for bands that do field it.

Opening the page lands you on your first unscored band, even after the show has ended — handy when you're backfilling a sheet you skipped. Once every band is scored, it opens on the last performance.

If a band doesn't compete in your section this year (say, a school with no Dance Line, or one that opted out of a caption), you'll never be auto-landed on their sheet, and following a direct link to them shows "This band is not competing in [your section]" instead of a score sheet — there's nothing to submit for that band.

When you're settled in and set up, tap Ready at the top of the page for each school. Its scores and written-comment fields open the moment you tap, including before the band takes the field and even if your device is offline. Tapping Record also counts as Ready for that school. If Ready could not reach the host yet, a note under the status buttons says it is saved on this device and will sync; you can keep scoring. A Ready status carried over from another school (or set by the host) does not open a fresh sheet by itself: Ready shows unselected until you tap it for this school.

Audio Commentary sits directly below the Ready / Standby / Need Help controls in both single and combined sheets. The selected button has a checkmark and outline, and Current status names your selection in either theme. Reloading or switching schools shows your saved assignment status; you still tap Ready for each new school to open its score fields. The recorder remains available while the score fields are closed. Once a sheet is open, switching to Standby or Need Help keeps your draft visible. A restored unsent draft also opens for review.

If you reload after uploading a shared recording, it remains available on your combined sheet even before you submit scores. The draft recovery notice clears once the server accepts all the restored work. If you make new edits while Submit is sending, those edits stay open. Accepting scores does not dismiss a separate storage or recording warning.

The three buttons — Ready, Standby, Need Help — are your line to the press box:

• Ready (green) — you're set; the announcer can start the next band. The performance cannot start until every judge that band actually needs is Ready. If the band on deck doesn't field your section, you won't hold up their performance at all — your Ready status still matters for the next band that does.
• Standby (amber) — you're here but not ready (finishing the last sheet, grabbing coffee). This is the automatic state after the server accepts your scores.
• Need Help (red) — something's wrong; this flags the host immediately.

When a band takes the field

The page follows the announcer automatically. When your band card says "Band is on the field — score now", work down the sheet:

1. Record your audio commentary. Tap the red Record button and talk to the director as you watch — this recording goes straight into their judges packet. Tap the red Stop button when done. You can play it back, or tap Record Again to redo it (redoing replaces the old recording for good — the page will ask you to confirm). Judging more than one section for this band? There's still only one recorder — talk about everything you're scoring in one take, and it's attached to every section's sheet. MusterSheet prefers compact M4A commentary, which plays on iPhone, Android, Windows, and Mac devices without making a poor cellular upload unnecessarily large; a browser that cannot record M4A falls back to its own supported audio format.
2. Enter points for each caption. Each row shows the caption name, a number box, and its maximum (like / 20). Half points (.5) are allowed. If the host spelled out judging criteria for a caption, you'll see a small Criteria toggle under its name — tap it to expand the list of what to listen and look for. The Total at the bottom adds up live and shows the rating it currently earns — I, II, or III.
3. Written Comments (optional) — up to 500 characters of typed feedback for the director, per section if you're stacking more than one.
4. Tap Submit Scores (or Submit All Sections when you're scoring more than one caption for this band) — every stacked sheet finalizes together, or none does, so your packet never lands half-finished.

To dictate written feedback with your phone's keyboard, tap Stop on the commentary recorder first, then use the keyboard's dictation button in Written Comments. MusterSheet releases its microphone capture after the recording stops; the captured commentary stays available for playback and saving. You can dictate while that take finishes uploading. Wait for the take to finish saving before starting another recording.

The microphone is requested when you tap Record or confirm Record Again, including for the next school. Your browser controls whether that request needs another permission prompt. If dictation still fails after Stop, tell the host which phone, browser, and keyboard you are using so the affected combination can be checked.

On a phone, the Submit bar follows the visible screen above the keyboard. You can keep editing Written Comments, scroll the field into view, and tap the same Submit button without dismissing the keyboard or losing your text. Missing-score and audio messages still explain why Submit is disabled.

Every score and audio commentary are required

Submit stays grayed out until every caption in every section has a number from 0 to that caption's maximum, and your audio commentary is saved or queued on this device. Stopping the recording does not unlock an incomplete sheet. A 0 is valid; an empty box is not.

Missing or out-of-range scores show a message beside the field, and the Submit area tells you how many scores still need attention. Correct those fields to enable Submit. Your other scores, written comments, and recording stay in place while you make corrections. The server also checks the full sheet before accepting it.

Switching schools without losing work

Your unsubmitted points and written comments stay with each school and judging section on this browser. Return through Lineup, reload, or reopen the sheet in a new tab to restore a saved draft. Each tab keeps its own copy so a second tab cannot overwrite work in the first. A restored draft is still yours to review and submit; it is not a server-accepted score. If staff corrected a sheet while you were away, your older draft cannot silently replace their correction.

Tapping another school while recording pauses the current take and asks you to choose:

• Resume this school continues the same recording where you paused.
• Finish and switch finishes the current school's recording, keeps its audio and draft, then opens the school you selected. The recording stays attached to the original school and its judging sections.

The page waits for saving and active uploads before switching. A server-accepted score is safe to leave even if your browser cannot clean up its local draft. Recovered recordings that are safely archived on this device also stay available if their retry is held again. If the browser cannot keep a recoverable copy, it tells you to keep this tab open and submit or retry the upload first. Draft recovery covers the previous 14 days; clearing browser data or private browsing can remove local work. Recordings continue to use the existing device archive and interrupted-take recovery below.

If your device can't record audio

Some devices can't capture audio — an older browser, a denied microphone permission, or a tablet with no working mic. The scoring page tells you plainly when that's the case, and there's a tried-and-true fallback: score on paper.

Let the host or tab room know. They'll hand you paper sheets and a handheld recorder — the traditional setup — and switch your assignment to paper scoring. From there:

• You score every band on paper and speak your commentary into the recorder, exactly the way it's always been done.
• Your in-app sheet goes read-only — a "You're scoring on paper for this event" banner confirms it, and the app won't accept score submissions from you while paper mode is on. (Any sheet you submitted in-app before the switch stays yours.)
• The tab room enters your sheets into MusterSheet and uploads your recording, so directors get your scores and commentary in their judges packets just like everyone else's. Their packet notes that competition staff transcribed your sheet.
• The announcer's show doesn't wait on you — paper judges aren't part of the app's ready check.

If your device starts cooperating mid-event, ask the host to switch you back and you can resume scoring in the app. You'll come back in Standby — flip yourself Ready when you're set, just like at the start of the day.

After the server accepts your scores, you'll see Scores Submitted with the time, the score fields collapse, and you're set back to Standby. When the next band goes on, the page can move you along. If you changed anything while submission was in progress, those newer edits stay open.

Saved on this device means a submission is still queued or needs attention. Its score fields remain visible and it does not count as accepted. Open the sync status to retry or resolve the saved submission. You can keep editing your local draft while waiting; Submit stays disabled until that earlier request settles. If you remove a saved submission from the queue, the draft remains available for correction and a fresh Submit. If a submission was saved before a software update, its delivery may leave the draft open with a review message. Reload that school to review the accepted scores; any newer unsubmitted edits stay saved for review.

Fixing a mistake

Nothing is carved in stone — until the host publishes results:

• Just submitted and spotted an error? Select that school in Lineup to reopen its accepted sheet for review, then tap Edit on the green Scores Submitted bar. The sheet (or every stacked section) unlocks so you can fix it and submit again.
• Realized it two bands later? Tap the band in the Lineup (it shows a green Scored check), and edit from there. Your scores and comments come back exactly as you left them.

If you see "this sheet changed since you loaded it" when you resubmit, someone in the tab room updated the sheet while your edit was in flight (for example, a hand-entered correction). Your edit was not applied — reload the page to see the current scores, then make your change again if it's still needed.

Once the host publishes the results (or the competition ends), scoring closes for good — see below.

After the event

Your dashboard keeps your history: upcoming assignments are listed first, soonest first, and everything you've judged before sits in a collapsed Past assignments section underneath.

You can open any past sheet to review your scores and comments, but once results are published the sheet is read-only — a "Scoring is closed" notice appears, and nothing can be entered or changed. If a published score genuinely needs correcting, that's the host's call, not a sheet edit — contact the host.

Spotty stadium Wi-Fi?

The sheet is built for bad networks — with one prerequisite: open your judge sheet while you're still online (on venue Wi-Fi that morning is fine) and keep it open through the show. An open sheet rides out a signal drop; a band you haven't opened yet can't be loaded until the signal returns (if the connection hangs, the app gives up after a few seconds and shows the offline page rather than spinning forever). Recordings upload in small pieces — and they start uploading while you're still recording — so a connection that keeps dropping only costs the piece in flight, and by the time you tap Stop most of the take is usually already on the server. If the server itself is unreachable the pieces simply wait on your device and go the moment it's back. Many judges also add MusterSheet to their Home Screen so the sheet is one tap away when they set up.

If the connection then drops mid-show, you'll see "Saved on this device — will upload when reconnected" — keep judging; your scores and recordings upload themselves when the signal returns, however long that takes. Nothing is ever thrown away for taking too long. Don't re-enter anything.

A few more safety nets you may notice:

• Recording is saved as you go. Every ten seconds the take so far is written to your device, so a crash, an accidental reload, or a killed tab loses at most the last few seconds. When you reopen the sheet you'll be asked whether to Keep it or Record again. A recording whose upload was held (for example because scoring closed first) is offered back the same way, with the reason shown and Retry upload / Discard buttons. Delete and Discard only clear a recording once the device has really let go of it — if storage refuses, the recording stays where it is and the sheet says so, rather than vanishing while a copy is still queued to upload.
• If the phone suspends recording after a screen lock or app switch, the sheet tells you plainly — "Recording stopped when the screen locked at 1:12" — and offers Record Again; it never reports a cut-off take as saved. Current iPhones can continue recording through an ordinary lock, but keep the scoring sheet in front while a band is on the field whenever you can.
• Signed out mid-day? Your queued work stays on the device. Sign back in as yourself and it finishes uploading; nobody else can send it.
• The sync pill in the corner shows what is still on your device ("2 saved on this device") and, in amber, anything that needs attention — tap it for the list, with Retry and, if you're sure, Discard. A recording that reaches the server after the host has closed scoring is still accepted and parked for the tab room to review, so a late upload is never refused.

Festival events

If the event is a festival (a blue banner tells you: "Festival event — commentary only"), scores aren't published or ranked — your written and audio commentary are the product. Be generous with both.