"Your timpani isn't quite in tune, you should make sure you go back and tune it yourself between songs."
"You shouldn't be tuning timpani for musicians at this level. They should know how to tune the drum."
In the case of the first, we were told by the contest site that the gauges would be correctly calibrated. We were the third band on stage that day. Our notes were F and C. The C was a tiny bit sharp - and the contest host re-tuned the gauges after our band performed.
In the case of the second, we had a four-drum piece with a tuning change on the second drum - I wanted to make sure the kid could find the note in the tuning change, since they weren't the same timpani we practiced or warmed up with.
There's really no way to win. Just do what makes your band sound good and call it a day.
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