Great post Nic, and I am much more of a fan of Orchestra versus a Band. I just feel having the strings is a key part to the overall sound.

To me, Western strings sound too dead. It's too clean and polished, but still provides a very good, more mellow and organic contrast to the brass.

I love the etudes - I have some wonderful arrangements of these performed using only the left hand. It's incredible! The performer is Marc-Andre Hamelin.

I didn't think that could even be possible O_______________o

Not sure what grade you mean.

I've been playing for about five years, and take weekly lessons from an orchestra member.

I play Class-A solos at times, if that helps lol.

Official grading that's acquired through teaching/studying and examinations. If you've taken any, you may just play more for leisure, I don't know.

I always thought ABRSM and Trinity was used in America as well. Locally, we have these two, and some grading systems from China (mainly for Chinese instruments).

In any case, having gone through this for several of my instruments, I don't really believe in these systems. I've seen too many cases of the person's skill not matching the "grade", so I feel that this grade only says whether you can play the song set for your exam, and nothing else.

Also, I personally think these exams are overly expensive. To be honest, I don't see much use for these gradings. After all, when you want to work in music, it's about your own playing, auditioning, etc., I've never heard of a case of getting a job based on your grading.

Still, they're useful as a set of recommended pieces you can try.

After the band plays for the three judges it then moves on to sight reading where two random pieces you've never seen before are put in front of you and you have 5 minutes to look over both pieces and then play them for a judge and a grade.

Is this... sightreading for a full band?

---

I love the etudes - I have some wonderful arrangements of these performed using only the left hand. It's incredible! The performer is Marc-Andre Hamelin.

I didn't think that could even be possible O_______________o

They are quite famous arrangements by Godowsky (You can buy the CD "Godowsky: Complete studies on Chopin's etudes"). I'm not keen on this performance, but here is one of the etudes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ne6l3fS-LR4

After the band plays for the three judges it then moves on to sight reading where two random pieces you've never seen before are put in front of you and you have 5 minutes to look over both pieces and then play them for a judge and a grade.

Is this... sightreading for a full band?

Yeah, the whole band has 5 minutes to look over both pieces and then they have to play it for the judge.

It's crazy. lol

---

After the band plays for the three judges it then moves on to sight reading where two random pieces you've never seen before are put in front of you and you have 5 minutes to look over both pieces and then play them for a judge and a grade.

Is this... sightreading for a full band?

Yeah, the whole band has 5 minutes to look over both pieces and then they have to play it for the judge.

It's crazy. lol

Now, this sounds pretty hardcore. How difficult are these o.0

---

After the band plays for the three judges it then moves on to sight reading where two random pieces you've never seen before are put in front of you and you have 5 minutes to look over both pieces and then play them for a judge and a grade.

Is this... sightreading for a full band?

Yeah, the whole band has 5 minutes to look over both pieces and then they have to play it for the judge.

It's crazy. lol

Now, this sounds pretty hardcore. How difficult are these o.0

Ha ha. It's nothing overly difficult. Come to think of it, all of the pieces I've ever played for sight reading were pretty simple. Pretty much all of them were in standard B-flat scale and didn't have too much technicality. Maybe a couple of repeats and time changes here and there, but that was about it.

Even so, when you're in front of a bunch of judges and playing a piece that you've only had 5 minutes to look over it suddenly becomes much more difficult. lol

---