Have you ever gotten first chair?!What was your experiance like auditioning?

[lilangel]

I got 2nd chair! I was so nervous during auditions! I was shaking but I did great at the concert!

[violinprincess]

hey...i wish i could of been in first chair...my bff got it!!

[summer_breeze]

I am first chair in my school orchestra..but we don't really audition for it, well we kind of do the teacher just listens to us and whoever plays the best gets it, and also whoever can controll the section the best gets it. In our community orch I got first too, it was kind of scary auditioning because I was playing with adults, but it didn't really phase me too much. In march comes youth orchestra auditions, I have never been in one so I hope to do good. Only auditioned for one once and i was in 6th grade when I did.

[Primrose84]

as of right now i'm 2nd chair in both orchestras i'm in (school and youth orch.)...i'm usually principal...but at youth orchestra our adjudcator invented scores for our scale since she forgot to make us play one, and at school a friend of mine had a better day than i did...i think the fact that he practiced the seating music helped him too, lol. i got to play (sight read) the solos at our concerts though cause he got strep throat and was absent.

when i played violin for the first quarter concert i got 6th chair first violin...and a lot of jealous and amazed stares. that was a kodak afternoon.

first chair is great and all, but i always have problems with my stand partner in my way...i'm never in the way when i'm second chair...wierdos!!!!

[cyn38]

It was years ago, but in Junior High School orchestra, we had what's called a "chair challenge". If you wanted to advance in your seating placement, you could give a week's notice to the person whose seat you wanted to take, then the rest of the orchestra would listen as the players would play a certain passage of music (selected by the orchestra teacher) from behind a screen. They had to listen to both parties play and then decide who was the better of the two. It was scary!!!

I sat first chair the whole year, but was challenged many times. I won each time, but I half wonder if it is because my boyfriend was concertmaster, and he knew the sound of my playing so well. I had a very nice vibrato, which others in my section did not, and perhaps it was obvious to the others who was who.

We did the same sort of thing as far as seating and challenges went once I got to high school, but the teacher only allowed a challange once a quarter, so there wasn't that much movement etc. It didn't take long before the lesser players realized that you had to be really good, and very brave to bother going through a challenge process.

[violinprincess]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Primrose84:

as of right now i'm 2nd chair in both orchestras i'm in (school and youth orch.)...i'm usually principal...but at youth orchestra our adjudcator invented scores for our scale since she forgot to make us play one, and at school a friend of mine had a better day than i did...i think the fact that he practiced the seating music helped him too, lol. i got to play (sight read) the solos at our concerts though cause he got strep throat and was absent.

when i played violin for the first quarter concert i got 6th chair first violin...and a lot of jealous and amazed stares. that was a kodak afternoon.

first chair is great and all, but i always have problems with my stand partner in my way...i'm never in the way when i'm second chair...wierdos!!!!

---

My stand partner and i usually have our scrolls in the way of each other....it is funny when it happens though!

[Saddest Violinist]

I am Second Violin Principal in my School Orchestra, no audition is needed, since I am much more experienced than the other players in Second Violin.

[MicaelaB]

I'm first chair in my school orchestra. There are only four first violins (I'm not the best, but the girl who is best doesn't want to be first chair for some reason) so it's not really a big deal. I'm nervous that the whole audience is examining my bad bow arm, though!

I'm going to be principal clarinet in the All-County Orchestra in January. I'm much more nervous because principal wind players have many more solos (I have three but only one's more than a few measures). There also isn't a whole army of a section backing me up and I have no idea whether the conductor is nice or not.

[HuangKaiVun]

I'd rather be LAST SEAT 2nd violin than 1st seat 1st violin.

Rhythm violin is FUN.

[Primrose84]

we had a challenge system in place at my school...but most people (especially the middle orchestra of three) were too immature bout it...so it got canned.

now since moral is so low and nobody cares enough to practice we have tests and reseating every friday to keep us on our toes...its BS, but what ever the heck they want...its not like i care enough to practice for school...if we actually did anything decent i'd practice for sure, but it takes us so long to learn a program that i dont even need to practice, the mindless repetition is enough. and this is an orchestra magnet program i'm in. we have the talent to do a program every month, but instead we trudge along and have 4-5 concerts a year instead of 9-11 like the university here does. i get my own practicing in though, and right now that's what matters, when my school gets with the program i'll figure it out.

[HuangKaiVun]

First chair or last chair, what does it matter?

This is ORCHESTRA. When the strings play together, nobody should stick out. The last seat of the 2nd violin has nearly as important a role (OK, no bowings or orchestra "tuning") as the concertmaster does.

If it takes seat threatening for a kid to give his all to the music, then that kid would be better off DOING SOMETHING ELSE.

Too much seating pride, too little MUSICAL PRIDE.

[Saeunn]

A very wise man once said to my stand partner:

"It's seating, not ranking"

Saeunn

[Primrose84]

HKV...was your "better off doing something else" comment directed at me personally, my fellow orchestra members who dont care or just a general comment??

just a wondering...not looking to start anything, i just dont want you to view me the wrong way.

thanks,

davo

[HuangKaiVun]

It was a general comment that was NOT directed at you, Primrose84.

Actually, you are the type of person I WOULDN'T direct my admonition to. That's because you "get my own practicing in", "dont even need to practice, the mindless repetition is enough", and know that the challenge thing is "BS".

If there's one thing that gets in the way of good music, it's the status game.

[Stephen Fine]

I've sat Principal 2nd for the past three years and first stand for the past four in my youth orchestra (which is rather good if I don't mind saying so myself).

The past two years I've been asked whether I'd rather move up to the first violins (I'd probably sit third chair or around there) or remain in the seconds. I chose to remain in the seconds. My "heart" lies in that section and the intricacies that surround its part. Unfortunately the section is rather unexperienced, and once you get near the back of the section there isn't much playing going on. Next semester I think I'm going to ask the conductor if I can sit in the back...

[Primrose84]

okay...thanks HKV...just wanted to clarify...you are still a bona fide sock rocker!

keep up the good work.

[Nick]

I sat last chair in 2nd violin. I was that *good*. It was still fun nevertheless.

[HuangKaiVun]

I AM that *good* too, and I've always had more fun in the back than in the front.

[Ann]

Let me bore you with my own audition story, already archived. I auditioned for a state honors ensemble, only to find I had been beaten by two really terrible players. Their own teacher had been one of the judges! After two years of this, someone got wise and moved the judge to another audition room, and I took first chair. The offending judge came to me and had the GALL to ask me to choose my less preferred instrument so that his student could once again be first chair. I refused. Subsequently, this young man was killed in VietNam. Although it was the worst thing that had ever happened to me at the time, life has placed the situation in appropriate perspective.

[Ken Nielsen]

Ann, it is so sad to me when grinch personalities meddle in the affairs of artists and musicians. Mostly I am sad for people who do these things (they are the real losers.) Also, it puts a damper on the total concentration that should be placed on the art itself.

This topic is so amazing - I know that some of you, like HuangKaiVun, are quite accomplished and I am a lowly beginner, but it is fun to hear that this is not a competition for position but that there are places for each player to make up a part of the whole orchestra. I had my first orchestra experience in last chair in 2nd during Christmas, and it was so wonderful I am practicing twice as hard, not to progress in chairs, but just to do better when I go back to fill in again. Viva La Orchestra!

[paganiniboy]

I have to agree with [most] of what HKV has said. I had always say concert master in my highschool Orch, but when I moved here ("toronno"0 and tried out for the Toronto S.Youth.O. I got 6th desk, second violin. I had a real bad audition (and only had but 3 days or so to practice), but I made it. I know the Shostakovich piece by memmory, first and second (second for both notes and sound, while only sound [recordings and rehersals] for first vlns), and I must say playing second is so much more fun than first. Yes, first is seen as "high and all mighty", and its way up on the fingerboard (kids love playing in tune way up high - its a thrill!), but second just has much better notes and the rhythm is amazing! I bet it's the same with a lot of other pieces. (It is for Shostakovich, Wagner, Holst, Sibelius, and some Beethovan - the Cariolan overture!)

P.

[PainturGurl]

I am first chair in my school orchestra, and we don't really audition for it either; the teacher decides which player is best suited for the role. I actually share first chair with my best friend - we are the same skill level and rotate songs. Some things to keep in mind as first chair: you don't have to be perfect! It's fine if you make a mistake. Everybody does! Be a leader. Most likely, the director has told the other people in your section to follow what the first chair player is doing.

[Stephen Fine]

Whoa.  Blast from the past.

Wild to think that I last posted on this thread probably before PainturGurl was born.

These days, I judge the string auditions for my old youth orchestra.

[PhilipKT]

19 years. I wonder how many people who posted back then are still playing now?

[Rue]

I am. 

Are these 'necroposts' ever 'real', or are they all part of some bot-thingy I don't fully understand?  They mostly seem to be posted as 1 post by a new user...who is never heard from again.  Yet, I can't quite figure out what the pay-off is...when they aren't linking to a site.