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The one word that resonates the most amongst orchestra players is performance. That is the one goal of every member is to perform. Everything else is secondary. For one moment of time, all energy is put to use to create music. All effort and time spent working on a single piece can finally be put to use. As musicians we share a common goal, to share music with everyone. So for one brief moment of time, we can be free. We connect, unite, and communicate to one another each route through the piece. Talking without speaking but rather just communicating through music. A performance is what brings people from all different backgrounds together to listen to a piece written a century ago, that unites not just the players but the audience as well.

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“Is music and school correlated?” Many musicians will tell you yes. Both have a performance within them. Time and time again it has been proven that if a person is involved with music they do better academically. Through music, people learn about failure and work ethic. It takes a lot more to become perfect at an instrument rather than say sports. Musicians often spend hours and hours of time perfection a piece sometimes just a few measures. Teaching musicians that working to understand something is far more rewarding than avoiding responsibility.  As well as improving our ability to understand languages better than others, since reading music is a language in itself, and being apart of orchestra makes that more likely. Music has been scientifically proven to help academically, and improve the work habits of musicians.  

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Many people only know of two sometimes three clefs. The treble, bass, and alto clefs. Interestingly choir music only uses bass and treble clef despite having alto and tenor singers. As well as the band only playing bass, no-pitched percussion clef, treble clefs. Orchestra is the only musician group that actually uses All of the clefs. Each instrument plays its own clef, violin treble, viola alto, cello bass and tenor, and double bass the bass clef. Viola is the only instrument that actually uses alto clef and is my own personal belief, the best clef. All of the instruments should know how to read all the clefs because sometimes we have to transcribe a piece. So it is imperative that everyone knows the different types of clefs.

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Bach’s 1 cello suite, one of the most famous songs ever written and the essential piece to know in the orchestra community. This suite is extremely famous and is often heard in many movies. But besides that, the suite itself is often used as a warm-up. Though it is a cello suite, all other string instruments are meant to know how to play at least one of Bach’s cello suites. They develop many skills especially bow skills. Often having many string crossings and speed changes

The first cello suite I ever played was Bach’s 2 cello suite, and my personal favorite suite. It helped me develop essential skills as well as opening doors to other classical music that I actually enjoyed. These suites start as chores but quickly turn into a lot of fun to play. Every suite a lot of leeway that allows the player to take control.

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Whiplash is a movie that is not only popular amongst orchestra players but just in general amongst musicians. This movie truly captures the work and effort that must be exerted in order to get perfect. It is an accurate representation of life for a musician. Often not having any time to spend on anything else because we are developing our skills. As well as the director is fairly accurate, but not as intense. The director pressures us until it feels like we are about to break. Not because they want to hurt our feelings but more so because they want us to do our best. They are almost like tiger parents wanting us to be the best of the best so that we sound the best. This movie is popular because it is a pretty close representation of what it is like to be a musician. As well as showing what it takes to be a great musician. 

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Auditions. They can cause a great deal of anxiety to many string players. For many, that’s the reason they end up quitting orchestra and leave the community. But for those who are willing to stay and out the effort to play at the audition they become a much better musician. Auditions are usually a player playing a section of a piece or sometimes an entire piece, in front of a judge or the entire orchestra. Auditions are common play in the orchestra community to not only get into an orchestra but to also have a seat placement.  

When I was in School I often had to do many auditions. One of which was to get into specialized orchestras outside of my school. As well as auditioning for which seat I'll have on my desk. They always made me nervous, not only on just playing but also following the times, making sure that I bring everything I need for the audition, and so on and so forth. Though I would often get nervous about auditions I found that it has helped me play more confidently and proudly, by building my public playing skills.

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Multifarious music is very popular amongst the orchestra community. Multifarious because it consists of old classical music mixed with new popular music. This is a new medium of music that has been recently emerging from the orchestra scene. With popular musicians such as the Piano Guys and Lindsay Sterling, who has been the most popular multifarious musicians. This music has inspired many people to join the orchestra community. As well as inspiring those inside the community to regain a passion for the practice and for music in general.  This new style of music is gifting many undiscovered musicians to gain popularity, as well as promoting the community. 

This style of music has really made me love orchestra even more than I did before. When I first started playing I only played classical music which left me somewhat bored. But then I heard the piano guys and instantly fell in love with the music. It made me gain a new appreciation for the classical music and inspired me to continue playing.

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In an orchestra, the phrase “feel the music” is often used in many settings. Anyone can play notes on a page but only musicians can create music. One key way they do this is through “feeling the music.” Rather understanding the emotion behind every note and developing them into an emotion. In order for any musician to do that the player must feel the emotion in the music in order to know what each note’s emotion should be. Many times, the best musicians are able to get their basic techniques perfected so that they can create music rather than just noise. At a certain point, every orchestra conductor will expect the players to move beyond learning techniques, and begin to develop into real musicians. Encouraging the players to lesson to the piece and write a story in your head of what is happening with the music. The emotion, tension, and plot of each song. Developing the “feeling” of the music.

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When I first started playing viola, it took me years to learn how to use the bow and other various techniques. Many orchestra musicians struggle with this because of various common misconceptions. One misconception is that the most important part of strings instruments is the left-hand coordination. However, the bow hand is far more important, since it is in charge of the tone, volume, and speed of the music. When starting using the bow, orchestra musicians usually learn Spiccato and Staccato, there are the two most common and most important bow hand techniques that musicians have to learn. Often it takes an extremely long time to perfect these techniques. These techniques are common play in many orchestral pieces, there for all members of the ensemble are required to have these skills and techniques down in order to play music composed for string instruments.

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Being apart of an orchestra requires a lot of effort on everyone's part. The phrase “you are only as strong as your weakest link,” resonates with all musical groups, but especially with me. While preparing for our state competition our orchestra director often told us that phrase. Often we would have to spend hours practicing together to ensure that everyone in the orchestra has the same tone, timing, and pitch. That phrase meant that no matter how great you may be compared to others in the orchestra, it will mean nothing if the collective group is not on the same level. So it quickly became the motto of our orchestra. That moto that made every single one of us push and practice until we sounded as close to perfect as possible. That moto that made all of us closer together and more patient of one another. That belief that “you are only as strong as your weakest link,” brought us 1st place in the state orchestra competition.