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Yea..i had one that other day (and i didnt know about it at all XD) so after school at our sectionals my BD said ok everyone ready for the chair test?
My jaw dropped XD.But surprising i got 1st chair (with a 29/30)

Ughh
I HATE band exams
The worst part is I play 3 insterments in the band : Clarinet, Piano, and Sax
So I have to take a test for each one
That's 3 to learn
But surprisinly I have made Section leader for the piano players
And 2nd in comand for the section leader in clarinet

the closest thing to a band exam at my school is chair placements which we have at the begining of the year

We have binders.
Everyone in band has a 1/2 inch binder with a huge packet that we get at the beginning of the year. (The source of our school's "great paper shortage" during May and June of every year)
We write down practice time, what we did in lessons, we record ourselves playing a piece at the beginning and end of the marking period then fill out a "review of ensemble performance" worksheet, and we write a review for our concert.
But I would WAYY rather do all of the paperwork and get a 100% every marking period than play a solo. Its much less nerve-racking.
biggrin

We just rehearse as a section on a specific day. Just don't do anything stupid, practice beforehand, and bring a pencil, and you will do well. unless you is a gump, you can't fail...

However, at the end of the year, there is a final exam/audition for the next band up, and you need to know and play some songs, five/six scales on random, oh and by the way you should have been practicing all year though you were only alerted weeks before... At least I know what to do this time....

When I was in high school, we used to have theory tests, playing tests, and a choice of writing a paper, playing a grade 5 solo, or composing a small ensemble piece. My director was a brass guy though and I was the only bassoonist, so sometimes he'd set tests that were inordinately difficult - like patterns that aren't possible with the fingering system on bassoon. Once, we had a test that was to play and E major scale pattern going up the scale, down the scale, up the scale, down the scale, and back up again which just isn't possible becuase the first five notes use every possible fingering for the right pinky in succession. You can play E major going up and coming down but you can't turn around and go back up again becuase the pinky just doesn't do that and a lot of people's thumbs aren't long enough to use the only alternate fingering. Luckily, as the only bassoonist, the director deferred to my judgment and scratched that test from my grade. I was lucky to get into a really great music program in middle and high school though and it really taught me a lot so even though it was hard and it sounds like a lot of exams, it was definately worthwhile.

I have my music school audition on wednesday, thats kind of like an exam. It deciedes what bands I'll be in next term.

Then in a couple of months I have my grade 6 exam. Trinity and guildhall instead of Royal Acadamy so I trade in a grade 5 theory exam for some truely disgusting scales and exercises.