1812 overture nailed by a Japanese H S wind ensemble

[CA Transplant]

I've watched a number of videos of Japanese students playing. It's all pretty impressive, with even elementary school students turning in pretty darned good performances. On the other hand, I've also seen lots of videos of US honor bands doing similar excellent jobs. Student performers, carefully selected and rehearsed can be exceptional. What we see on YouTube are usually groups made up of highly-motivated student musicians, giving their best.

Probably many of us, during our school days, played in honor bands that also performed well above average levels. I still have an LP on vinyl of the All Southern California Honor Band I was in way back in 1962. We sounded terrific, played challenging music, and every one of the kids in that honor band was a first chair player at their high school. Some went on to careers as performinf musicians.

I was the third chair oboist in that band. I was surprised to have won that position in the auditions, but very happy to have been part of that wind ensemble. I went to the audition at the prompting of my band director, but pretty much as a lark. It was fun and scary and I learned a very important lesson from that. All around me were really superior musicians. They were kids who practiced hard, took private lessons, and took playing their instrument seriously. I realized, from playing with those kids that a career in music wasn't going to be my future.

While I won a seat in that band, it was clear from seeing those other kids that I was way out of my league. I was lucky and talented, but did not have the drive, dedication and mastery of my instrument those other kids had. I had a great time, played very well, and learned that music performance was going to be a hobby for me, not a profession. It was an important lesson. The students in that group were almost all serious musicians, even as teenagers. I was not. I was an oboe player, but playing the oboe wasn't my life. It was for many of those kids.

[dave_matheson]

Some really thoughtful comments on this thread ... I've enjoyed reading the various / different perspectives

[Three Valves]

I was in an All State band.

I try not to mention that the state was Delaware.