Realistic level to be at

Edited: February 26, 2026, 6:08 AM · That's a bit vague Jake. Community orchestras are by no means all of similar level technically speaking and the difficulty of their repertoire also varies hugely. And of course within the "rank and file" there can be a wide range of ability not to say confidence. In the best orchestras I'd expect the all the firsts to be able to cope fluently with at least 95% of their notes and discreetly fudge the rest. In the worst the back desks might just as well not be there but hey, it's a community!

February 26, 2026, 6:17 AM · Steve I was thinking of the higher end ones. One of the ones I play in, we are currently playing Brahms first serenade, Brahms VC and Beethoven Egmont overture. Not to toot our own horns, but we are pretty good.
That is the sort of level I was thinking of.

Edited: February 26, 2026, 2:10 PM · This is hard to answer because community orchestras differ so much and every player has their own unique challenges.

One thing that stands out is that in order to cover most violin 1 parts, you need to be more familiar with the fingerboard than you would be in order to get by as a viola player. While viola parts rarely go a single octave above the open A string, violin 1 parts often require familiarity and fluency up to roughly 2 octaves beyond the open E string - and you’ll need that fluency on the other strings also. This includes familiarity with the distance involved in a wide variety of shifts and also being able to begin a passage on a note that starts high up the fingerboard with little immediate preparation.

As you can imagine, it takes exposure (and scales, etudes, ideally also a good teacher who is monitoring left hand / finger position and motion) to be able to get there. But depending on the expectations of your particular group, you don’t necessarily need to be there on day 1.

February 26, 2026, 3:45 PM · Jake, can your group play that repertoire really well, or is it more like it is capable of muddling through it?

The repertoire an individual or a group plays doesn't mean much, unless we can hear how it turns out.

February 26, 2026, 3:58 PM · We play it pretty well. We are beyond muddling through