hey guys,
how exactly do they rank the violins? if there are 6 first violins, does the rank go 1,3,2,5,4,6? or 1,3,5,2,4,6? or just 1,2,3,4,5,6?
cuz i normally sit 3rd seat, but for the concert last night, the 1st chair got in a car accident and couldn`t make it, so my teacher
bumped me and 5th seat up. (this is just high school orch)

what do you mean 1,2,3,4,5,6? youll have to dexcribeit better, but that really depends on the director. some like to put them in order from best to the "less skilled" , or others may place a strong player next to a weaker one so the weaker can learn from the other

My orchestra teacher never "seats" us, he just decides if you are 2nd or 1st vioiln, but he normally moves us back and foward between 1st and 2nd so you can have experience on both.

k, you know how usually the "best" is first chair? well, who`s next? in a professional orchestra? second seat or third? cuz in professional you can`t just sit wherever.
Even for Suburban Council in New York (which is this preprofessional/wanna-go-to-Juilliard orch) we also had to audition, and THEN I got my seat number.

second chair is next. After that, probably the second violin section leader.

Liz

Yeah...the ranking`s there according to how well u play...so 1at chair is the best followed by 2nd chair and the same goes for yr other instruments/family.... ie: clarinet/horns etc...
And 1st chair for the violins would be the one up front on the conductor`s nearest right(from yr own view), then 2nd chair and so on. The same thing applies to 2nd violins.
And normally the first/2nd chair`s also the associate/section leader or etc...in a professional orchestra. They would hold some kinda rank too...and that`s when the whole different salary thing comes in.
The difference between an associate leader`s salary and an ordinary member can be up to $ 5000.
But( ist chair/leader ) besides being the highest paid in the whole orchestra...they would usually be the oldest also. As u need an impressive resume to play 1st chair in a professional orchestra. They will actually require u to having played at least 5yrs or more in some other commercial orchestras( with the same chair) as a pre-requisite to an audition.

in my orchestra class, we have the concertmaster (first violin), then another three section leaders for violins, two for each violin section. the two violin sections switch off between playing 1st and 2nd on songs (to be fair), rather than have a weaker player play 2nd all the time. so basically, when we have try outs, she basically picks out the top four people, and the rest of us are told which row to be in, so we`re all sort of left guessing as to what rank we are. and then there are section leaders for viola, cello and bass as well. sometimes i wish she would just say "ok you are #14 among the violins", just so i can say im not the worst lol or watch myself improve from year to year, but other days i realize im here to enjoy myself not to compete with everyone else.

Just wondering, but is there any ranking for viola, cello, or basses?

yes, there`s ranking for all instruments. except if there`s only one, like piano r something. but usually, there`s a 1st violist, 1st cellist, etc, in a professional orch, and they usually get paid more

really, cuz i play viola (im only here because theres more people)