Questions About Playing in a Community Band/Orchestra

[fox]

When you play in a community band or an orchestra does your sheet music contain only the music for the instrument(s) you are playing or does it also contain the music for all the instruments?
Also, when you come to the end of the sheets you have in front of you, how do you change pages?

I was discussing these things with a co-worker and we weren't sure of the answers. He is learning to play guitar and I'm learning to play flute and we mostly play by ourselves. A few weeks ago we brought our instruments to work and tried to play together ... it was pretty bad (although we had a lot of fun). So every once in a while we start discussing how people play together and these are a couple of the questions that always come up and we continuously discuss.

 

[tictactux]

When you play in a community band or an orchestra does your sheet music contain only the music for the instrument(s) you are playing or does it also contain the music for all the instruments?
Also, when you come to the end of the sheets you have in front of you, how do you change pages?

We normally have just our own part. Occasionally, when someone has a solo and you must resume on cue there are cue notes (smaller notes) in the score for that part.

Page turning is always fun; Murphy has it that the turn is always on a spot with no time to breathe or do other things. Many of us copy a part of the following page and glue it to the bottom of the previous page so that you have an overlap of some sort. I hear that some people go berserk over such kinds of copyright infringements but here it is considered "fair use" and is legit.

What's worst are hand-written scores in tiny handwriting. I sometimes re-typeset those if I expect to use them a lot or in difficult situations (outdoors at night, for example).

 

[Al Stevens]

You typically have only your part. Sometimes you'll have two parts from the same section, such as 1st and 2nd alto scored on the same staff.

Most modern charts have page breaks where there are rests at the end of a page or the top of the next page. I say "modern" charts because notation programs make it easier to score it that way. Always look ahead. Some arrangers write "Time" at the bottom of a page to tell you whether you have time to turn the page.

I prefer charts that you can lay flat and see the whole thing. Keep in mind that you might have to to turn back, too, for DCs, DSs and repeats.

 

[fox]

Ah, thanks. It makes sense. You can be sure we will have a lively conversation about it