From pencil dramas to sight-reading mishaps, here’s everything you need to know.

Aside from being totally empowering, joining a youth orchestra like National Orchestra for All has endless benefits – from building your confidence and boosting your communication skills to forming life-long friendships.

But when you first get started, what’s it really like? We take a trip down memory lane and reveal all…

1. Accidentally knocking over your music stand halfway through a piece and alarming your musical neighbours (yes, violinists – we’re looking at you and your pesky bows).

2. Finding the conductor’s facial expressions secretly amusing. Is raising your eyebrows that high even humanly possible?

3. Realising this is the first time you’ve picked up your instrument since last week’s rehearsal, so decide to mime the whole way through.

4. Sight-reading a new piece and suddenly forgetting which key it’s in. How many flats does B-flat major have again?

5. When you’re trying to hear your part, but the trumpets and trombones are busy deafening the rest of the orchestra.

6. Making faces at your cellist friend for 10 minutes, only to be clocked by the conductor. Woops.

7. When the violas scoff at being compared to the violins. No guys, it’s NOT the same instrument.

8. Having to count a bars’ rest, only your mind begins to wander and turns to what you’re having for dinner that evening…

9. A cup of orange squash, a custard cream and a good chat with your musical pals during the break makes even the dullest of rehearsals worth it.

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10. Turning up to a rehearsal without your mouthpiece, slide, bow, reeds, or [insert relevant instrument part here].

11. Trying your best to focus on what the conductor is saying, but the percussionist sat opposite is determined to make everyone laugh. There’s always one joker in the pack…

12. Diligently counting 134 bars’ rest – but then getting distracted at the very last second and coming in three beats too early or completely missing your entry.

13. Spending an age miming along to a piece of music whilst frantically trying to work out which rehearsal mark the conductor started from – before realising you’re looking at the wrong piece.

14. Getting a little too excited during rehearsals and coming in at double the speed because you’ve misunderstood the conductor’s beating.

15. When a whole section forgets their pencils, forcing the oboes to share theirs.

16. Eventually borrowing someone else’s pencil – but then subsequently dropping and losing it.

17. And finally, realising how much you miss all of these things and can’t wait to get back to rehearsing with your orchestra crew when lockdown is over!