• lol badge

25 Problems Only People Who Have Played In A School Orchestra Will Understand

Let me play you a sad song on the world's smallest violin.

Hannah Jewell
by Hannah Jewell

BuzzFeed Staff

1. Breaking your school music teacher's heart by ruining his or her favourite piece of music.

Warner Bros. / Via Hannah Jewell

That's what you get for overestimating us.

2. Getting a new piece of music that looks like this.

John Stump / Via lostinthecloudblog.com

Great, this will totally be ready for the end-of-term concert.

3. Having to play Pachelbel's Canon again.

Thinkstock / Via Twitter: @CMPickupLines

Also, cringe-y musical pickup lines.

4. Having an unrequited love for the lanky, awkward bass player.

youtube.com / Via Hannah Jewell

Lanky, awkward bass players also play in cool garage bands after school.

5. Realizing that no matter how much you practice, you will never be as good as that one virtuoso kid in the front row.

youtube.com / Via Hannah Jewell

The younger the kid, the worse the feeling.

6. Dealing with dramatic teenage cellists.

Via Twitter: @ClassicFM

Dramatic teenage cellists must be stopped.

7. The complete awfulness of playing a new piece for the first time.

FOX / Via google.co.uk

And knowing that next door's chemistry class can totally hear you.

8. This.

Via Twitter: @Orchestra_Probs

Hopefully your stand partner is counting.

9. Dressing up in ill-fitting fancy clothes to perform in the school cafeteria.

Via Twitter: @Billyxdude12

Under the horrible fluorescent lights.

10. The excruciating nerdiness of classical music puns.

Via Twitter: @OrchestraProbz_
Via google.co.uk
Via Twitter: @OrchestraProbz_
Via google.co.uk

11. The stern glare of an examiner.

Warner Bros. / Via google.co.uk

No child should have to sight-read under this kind of pressure.

12. Working out how to avoid awkward page turns.

Via Twitter: @SamiRoske

Especially if you don't trust your stand partner.

13. The devastating romance of catching the eye of your crush while playing Tchaikovsky.

Lionsgate / Via Hannah Jewell

And achieving puberty at that exact moment.

14. Someone totally touching your horse hair.

Thinkstock / Via Twitter: @OrchestraProbz_

This calls for a liberal application of rosin.

15. Modern composers who find themselves really edgy.

Via Twitter: @OrchestraProbz_

HAHA OK.

16. Broken strings, broken bridges, broken bows, broken hearts.

Via Twitter: @museklyLauren

17. The unique emotional and physical pain that occurs when half your section decides to play an F sharp, and the other half decides to play an F natural.

4Kids Entertainment / The Pokémon Company / Via giphy.com

18. Receiving awkward musical gifts from your extended family every single year.

Via Twitter: @OrchestraProbz_

19. Getting hit by the brass and woodwind players' flying spit.

Thinkstock / Via Twitter: @da_linds

Or when it dribbles from your own instrument, as it were.

20. Anyone who thought that an orchestra of hormonal teenagers could ever play this softly.

Via Twitter: @beccalee97

Someone clearly just wanted to show off that they can pronounce the word "pianissississimo".

21. Getting stabbed by your stand partner's bow.

HBO / Via google.com

22. The back row of the second violins bringing the audience to tears.

youtube.com / Via Hannah Jewell

For the wrong reasons.

23. The crippling shame of missing a repeat.

Paramount Pictures / Via giphy.com

If I glare at my stand partner, people will think it was him!

24. Zoning out completely in the middle of a concert.

Thinkstock / Via Twitter: @OrchestraProbz_

This can be either terrifying or strangely pleasurable.

25. The guilty pleasure of hiding your phone from the teacher on your music stand.

NBC / Via google.com

The pleasure is multiplied when you're also hiding food behind your instrument.