Criteria for Grade Level Assignments
Some Thoughts About Grade Level Assignments
- Grade levels are guidelines at best. What may be a grade 3 piece for the trumpet section may be a grade 5 piece for the clarinets.
- A piece may be technically easy, yet musically difficult. Another piece may be musically simple, yet technically difficult.
- What may be judged difficult for one group (e.g., mixed meters) may not be a challenge for a different group. Judge each piece on its own merits against the standard of your group.
- Do not limit your ensemble to any one level. A band that plays mostly pieces at a grade 4 level should also play music at the grades 2 and 3 levels early in the year, and explore at least one work from grade 5 by the end of the year.
Since grade level assignment is a multi-faceted undertaking, it may be useful to chart the pieces you are considering for your group. John E. Owen provides a method for doing this in his article, "Assessing Difficulty Level in Band Music" in the May-June 1996 issue of the Ohio MEA publication, Triad, (pp. 25-27). Click here for a sample grading chart and examples of charted pieces.
Grade 1
2nd year players.
(assuming 1st year included 2-3 periods of instruction each week)
- Basic rhythms
- Restricted ranges
- Undeveloped technique
- Homophonic texture
- Much uniformity of rhythms throughout the band
- Ample doubling
- Much full and half tutti scoring
Grade 2
3rd year players (ca. 8th grade).
- Intermediate rhythms (some syncopation, duplet and triplet rhythms)
- Expanding ranges
- Fluent technique
- Changing meters
Grade 3
Urban/suburban junior high (9th grade) or rural high school.
Not useful for beginning bands.
- Challenging rhythms (free use of syncopation)
- Free use of section and solo scoring (great independence of parts; diverse instrumentation requirements, less use of cues and cross-cues)
- Some use of extreme ranges and technique
Grade 4
Urban/suburban high school or outstanding rural high school.
Not suitable for junior high school bands.
- Challenging rhythms (free use of syncopation)
- Changing meters, asymmetrical meters
- Expanded ranges for all instruments
- Fluent technique
- Free use of solo writing
- Diverse instrumentation requirements especially with regards to woodwinds and percussion
Grade 5
Outstanding urban/suburban high school or good college bands.
- Very challenging rhythms (including polyrhythms)
- Changing meters, asymmetrical meters, non-metric notation
- Extreme ranges for all instruments
- Extremely fluent technique
- Free use of solo writing
- Diverse instrumentation requirements (piano, harp, percussion)
- Virtuoso writing throughout
Grade 6
Professional or outstanding college bands.
Not suitable for high school.
- Extremely difficult in all facets of performance
Band Literature
UND Music
UND
Last Updated: 1 October 1996