A interesting opportunity for myself

[60's Bluesman]

Earlier tonight two of my friends were talking about playing for a college orchestra, one of my friends is a year into a masters degree however my other friend is not going to school at all anywhere yet he gets to play with the orchesta. Although my second friend has 8 years of band experince he openly admits that he isnt a good player and struggles to read music well. But to sum this up my college friend said the only bass player (upright classical style) graduated yesterday and they are hard-up for personel. So for me im not sure if i should even put my name on the list since i cant read music at all, i have no upright experince and i was only in band for one year. Im sure a good instructor could improve anyone im just afraid im too far behind to be of any interest or asset to the orchestra. what do you guys and gals think?

[Evil Undead]

IMO, this

"im just afraid im too far behind to be of any interest or asset to the orchestra"

Unfortunately is correct. Maybe it would be great down the line, but not at the moment. Learn to sight read and play an upright and re-evaluate in a couple of years

[T-Bird]

Hi.

Originally Posted by 60's Bluesman

however my other friend is not going to school at all anywhere yet he gets to play with the orchesta.

Based on that caption only, the thing You want to hear is that if some poor SOB who doesn't even go to school gets to play, so should You.

(Un)fortunately it doesn't quite go like that, not on the "real musician world anyway, and if You can't read sheet-music, nor can You play DB, odds are that the classic line "don't call us, we'll call You" comes out of the instructors mouth sooner rather than later.

The thing is that reading music and relying on the sheet in front of you, is what the "real" musicians do. The obvious downside is often that they're at loss without their precious sheets, but the huge upside is that they can pick up any piece of sheetmusic and play & enjoy the music right away. They can also sub in any orchestra/ensemble/band that play even randomly the music that they can play.

As for the total lack of DB experience, well, that should be self explanatory.
As a hack DB slap/pizz player, I can tell that the number of strings and probably the tuning is the only thing that the DB and the electric 4 string "slab" bass has in common. The better DB players may disagree, and not in the kind kind of way .

Regards
Sam