GMEA - 2026-2027
Georgia All-State band audition requirements
Major scales and the chromatic scale are required but no longer have to be memorized - unmarked scale sheets are handed to the student in the audition room, with time limits that vary by instrument as printed on the sheet.
GMEA | District (first) audition
Start with one passage
Check GMEA's District (first) audition requirements for your instrument. Audition date: confirm with your director.
Begin your etude with a short passage. Confirm the official packet with your director.
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Last checked October 6, 2026 | Official source: https://www.gmea.org/asb-audition-information
What to work on this week
Use this plan for your next round, a solo, or next season. Not taking another audition? Choose music with your director and use the same steps.
- 5 minutes - Read before playing. Find the required passage in the official packet. Mark its start and end. Count through a rhythm that needs attention.
- 10 minutes - Work on one small chunk. Choose a few notes or a short phrase. Play slowly enough to follow the notes and rhythm.
- 10 minutes - Connect two chunks. Practice the next small section. Then join the sections, paying attention to the connection.
- 5 minutes - Record and listen. Record the joined passage. Follow the score while listening. Write down one thing to revisit.
Find the official material, audition procedure and dates below. Confirm every date and requirement with your director. Organizations update packets.
Who runs it and how you advance
| Organizing body | The Georgia Music Educators Association (GMEA) runs All-State Band. Its district level audition uses the 2026-2027 audition materials GMEA posts. |
|---|---|
| District to finals | Your band instructor registers you through Opus. The district audition is the first live round; recommended students advance to live state finals. |
| Which packet | Middle School is grades 6-8, Concert Band is grades 9-10 and Symphonic Band is grades 11-12. Use the 2026-2027 folder for your level. |
Scales
The engraved PDF is the authority. Play from it for the notes, octaves, ranges, key signatures, meters and tempos.
| How scales are chosen | Play the required scale order printed for your instrument and level, with the printed arpeggios, plus the chromatic requirement. It is not a random draw or a student-selected subset. |
|---|---|
| Memory | The state's documents disagree; see the packet. The 2026-2027 audition hub and the still-linked 2021 first-round score sheet give different memorization directions. |
| Official scale sheets | GMEA links separate scale and chromatic folders by level. The percussion folders include the mallet scale requirements. |
| Concert bassoon scale list | The Concert bassoon lyrical page prints a required scale order: G, C, F, Bb, Eb, Ab, Db, Gb, B, E, A, D. The Concert bassoon scale sheet says scales must be performed in the order printed on it. |
What to prepare
| Issued excerpts | GMEA supplies the wind excerpt PDFs, each labeled with its source title and composer. The GMEA page is the cut. Original-book pages and editions were not published on those wind PDFs. The first-round wind example scores the lyrical etude; finals use both lyrical and technical etudes. |
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| Flute and double reeds | Middle School: flute excerpts are from Köhler, 25 Romantic Studies, Op. 66, No. 7, and Boehm, Study No. 47. Oboe uses Barret, 40 Progressive Melodies, Nos. 15 and 31. Bassoon uses Weissenborn, Bassoon Studies, Op. 8, Volume 2, Nos. 15 and 27. Concert: flute uses Bizet, Carmen Suite No. 1, Intermezzo, and Köhler, Fifteen Little Melodic Studies, Op. 33, Book 1, No. 9. Oboe uses Ferling, 48 Famous Studies, Nos. 19 and 44. Bassoon uses Weissenborn, Bassoon Studies, Op. 8, Volume 2, No. 21, and Milde, Fifty Concert Studies, Op. 26, No. 23. Symphonic: flute uses Andersen, Study No. 40, and Karg-Elert, Study No. 20. Oboe uses Ferling, 48 Famous Studies, Nos. 25 and 28. Bassoon uses Milde, Fifty Concert Studies, Op. 26, Nos. 35 and 31. Use the issued GMEA pages for every excerpt. |
| Clarinets | Bb soprano clarinet: Middle School uses Verroust, 24 Melodic Etudes No. 4, and Stark, Concerto No. 2 in F Major. Concert uses Rose, 40 Studies for Clarinet, Nos. 18 and 23. Symphonic uses the same Rose collection, Nos. 21 and 7. Low clarinets: Middle School source titles are Vaughan Williams, Six Studies in English Folk-Song No. 2, and Klose, Celebrated Method for Clarinet No. 7. Concert uses Rose, 40 Studies for Clarinet, Nos. 32 and 28; Symphonic uses Nos. 21 and 15. Read the GMEA Low Clarinet in Bb or Low Clarinet in Eb page for your instrument. |
| Saxophones | Middle School: alto uses de Ville's Universal Method for Saxophone excerpts Give me thy Heart and Morceau Caracteristique. Tenor uses Ah! Che La Morte and Norma. Baritone uses de Ville's Elle est Partie and Luft, 24 Etudes for Saxophone No. 3. Concert: Ferling, 48 Studies for the Saxophone - alto Nos. 3 and 16, tenor Nos. 13 and 4, baritone Nos. 5 and 10. Symphonic: the same Ferling collection - alto Nos. 27 and 30, tenor Nos. 7 and 22, baritone Nos. 9 and 20. Use the issued GMEA excerpts, not a cut inferred from a book. |
| High brass | Trumpet: Middle School uses Arban, Puritan's Daughter, and The Complete Method for Trumpet No. 21. Concert uses Bordogni, Vocalise, and Arban, Keel Row, Variations 1 and 2. Symphonic uses a different Bordogni Vocalise excerpt and Arban, The Complete Method for Trumpet. Horn: Middle School uses Maxime-Alphonse, Book 2 No. 38, and Pottag, Preparatory Melodies to Solo Works for Horn No. 4. Concert uses Gounod, Dix etudes No. 8, and Maxime-Alphonse, Book 3 No. 36. Symphonic uses Kling, 40 Characteristic Etudes for Horn No. 37, and Franz, Concert Etude No. 2. |
| Low brass | Trombone: lyrical excerpts are Bordogni, Melodious Etudes for Trombone, No. 5 for Middle School, No. 13 for Concert and No. 12 for Symphonic. Technical excerpts come from Voxman Selected Studies: Gatti for Middle School, Böhme for Concert and Rossari for Symphonic. Bass trombone has separate high-school PDFs. Concert uses Bordogni No. 13 and Grigoriev, 24 Studies for Bass Trombone. Symphonic uses Bordogni No. 12 and a Blazhevich excerpt from Voxman Selected Studies. Euphonium has bass-clef and treble-clef pages. Lyrical sources are Bordogni, 24 Vocalises, Nos. 2, 14 and 20 for Middle School, Concert and Symphonic respectively. Technical sources are Blazhevich, 70 Studies for Tuba No. 4, then Böhme, 24 Melodic Studies Nos. 1 and 9. Tuba uses the same Bordogni vocalise numbers by level, with its own issued pages. Its technical excerpts are Blazhevich, 70 Studies for Tuba, Nos. 4, 6 and 26 for Middle School, Concert and Symphonic respectively. |
| Percussion | Snare: Peters, Intermediate Snare Studies No. 15 for Middle School and No. 16 for Concert; Advanced Snare Studies No. 15 for Symphonic. Use the printed first-round bracket for district and the full issued etude for finals. Mallet etudes are for finals only: Corelli, Sonata for Violin (Middle School xylophone); Bach, Sonata for Flute (Concert xylophone); Tan, Dream (Symphonic marimba, 2 PDF pages). Timpani: Whaley, Musical Studies for the Intermediate Timpanist (Middle School); Keith Larson, Style Studies for Timpani No. 34 (Concert) and No. 38 (Symphonic). Use the GMEA pages and the round labels. |
| Middle-school timpani cut | The state's documents disagree; see the packet. The middle-school timpani PDF says full etude for both rounds, while the hub says a bracketed portion for district. |
Practice for GMEA with your audition tempo, tuner and drone on one screen
Virtunity is a practice app built by a band director. Set up each scale and excerpt, then work it up a step at a time.
Scan with your iPhone to get Virtunity
Practice now in your browser: free tuner, metronome and droneHow it fits each part of this audition
- Scales
- Set up each scale in Virtunity and practice it with the metronome at your audition tempo, with the tuner and drone in the same window. Scale Checker confirms scale notes on your iPhone. Notes only. Not tone, rhythm or a complete performance.
- Prepared etudes
- Keep the PDF in your Music Library and set the piece up in practice with the metronome, tuner and your notes beside it. Start under tempo: good reps in a row move the tempo up a step, and Keep lets you stay at the old tempo.
- Sight-reading
- Sight Reading Sprint in the Lab puts one note at a time on the staff for a 60-second round of fast note reading. It is not a full sight-reading excerpt, so read something new every day too, and keep your counting steady with the Lab's rhythm modules.
- Tone and intonation
- Every judge listens for these. The tuner shows your note and how sharp or flat it is, and the drone gives you a steady reference pitch for long tones.
- Tempo
- Tap tempo finds a marked tempo, and subdivision clicks keep your eighths, triplets and sixteenths even.
For students 13 and up. Virtunity helps you prepare. Your playing on audition day earns the chair.
Sight-reading
| District round | The first-round wind example lists 1 sight-reading exercise worth 30 points. Percussion has sight-reading on snare, mallets and timpani. |
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| Final wind procedure | The state's documents disagree; see the packet. The audition hub describes 1 sight-reading exercise with its score doubled; the sample final form shows 2 sight-reading boxes. |
| Study time and source | Study time, a standing sight-reading book and the 2026-27 audition excerpts were not published in the material read. GMEA links past examples by year. |
Scoring and audition format
| Audition format | Both concert-band rounds are live. A recorded audition submission procedure was not published in the material read. |
|---|---|
| Wind scoring | The linked 2021 first-round example lists adjusted major scales 30 points, chromatic 10, lyrical etude 30 and sight-reading 30. Final prepared etudes account for 60% and sight-reading for 40%. Check the final-audition notes alongside the example form. |
| Percussion scoring | The linked first-round example lists 100 points for each area: snare etude 60 plus sight-reading 40; mallet majors 48, chromatic 12 and sight-reading 40; timpani etude 60 plus sight-reading 40. The final form lists snare and mallets at 60 prepared plus 40 sight-reading each; timpani at 50 prepared, 30 sight-reading and 20 tuning. |
| Published fees | Official student registration, finals and event dollar amounts were not published on the public pages read. Registration is through the teacher's Opus account. |
Key dates for this season
Dates read on 2026-09-07.
| Registration and payment | Postmark deadline was October 6, 2026. Check your director's local deadline. |
|---|---|
| Middle-school district audition | December 5, 2026. District host sites and call times were not published on the statewide calendar read. |
| Concert and Symphonic district audition | December 12, 2026. |
| State finals | January 9, 2027, Union Grove Middle and High Schools. Inclement-weather makeup: January 23, 2027, at the same site. |
| Acceptance and payment | Postmark deadline: February 9, 2027. |
| All-State Band event | March 4-6, 2027, The Classic Center, Athens. |
| All-State Jazz Ensemble | The September 15, 2026 postmark deadline has passed. District auditions were October 5-9 and were 12-16, 2026; finals are November 7-14, 2026. The event is January 28-30, 2027 at the Classic Center in Athens. |
Read from Georgia Music Educators Association on 2026-09-07; season 2026-2027. Check the packet before you rely on any of this.