Chamber Orchestra

So we went along to a chamber orchestra performance the other night, it was just an amateur performance by the Bloomsbury Chamber Orchestra, but they can't be that bad because we have both hired instruments following the concert.  I've got a clarinet and Dave got an oboe, we got it from a shop where they actually make oboes.  The oboe's are waaay more expensive, if you're ever down on your luck and want to steal an instrument, chose an oboe over a clarinet.  To buy my clarinet it's about 300 pounds, Dave's oboe is 1300 pounds.  A bit of a difference, though to be fair mine is plastic whereas I think the oboe is wood.  I'm trying to remember all the fingering, but I'm keen to try and find some real beginners orchestra.

Though the problem with choosing a woodwind instrument is that orchestras generally don't need many of them, maybe 3 of each one, so they normally fill up the available slots pretty quickly.  And since you generally get solos at some point you have to reach a certain level before you can really play in a group.  The thing with strings is there seems to be always room for more, you just keep chucking them in, and since there's so many of them, I wonder if sometimes you can just hide in the masses, so you don't need to be quite as good.  Anyway I'm sure I'll find out once I start with the group whether these are just the standard woodwind stereotypes or whether there is actually some truth to it.