The National Band Council of Australia (NBCA) has announced that it is to trial a new system of five Open Brass grades at its 2025 National Championships in Victoria. Currently there are four senior Grades, A to D.

One year trial

The decision to implement the one-year trial was made at the 2024 NBCA Annual Conference.

NBAC stated that it was as, "a result of feedback from adjudicators and participating bands about the apparent disparity between the playing standards of top-ranked and bottom-ranked bands competing across all Open Brass grades and in light of the relatively large number of bands in the higher grades."

A new Open Premier Grade Brass will contain the top five placed bands from the Open A Grade Brass competition at the 2024 National Championships.

Each state will then determine the gradings across the five grades for their remaining bands — including an additional band from each state in the new Premier Grade. The total will be capped at 10 bands.

Goal

The NBAC stated that the goal was to bring the standard of bands across each grade, "closer together, making for closer competition, and the majority of bands in each grade being more competitive."

The added that they believed it would be, "a more manageable and sustainable grading system where bands who are regraded, either up or down, have a chance to still be competitive and continue improving whilst still participating positively in contests."

Test pieces and review

It was also announced that test pieces can be chosen "to suit the standard of grades rather than having to make do with pieces to fit such a huge range of bands in each grade."

Following the trial, a full review will be conducted by the NBCA in consultation with the competing bands.